For the love of our dog

Every couple of weeks, when the piles get quite large, a Saturday chore for Michaela and Payden is to poop scoop. It is HEE- LARE- EOUS to watch them do this. They trade off on who holds the bag and who scoops, and often fight while they are doing it. Or if they get along, they are laughing and joking and it takes them twice as long. What is so funny is watching them trying not touch the poo, and getting all touchy when one of them gets it too close to the other one. I laugh every time.


He he, there are moments when being a mom is so fun!

This is cute

Corrine and I attend a Mommy and Tot dance/tumbling class on Wednesdays. We have a lot of fun singing, dancing, and doing somersaults and going through obstacle courses. The teacher has the kids to some elements of dance, like up on tippy toes for relevaes (sp?) Here is Corrine, in her little leotard and leg warmers (that I made) doing relevaes. Sorry, I am sure I am slaying that word. I never took French!

She has so much fun, and my favorite part is getting her dressed in her tumbling outfit and watching her cute little bum while she shakes and shimmies. I will have to take the video camera one time. Of course, If I am recording her, she probably won't do anything. I'll try! She is such a cutie.

Payden's Awesome!

The schools around here had something they call a Reflections contest. It has a theme, and everyone who enters creates something around that theme. They had all kinds of categories, such as film making, music, movement and dance, 3-D, art and sculptures, and literature. There were 210 entries from Payden's school, and 33 were chosen to go on to a regional competition. This year the theme was Together We Can. Payden entered a story in the literature section, and won! We were so proud of her. She writes really well. Thursday night they had an awards ceremony for the winners, and Payden got a cute trophy, a certificate, a $10 gift certificate to Wal-mart, and a coupon for a local frozen yogurt place. She was so excited! Such a smarty pants. We love you Payden! We went out to Krispie Kreme for a treat afterwards. I love seeing my kids succeed and be honored. It makes me so proud!

Ava's Birthday Bash

This year for Ava's birthday we are going to be attending another celebration (David's wedding!) so we celebrated a couple of weeks early. Ava didn't mind!

She described what kind of cake she wanted in very explicit detail. A strawberry cake with strawberry frosting, with real strawberries on the top in the shaped of a heart, and pieces of strawberries in the frosting. She decided she wanted to help me with it, so she and I set to it. She made the cake almost all by herself, and she decorated it without any help!



The older girls decorated the house with balloons and crepe paper. It looked very festive!


For dinner, we took the family and two of her friends to Chuckee Cheeses. We had a blast! Two friends was just the right number for her, they were so cute together. At one point when I was checking on them, I asked if they were having a good time. They replied "We are having SOOO much fun!"

Here they are dancing on "tv".


One of the friends she invited is from her classroom. The other is a friend from Idaho who oddly enough lives in the same city we do now! They have missed each other, and enjoyed the evening.









The older girls had fun too. Here is Michaela!


Ava on a fun ride!


Here is Ava and her friends all on the same ride together. So cute!


After Chuckee Chesses, the friends went home and the family came home to have cake and ice cream and open presents. Here she is getting dresses from Grandma.


The Jesse doll and Toy Story 3 movie from Horsey Grandma.


We got her a bunch of art stuff, her very favorite thing to do! We got her a little lap desk with supplies, and an easel with a chalk board on one side, dry erase on the other, and a place for a roll of paper in the middle. Big hit!


Here we are with Ava's masterpiece!

I cannot believe she is nearly 6. We had a great night, she had so much fun. On the day of her real birthday, she will get breakfast of her choice. Since her party, she keeps coming up with things she wants and saying, Can I have that for my real birthday! Ha! I tell her she got all the presents she will be getting, but Christmas is coming.

We love our Ava and were so excited to celebrate her. Our house would not be the same without her big blue eyes, caring tender heart and loving personality. We love you Ava!

Cute Corriney

The other day I was changing her diaper and said to Corrine:

"Oh, Corrine, you stink, pe-yu!"

And she replied with a laugh:

"Yah, pee me!"

If I call her honey or sweetpie or something, she says, "No, I Corrine". She can say her whole name now, it used to come out Rine.

She is fiercely independent, and if she wants to "hold you" ( how she asks to be held) and I don't come and get her, she gets mad. I will tell her to just come here and I will hold her, but she wants me to come get her. Even if it is only 3 feet away. So she will just stand there, screaming at me, holding out her arms, but won't walk to me. We have this battle of wills almost daily.

She woke from her nap on Sunday, and we cuddled on my bed before we went downstairs. She was talking softly, and looked at her fingers. She had cut her finger earlier, she called it a "poky". So she examines her fingers, and looking at the wrong finger, whispers "Where my poky go? Where is it?" Then, seeing it on the correct finger, says "OH, THERE'S my poky, I find it!" She then looked at the picture of Jesus in our room, and started talking about "Jesus. I love Jesus. Jesus come home. " And something about God I couldn't quite decipher.

She is such a cute little girl. I love two year olds!

Slime!

A few weeks ago, we made slime. It was really easy and fun! All the girls liked it, which is hard to accomplish with the age spread I have in my kids.


You start out by mixing the Borax into water, then mixing the glue into water. After the glue is mixed in, you put in food coloring, then add in the Borax and water mixture. At this point it gets slimey!

The texture is really gross right now. It even made me wonder if we had messed up somehow. Corrine refused to touch it. She was thoroughly grossed out. You have to take out the slimey mess and work with it to get it to the right consistency. All my other girls had no problem with this, but Corrine was disgusted. She would try, then shudder and pull her hand quickly away, while looking at her sisters like they were nuts.



After you get it to the right consistency, it is lots of fun. The girls played with it for over a hour. Michaela figured out that we had made "flarp". If you haven't had the joy of discovering that product, it is just slime in a little container. When you put your finger into it, it distributes the air inside and makes a noise. You can guess what noise! Well, our slime did that too when placed in a cup.

We had so much fun with it that when the Merrells came to visit, we made some with them too!

Corrine wouldn't touch it at first even after it wasn't so slimy. I kept trying to show her it wasn't nasty, but she wouldn't touch it. Finally, I gave her a cup and put the slime in it, and after that she was fine.


No fear!

This was really fun and cheap, you should try it!

Slime ( recipe taken from Our Best Bites)

1 teaspoon borax powder

1 1/2 C water, divided

4 oz (1/2 C) Elmer's glue, clear or white

food coloring

Add borax powder to 1 cup of water and stir to dissolve. Set aside. Pour glue into a medium mixing bowl and add 1/2 C water. Add a few drops of food coloring until desired color is reached and then stir to mix glue solution until smooth. Pour the borax mixture into the glue mixture and watch the solids start to form. Stir for a few moments and then use your hands to gather the mass. The mixture will be very soft and wet. Keep kneading until it firms up and feels dry. Discard excess liquid in bowl. The more you knead and play with the slime the firmer it will become. Store in a ziplock bag or air tight container and the slime will keep indefinitely.

Halloween 2010

We had a lot of fun this Halloween! On Friday, I took the girls to a shopping place called Gardeners Village. It is a neat place, I think I have been there years before because it looked really familiar. Anyway, they decorate for Halloween with dozens of huge, animated witches. Since Ava was a witch this year, I decided we needed to go check it out! It was totally packed that day, and I woke up not feeling well. I pressed on, however, not wanting to disappoint my kiddos. Boy, did I feel yucky all day! By about lunch time I was questioning my dedication, but we were an hour away from home and still had to go to Jason's office to trick or treat in downtown SLC. Uhg. I made it though. And we still had fun!

Michaela was so excited to find Harry Potter things in one store. They had some pretty neat stuff. They even had a sorter hat!



Here is Ava in front of one of the witches. This one was riding her bike in the sky!


Here is all the girls in front of another witch.

After touring the shops, (me praying not to puke the whole time) and eating lunch (the girls anyway!) we were off to Jason's office. They have trick or treating every year. For the last few years, we have done it at the Poky office. It is huge here! 70 different stations, and the big wigs gave out full sized candy bars. I really felt bad by this point.


This shot is for the grandmas. Look at that cute chubby giraffe butt!


Corrine found another giraffe at the office. There was a ton of people there, it was very crowded. When she saw him, she walked right up to him and started petting him, poking the giraffe nose, and hugged him. I wish I could have known what she was thinking!


On Saturday, we had the trunk or treat, then went trick or treating after. Here is our witchy Ava! She made a great witch. She even had an evil laugh!

Payden was a girlie pirate. She put her costume together herself, even painted the design on the shirt. I thought it turned out very cute.


And of course, Corrine was an adorable, pudgy giraffe.


This is our bishop giving the girls candy. Michaela stayed home; she wasn't feeling well. Corrine really got the trick or treat idea. At every stop, she would say trick or treat in her loud, clear voice, then say thank you! It was adorable.


This is at Jon and Carrie's car.

It started to rain right when the trunk or treat was wrapping up, and it rained pretty hard for a while. So Jason took an umbrella and out they went, into the rain in pursuit of more candy! They only went to a few houses, just for the experience. Payden went with a friend from school.




Michaela stayed home and did her face and hair for our trick or treaters.


I must warn you, the next to pictures are somewhat disgusting.

Each child has this many full sized candy bars:


And as per our family norm, the girls claimed a few candies they wanted to make sure they got, then the rest went into a communal pot. We had to get a new pot. Never have we had this much excess of candy. Oh my.

I warned you. That cauldron is huge, and it is full. I put Ninny behind it for perspective. This will last us for quite a while, though, as our kids only get a small treat after lunch and dinner. They are not allowed to go at it at will. I won't have to buy treats for about a year!
Then on Sunday, we popped popcorn and made wassail and drank it while we watched Babies. It was a nice night. A nice Halloween!