Happy Halloween

 

It was a terribly fun day for the kids and an exhausting day for me. Good thing I can think of a way or two to increase my blood sugar levels for some quick energy... :)

Sisters

I can do nothing but hope that Layla and Addie stay friends forever. They are such cute playmates and sisters...when they're not at each others' throats, of course.

 

 

[Sisters, sisters, there were never such bipolar sisters...]

 

Just kidding. They actually get along pretty well most of the time. Like, the other day, I found them busy at their desk in their bedroom, creating yet another batch of Art Books. Layla was sweetly and encouragingly spelling out words for Addie to write on her book. A cute big sister/little sister moment to observe.

An Expressive Face...or Twenty

Violet is the most facially expressive kid I've ever birthed. Or known. I thought I'd follow her around for an hour and try to document her expressions.

 

Here's 26 minutes' worth before the sun came out one morning:

 

Not impressed? How about the next 18 minutes post-sunrise:

 

 

This girl is a handful. She is exhausting. She is curious and destructive and creative and stubborn. She is sweet and funny and busy and attached. And, honestly, none of us could imagine a day without her. Love this chickadee.

She's a Sand Eater

After another glorious weekend at Bear Lake, I'm noticing a disturbing habit developing in our youngest child. See if you can guess what it is.

 

 

 

 

The girl loves to consume sand. Any time, any beach.

 

 

It's not her fault, though. Check out her role model.

 

 

At least cousins don't discriminate against sand-eaters. Look at that synergy, all working so hard to go...nowhere, really. But adorable nonetheless.

 

 

Paul rocked it on the sailboat. Such a beautiful day, such a handsome guy.

 

 

This cabin is a little slice of heaven on earth.

 

Sunday Afternoon Family Time

It was still chilly, but yesterday's spring-like sunshine drew us outside. Family bike ride to the park after Violet's (and, who am I kidding, Paul's and my) naptime.

 

 

Not sure why Layla left her coat with her bike. It's not like she's got ample body fat to keep her warm...

 

 

Addie didn't want to comb her hair, so she opted for this super-stylish headwear instead. Touche.

 

 

Carson = boy. Boy = monkey.

Poor Violet's a sicko, but she looooooved sliding with her siblings. Giggling and squealing the whole time.

 

 

There's hope that winter will end, once again, in Cache Valley. Hallelujah.

Violet has a tooth!

So, it's been a long time coming, but Violet has a tooth now. (She's only, y'know, almost 10 months old.) On Sunday. Then she sprouted two more this morning (including one upper fang. Awesome.). And three more are on the way.

 

Zero to six(ty) in a matter of days. Should I be worried about the way she operates?

 

Nah. Just look at her angel face.

 

 

(What we were really worried about, though, was that she might be walking before sprouting a tooth. Fears alleviated. Phew.) (But also? Vi and I had a serious heart-to-heart the other night about her slowing down the growing-up-ness. She said, "mah-mah-mah," grabbed her binky from my hand, flipped it around, and popped it into her mouth. I think she understood.)

the 4th installment...

Hey friends. Meet miss Violet Idon Smart. (Her middle name is my beloved gramma's name, pronounced "eye-DON.")

You'll have to forgive her for not awakening to greet you. But she currently does a lot of this (see above), and I can't say I have the heart (or the insanity) to wake her.

Here's what we know about this little one so far:

- was born Tuesday April 10th

- weighed 7#11oz at birth (and is probably back up to that weight just 5 days later. Good girl.)

- was 19.5" long (which somehow became 20" just 3 days later? Hmmm...)

- has two deep dimples on some serious kissy cheeks...

- ...which is a very feminine look, even when paired with some pretty sweet male pattern baldness

- has Carson's infant habit of sleeping even through feedings, Layla's nose and mouth, and Addie's spunk whilst getting a diaper change

- is very alert when she's awake and has busted out many smiles and an adorably girlish giggle (be still, my maternal heart. SO cute.)

- enjoys the older kids' "parties" [Editor's note: I found Carson one time dancing frantically around her trying to entertain her. I told him how babies like things nice and easy for a little while, like waving your fingers, real slow, a little ways in front of her face. "I know it seems weird to us, but she'll just think that's a major party," I told him. He tried it, and her eyes got real wide, just soaking it all in. The kids now love throwing her a "party" every morning...they get a kick out of it, and I get a kick out of them.]

And, let the record show thatm although it's cliche to say you love your husband more with each challenge of life that you get through, that only scratches the surface of how I feel. I've had a few complications since delivery, and Paul has been a.maz.ing. at being a cheerful and intuitive Mr. Incredible around here. My only wish is that he could retire tomorrow and spend the rest of our years with me on the couch staring at every movement of this new little miracle. But, then again, after about a day, Violet probably wouldn't think it's as blissful as we did. Dah well. A girl can dream.

Welcome, sweet Violet. We adore you already.

puppy zen by osmosis

Nothing profound to say, 'cept that this is quite possibly one of my favorite photos of all time.

spring break re-cap

We spent a lot of the night tonight doing this:

In fact, even Carson's family prayer included: "Thank you that we all laughed so hard today." Yep. We sure did.

The kids and I went jogging/bike riding once upon a time this week when it was nice outside. While I showered, unbeknownst to myself, the 3 amigos put together their own picnic lunches. Complete with pnut butter & honey sandwiches and juice boxes. And licorice, which they ate pre-picnic. It was a deliciously lovely time.

Addie can't get enough of her soccer shirt from Gramma Joyce OR her "birthday skirt" from last summer. Hence, the perfect ensemble for most days of this spring break. Oh, how I love spring break.

Even, I suppose, when it did this a mere two days later:

(Raise your hand if you, like Paul and me, are in love with Carson's newly beloved headgear, authentic pelt of something from Lithuania.)

 We spent the entire morning out building snow nests (a.k.a. "forts" for you who don't have little girls around who tend to put a cutesy-homey spin on everything), snowmen, snow princesses, snow babies, snow chairs, snow pretty much everything. I think I even built a snow fridge for Layla. To hold her snow apples. Naturally. I also taught Carson about being whitewashed. Unfortunately, he's getting bigger and stronger, and he took me down right after I got him and smeared my own face and ear in the snow. Touche.

We defrosted inside with some hot cocoa. The kids were so cold, I couldn't even get them to look at me at first. Then I told them some jokes. They laughed despite themselves.

 And I mean it when I say "despite themselves," because I will be the first to tell you: my "jokes" are not funny. They usually involve a fish-face and a weird monster-robot voice. So.

Sad that school begins anew tomorrow. We've had a delightful time this week, complete with PJs and bed-head most days. And we didn't even order pizza once. Seriously. Domestic AND vacationed? Got ourselves a two-fer.

Layla's 5!!

Almost time for a birthday tea party. SOMEone's excited.

 Gathering activity: Make a beaded necklace or bracelet. These turned out very beautiful, what with our astounding collection of rare, precious stones (compliments of Hobby Lobby's plastic beadery).

 Tea time: strawberries, chocolate-dipped pretzels, pigs-in-a-blanket (or not-in-a-blanket), carrots, olives, pineapple punch, easter-colored whoppers (which doubled quite nicely as lipstick), mini raspberry muffins, and I think a couple other things I'm forgetting. Let's just say, they didn't go hungry.

 Everyone became their most feminine. Happy birthday, little Layla.

About Layla at age 5:

- loves Junie B. Jones books

- loves to dress herself "in style"

- loves olives and macaroni & cheese

- would eat fruit for the rest of eternity if I'd let her

- is a good sister...when she's not being a tyrant dictator...which is about 50/50. but when she's good, she's very very good!

- is excellent at trying new things

- favorite color: light blue

- very very girlie, with her "lip stuff" and mom's high heels and purses and skirts and jewelry and and and... just loves things to look beautiful

- a budding artiste (to be read: ar-teest)

- a sweetheart at heart

- has the imagination of a...i dunno. something with a vivid and darling imagination.

Love you lots, ladybug.

over a month since last post? ouch.

I can't believe it's been so long since I posted here. My life, like everyone's, is so busy--and unfortunately the other blog is filling my daily "blogging time" quota. As spring is typically grants season, I've been working lots...not uncommonly going to bed between 2 and 3 a.m. (In fact, the other night, it was particularly late/early as I was heading to bed, so I programmed my cell phone alarm AND placed it on top of our dresser on the other side of the bedroom to make sure I got out of bed to turn it off, so I'd be sure to wake up...I woke up in a frantic, 26 minutes before Carson had to be at school, with my cell phone on my nightstand. No recollection of how it got there, but I'm sure it was me, sleepwalking. Nice.)

While I'm working, I get so in the zone sometimes, that I forget about the kids. I know, that's terrible to admit, but I have  proof. Check it out: about 60 photos taken by the little ladies that I have no recollection of.

Having never seen these photos before, here's what I thought as I downloaded them today:

- I look ticked when I'm concentrating.

- Oooh, THERE'S that toy.

- Layla has an artistic eye for angles.

- Addie too.

- They must've shared the camera. Awww, they share without being coerced sometimes! What a good mom I am.

- I had no idea they were taking my pic about 8,000 times. Who knows what else they do when I'm not paying attention. I'm a crappy mother.

- Yessss. They got pics of fruit. That makes us look like healthy eaters.

- Amanda's going to kill me. Slash, love me.

- What would I do if there were pics of the girls lighting matches? Seriously. I should be fired.

- But there aren't. Just the girls playing with some robot toys. And, sure, they're doing weird/potentially dangerous stuff on the stairs, but let's just call that "creative play" and be done with it.

And then there's THIS little female-toddler-Einstein nugget of photographic delight:

Man, we love these kids. Paul and I were talking the other night about what life would be like without them. Some things sounded appealing...like traveling and whine-free days, maybe even weeks, at a time. But all in all, what we came up with was an empty little shell of existence without them. They make us smile, they make us roll our eyes, they make us worry, they make us laugh, they make us think, they make us learn patience, they make us better. 



Addie likes to be proactive in expressing herself. Sure, she's got an impressive artillery of tantrums at the ready, but my favorite is when she strikes pre-emptively as I tuck her in at night: "Wuv you too, mom!"

And I love you, my loony little darlings.

evidence of awesome parenting

carson & layla are playing playmobil. layla is being the daughter.

layla: "dad, can we go on a trip?"
carson: "nope. we're waiting for bad guys."
layla: "oh." [pause] "THEN can we go on a trip?"

maybe you had to be there. but seriously. so funny. kid scenarios are the best, when the obvious (to me) becomes appalling, and the out-of-the-blue transforms into the everyday.

like, yesterday i was playing barbies with layla, and the pillow was Mermaid Rock, and the barbies were going to have a party there. my barbie tried to get things movin' at the fiesta by starting to dance. layla's barbie politely informed mine that, "sorry, we don't dance at this party."

mine: "oh. okay." [long, awkward barbie pause.] "soooo...what do we do at this party?"
layla: "um, i dunno. talk about gowns?"

sweet. at least i know that we're teaching our kids the important things in life. it's super reassuring.

and, if you need me, i'll be in that corner over there, scoping out your clothes and waiting for a bad guy.