Musings of a Semi-Hip Young Mom

gettin' my Sweet Caroline on

2012-01-24T14:26:00.003-06:00

In honor of the Great Neil Diamond's birthday, here's a playlist to help you celebrate...

what?

you're not cool enough to have a dance party to celebrate Bro. Neil's birthday?

too bad for you, huh?

Now go get an open-necked, sparkly shirt on and start shakin' those hips!

ps-if you want to see what a proper Cracklin' Rosie birthday party looks like, here's a link to last year's celebration.

pps-a big ol' HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my adorable nephew, Cooper too!!!

highest highs and lowest lows

2012-01-22T23:30:00.002-06:00

Does it seem as if I've fallen off the side of the Earth? If so, it's because I pretty much have. I've been down to Oklahoma and over to Utah and then to California all since Christmas, hence the lack of blog posts. Hopefully I'll have a big ol' uber-post to fill y'all in soon. In the meantime, however, here's 10 highs and lows from our Utah/California trip:

Highlights

1-Getting to meet my newest (and only Lifferth) nephew, Taiven, Isaac's (Spence's little brother) bouncing baby boy. It's more then a little funny to see what a "Lifferth Cousin" looks like (pssst...it's a heck of a lot like my kids with a heavy dose of Baby Mama Kate mixed in).

2-Welcoming home Kyle (another little brother) from his lds mission to Croatia. He did an absolutely fab job on his talk at his sacrament meeting homecoming (which, by the way, are alive and kickin' in small-town Utah).

3-Trying out those G carinessa tops that everyone has been raving about. Love, love, love, love, looooove them.

4-Meeting Kim's cute new-ish flame, Bounce Back Ben (thank you, Eric, for the nickname along with all the others you so liberally bestow). Despite what it might seem, I promise Spencer really does like him too...he just likes to play the mean older brother/devil's advocate.

5-Seeing 12 completely different states in one shebang. (in the west too...which are the big ones!)

Lowlights

1-Having to spend 52+ hours in the car while seeing the 12 aforementioned states and dealing with kids adjusting to the 3 different time zones in them.

2-Oak trying out his 2 brand-spankin'-new teeth while nursing. often. much screeching ensued.

3-Dealing with an earache, teething, and pinkeye all on the same kid (Oak again), all at the same time.

4-Having the fuzz show up at a big ol' family photo shoot. Oddly, the police appearance had absolutely nothing to do with my jailbird brother-in-law. Instead, it had quite a bit to do with a crotchety old man yelling at us and then calling 911 because a bunch of hoodlums (us) were harassing senior citizens (him).

5-Having to sit in a stalled elevator for 20 minutes on the Tower of Terror ride at Disneyland/California Adventures. This time, however, it didn't have absolutely nothing to do with my jailbird brother-in-law.

Well, faithful followers, that's all you're getting tonight. Stay tuned for an update coming sometime in the very near future.

(and by that I mean after I do the laundry)

ps-don't be expecting any pictures from my Oklahoma trip in my next post. Obviously, from the extreeeeme lack of pictures from my side of the family, despite the frequency of which I see them, one can safely surmise I hate them. If y'all have forgotten what they all look like or just require further proof that they actually exist, feel free to check out our recent family photo shoot here.

Sunbeam: a beam or ray of sunlight

2012-01-08T09:49:00.001-06:00

I have lots of catching up to do, both within the blogosphere and without, but I couldn't miss the chance to share my little ray of sunshine. Scarlett didn't have to wait until her first day of primary to be a ray of sunshine...she's been lighting up our home from the very beginning. We love our Little Miss and are so very, very, very happy she's part of our family!

Jesus wants me for a sunbeam

To shine for Him each day

In every way try to please Him

At home, as school, at play.

A sunbeam, a sunbeam,

Jesus wants me for a sunbeam.

A sunbeam, a sunbeam

I'll be a sunbeam for Him.

That's all for now, folks. We just got back from Oklahoma late last night and then we're headed out of town again on Thursday so I'm not sure if I'll have a chance to post a catch-up, but I'm going to try my dardest to get one done! Have a wonderful Sunday!

ps-no, I'm not skipping church just 'cause. Ezra woke up throwing up with a stomach bug...his second in as many weeks. boo! to that!

pps-Scarlett went into Sunbeams a week late as we were out of town since my little brother, Mack, came home from his Roseville, California LDS mission.

We Are Young

2011-12-28T23:01:00.000-06:00

This is my new favorite song of the moment. There's something about it that just makes me feel wistful and free and well...young.

(which, as I approach my next birthday in January, is something I definitely need to feel a bit more often.)

Enjoy.

We Are Young by Fun.

ps-the music video is odd. not bad, just...odd.

Merry Christmas to all...

2011-12-24T20:15:00.002-06:00

and to all a good night.

ps-pajama pants made using this tutorial and nightgowns/peasant dresses made using this tutorial.

trees and planes and spit-up...oh my!

2011-12-15T19:12:00.007-06:00

On Monday evening for Family Home Evening we went to the Crown Center to see their giant Christmas tree, gawk at the gingerbread village, and play on the Christmas playground (a bunch of kid-size wooden vehicles and buildings...on top of concrete. Here in the midwest we don't care about liability too much). It's a must-do for us every December and oh-so-much fun (and free!). Here's the proof:

The 100-ft Mayor's Christmas Tree
(one of the tallest in the nation)

Ezra flying through the air with the greatest of ease.

The resident homeless person

(if that hat looks familiar, it's because it is)

Little Miss Sunshine

(who, incidentally, is wearing a size 12 month hat)

The flight crew

The faces behind the camera.

In other news...

As a 4 kid-veteran momma, all of which have had reflux, I think it's fair to say...

I am so. over. spit-up.

That is all :)

But Mom...

2011-12-10T09:44:00.001-06:00

...Oakie liked the cupcake!

So said Scarlett after generously sharing her black and white graduation cupcake.

This picture doesn't eeeeven begin to do the black bakery frosting mess justice. I keep on finding little spots of it scattered all over my light carpet.

this is Oak's "contrite" face

I'm honestly trying to find the humor in the situation (hence this post)...but I'm just not there yet.

random pictures for your amusement

2011-12-08T10:48:00.004-06:00

In case you need a giggle :)

This picture makes me smile. Does Oak not look extreeeeemely pleased with himself?

Lately, Georgia has been stealing our camera and taking gobs and gobs of random blurry pictures. The subjects usually consist of...

her favorite toys

weird-angle shots of her underpants

and Christmas decor.

The best is when she blames it all on Scarlett, denying any picture-taking involvement what-so-ever, but then shows up with 50 pictures looking just like this one.

pretty sure she's been caught red-nosed.

Just for posterity's sake, here's a few pictures of the girls playing in the first snow of the season.

Yes, I am fully aware of how white trash this picture makes my backyard look.

Georgia posing in her coat-less state. For some reason she always prefers snow-play without one. *shrug*

"Rooooar" said the Scarlett Monster

Now I'm off to do more Christmas sewing...

Oakisms

2011-11-29T17:04:00.002-06:00

Something tells me it's time for Oak to stop sleeping in the bouncer.

In other news, the little acorn has started cereal. Lucky for you I caught the first bite on film.

Super-excited pre-first bite...

Open wide!

Less then excited post-first bite...

I can't say I blame him. Rice cereal isn't all it's cracked up to be.

And now, just because it makes me happy.

enjoy.

random thoughts

2011-11-13T19:26:00.001-06:00

Somewhere out in the universe I have an alter-ego. She has bright red streaks in her hair, a star tattoo, wears thick black liner cat eye style, and has a loft in the city. If the alter-Whitney had a theme song, this would be it. Whenever I hear it on the radio, I touch that alter-ego for half a heartbeat and for that moment, both she and I are bouncing around our cars in harmony...I in my mini-van and she in a '68 dodge charger.

enjoy.

Flogging Molly-Revolution

On another random note, this particular Whitney, is a horribly mean mommy. Yes, I took a picture before helping the poor girl out. I promise we did get it out eventually.

Poor girl is giving smiling her best effort.

The post that launched a thousand pictures

2011-11-06T18:27:00.005-06:00

Every early November I seem to have one HA-uge post to catch-up on October festivities. It's not even so much that I slack through October, it's just that it's such a chock-full month with all of the Halloween goings-on and two birthdays to boot. So, here's my ginormous October catch-up...

We were lucky enough to have Spencer's mom come and visit in mid-October. She helped us kick off our 13 Nights of Halloween festivities with a super-fun (and suuuuper-cold) trip to Schaake's pumpkin patch. It's a fabulous free local pumpkin patch that we go to every year and just adore. (for previous years' How Tall This Fall pictures, go here)

Ezra (just under 6)

An uncooperative Georgia (nearly 4.5) and Daddy (29)

Scarlett (just under 3)

Oak's very first pumpkin patch experience (4.5 months) and Mommy (26)

Ezra showing us how tricky he is

Grandma Lifferth with the mowglis enjoying the hayride down to pick pumpkins

Scarlett in the fields

Playing in the hay-bale maze

Our attempt at a hayride self-portrait

A much warmer, cozier, happier post-trip baby

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the 23rd we celebrated Ezra's 6th Birthday. It was a day filled with the typical Ezra-esq ups and downs. Regardless, we're so very, very happy he's part of our family.

(warning: in all of these pictures he's in his post-church comfy clothes. I promise I don't normally allow my children to wear such horrendously ill-matched clothing.)

Showin' off the loot

Ezra with his minions

Opening the much-anticipated Star Wars Legos

(Thanks MiMi and Grandad!)

Happy Ezra pre-cake ruination

Unhappy Ezra post-cake ruination

Happy 6th Birthday, Ezra Emil!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On October 28th Miss Scarlett turned the big 0-3! yay! yay! for an end to the terrible twos! We're so very grateful for the sunshine she brings into our home.

Happy as a clam

Showing off her first present of the day, her chihuahua named Ji-la

(it came in the cutest little purple and leopard print purse for easy toting)

Thanks Auntie Stephie and Fam!

Every girl needs a proper twirly skirt

Thanks Auntie Libby and Fam!

Let's hope those kisses keep missing

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Scarlett Caroline!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Sunday before Halloween was filled with all sorts of festivities like pumpkin carving and hand-carved jack-o-lantern jello (made by my fabulous husband :). Spencer had a scout meeting that night, so I was on my own for carving. 4 small beasts + one parent + 3 pumpkins + knives + gobs of seedy stringy goop = an interesting evening.

How cute is my husband? He seriously decided to do this all on his own. He made orange jello, let it set up, carved it out, squirted hand-mixed dark jello in with a syringe, and set it up again.

ps-if I look tired it's because I had been up well past 1:00am working on costumes and with a night owl of a baby for many a night that week.

Pumpkin carving is obviously another nuddy-pants activity at the Lifferth household.

Look Ma! No Hands!

Don't let Georgia fool you. She actually refused to put her hand in the pumpkin lest her fingers get icky.

(can't say I blame her. I'm the type who wouldn't put my hand in the pumpkin either if given the choice. Being the mother, however, I don't get a choice.)

A tiny pumpkin for a tiny girl

I should've gotten a final shot, but in the craziness of single parenthood it got missed. In place of any artistic ability, I just let my kids draw their own scribbles...errr...faces and carved whatever they drew. It made for some...interesting...jack-o-lanterns.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And now, of course, for the grand finale...HALLOWEEN!!! Man, I love me some Halloween goodness. Gotta say I was particularly pleased with how this year's costumes came together.

Hansel and Gretel

Spencer and I in front of the "witch's cottage" for trunk-or-treat (get it? the kids picked the candy off of the cottage like in the story). If you look really close you can see the bread trails leading up to car. Considering we threw these costumes together in a mere few hours, I think they turned out none too shoddy.

Toothless the Dragon

from How to Train Your Dragon

Wings in...

...and wings out.

(The Engineer was the great creator of the mechanical wings. Believe it or not, but they actually get bigger then this but Ezra didn't have them fully extended in this picture for some reason.)

Princess Georgia of Kansas

Elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist.

Wipe a tear and blow a kiss.

Little Miss Lady Bug

Now picture this heavy dose of cuteness and throw red sparkly shoes on the bottom.

I know...too adorable for words.

The Green Pig from Angry Birds

As Oak doesn't naturally have any eyebrows to speak of, I had to draw 'em on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Phew! Are you as exhausted as I am? unlikely. Regardless, I'm still super-impressed that you made it this far, so GOLD STAR for you!

Have a fabulous day!

To my Scarlett, on her 3rd Birthday

2011-10-28T22:23:00.003-05:00

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl. In so many ways I can't believe that you're three years old, but in others I can't believe that you're ONLY three. You've been potty-trained since you were barely two, you've been scaling dangerous heights since you were well under a year, and you've been talking like a child twice your age long before 18 months. You have seemed so grown-up for so long that I have a hard time imagining that you've only just hit three. Regardless, happy third, Miss Scarlett.

You always, and I mean always, smile for the camera

Scarlett, when I think of you, I smile. It's inevitable. From the tip-top of your curly brown pigtails down to your little long toes you evoke smiles from everyone you meet. You are one of the friendliest children I've ever met. You herald everyone from the mailman to random grocery store shoppers with exuberant hellos. You've become the best of friends with our elderly neighbors (and hence greet every old man you see with a big, "Hello Neighbor!") who, bless their hearts, can't understand a word you say in your chipmunk-esq voice. I can honestly say I can't think of a single person we know who doesn't adore you. You're the ward sweetheart and everyone there has a soft-spot a mile wide for your larger-then-life grin and pew-dancing. You are so sweet to your siblings and ever-willing to share with them. Oh, Miss, the mere thought of you warms my heart. You are that kind of girl.

You little flirt

On the flip side...oh, my dear, do you have a temper! You want what you want when you want it and that's all there is to it. You will stamp your little foot (on the hardwood floor, no less, as you've long since figured out the carpet muffles the noise unsatisfactorily) and screech eternally until I give in or lock you in the backyard...which is often since you have an opinion about evvvverything. On that note, you are also the most persistent little child I've ever met, which is saying quite a bit in toddler-dom. In a most Winston Churchill manner, you never, never, never give up. Whether it be trying to climb to the top of the fridge (which is a feat you conquered long, long ago), begging for your 6th popsicle of the day, or trying to convince Grandad for just one more tickle, you just keep at it. You, my dear, are the sole reason I keep so few sweets in the house as you won't let me rest until they're all in your little belly. This to-the-death persistence of yours is a good trait that I hope you will remember to always use wisely (ie: in learning a new skill rather then begging for $100 jeans from your mom during your teenage years).

Ready for your close-up

Oh, Scarli, you are my little pixie. Weighing in at a tiny 26lbs, you are truly a little imp in manner and size. You look like one and you act like one with your twinkling personality. You love to dance and sing and do it all day long. You are a huge Katy Perry, Ke$ha, and Lady Gaga fan (I know, I know, feel free to judge now) and sing along to their songs, with Lady Gaga's The Edge of Glory being a particular favorite. You are my most imaginative player, hands down. You'll make up little stories all day long for any inanimate object you come in contact with. I love to just listen to you play. You are very naturally feminine. You've always loved clothes, makeup, and all things girlified (I swear you came out reaching for the nearest lip gloss and red nail polish) and always have a menagerie of baby dolls and stuffed animals you mother constantly. Your favorite colors are consistently red and yellow (I find the fact that you've always loved red particularly amusing, given your name) and you regularly ask for a yellow car for your birthday anytime we see one on the road (sorry to disappoint, but I don't think you'll be receiving a full-size yellow car anytime soon...or ever, for that matter). Despite all those girly attributes and your petite stature you are, however, still very rough and tumble and don't hesitate to scale great heights and keep up with the boys. I love you as much for your bravery and independence as for your femininity.

Roughin' it with the best of 'em

Oh, Little Miss, I said it in your letter last year and I'll say it again, to know you is to love you. You are truly a ray of sunshine in our home and our hearts. Oh, Scarlett, for being such a slip of a thing, you are so larger-than-life and we love you so very, very much.

Happy Birthday Miss Scarlett Caroline!

Night Owl

2011-10-26T00:48:00.001-05:00

Considering this is the view at 12:46am...
I'm thinkin' it's going to be a long night.

My little night owl.

To my Ezra, on his 6th Birthday

2011-10-23T21:29:00.005-05:00

Happy Birthday, my Ezra. As you lay on the couch shrieking at me for ruining your birthday cake (I swear I did what you told me), I gotta say, I'm not feelin' it...but that's what life is with you, Ezra. It's constant ups and downs. I never know what I'm going to get when you wake up each morning. In this way, things haven't changed all that much in 6 years. You still throw tantrums multiple times a day, you still think you know more then everyone else, and you still can be a sweet cuddly boy when you want to be. It all just depends on your ever-changing moods.

Moms. ruin. everything.

However, you have grown up in so many ways too. You're going to Kindergarten now and are putting that incredible memory of yours to good use by learning the Articles of Faith. You're still great friends with Simon and the Sheffer boys, but now you have new school and neighborhood friends too! I'm more then a little relieved that you're making such good friends since you've been more then happy to just chill by yourself in the past and I was a little worried you wouldn't bother yourself with the effort of getting to know people. But you are and that makes me happy. Also, you only have me sing to you at night about half of the time, which is bittersweet for me. Sweet because it mean the ever-long bedtime routine is getting shorter and bitter because it's proof that your childhood is slipping by.

Simey and Ezzie

I'd like to claim that I get you like I do your sisters, but honestly I don't. That doesn't mean I love you any less. Heaven knows I love you infinitely...but so often I find myself boggled by you. You are just a foreign little creature that somehow managed to come out of me 6 long and short years ago. Ezra, you're so darn smart it kills me. Numbers, and processes, and all things mechanical just come so naturally to you...obviously from your father. Remember, though, to never use that to an unfair advantage. Use your intelligence for good, Ezzie Boy. Remember to respect all the different kind of intelligences in their own rights, which I suspect might be a weakness of yours. Just because someone learns things differently or has strengths in different areas, doesn't mean they aren't smart too. Use your own intelligence to help them, not hurt them.

The Great Scholar

As before, you're still very picky with food and clothes, but I like to think we've gotten into a groove of sorts. You're slowly stretching little by little (now instead of plain beans you'll eat some with some minor seasonings, sans-sauce and will put on a belt for church ;), which is met with much rejoicing. I think part of that comes with growing up...you're beginning to realize that there are things that are expected of you, in the way you dress and what you eat and so many other things. You're a big boy now and are expected to act a little more like one. You're beginning to get more grown-up in so many ways. You are also a great big brother, especially to Oak. You love him so darn much and are always willing to cuddle and entertain him. You waited for a good long while for a brother and you're still so happy that you got one. Remember to always be a good example for Oak and your little sisters, Ezra. They look up to you so much.

Big Brother, meet Little Brother

Oh my little man, you've gotten so big on me. You are one of the least shy people I know. That's not to say you're particularly outgoing, because you're not at all, you're just very content with yourself and confident in your abilities and see very little to get embarrassed about. Today was the primary sacrament meeting program in church and you did so great. You gave your part so clearly and confidently and remembered it so well. You just never hesitate being in front of people, whether it is giving a talk in church or singing in school. Your daddy and I are so proud of you.

What a handsome little man :)

I love you, my Sunshine. You were my first baby and for that you will always hold a special place in my heart. You have all the abilities and meticulousness of an engineer and all the emotions of an art-lover and in those ways you are a true blend of your daddy and me. I love watching you grow and learn everyday and I can't wait to watch you grow into the great man I know you'll become. I love you so much, my dear. So, so much.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Boy!

ps-I love how in the friend picture and scholar picture Ezra is wearing the exact same outfit. Promise the two pictures were actually taken months and months apart, that's just Ezra's "smart" outfit that he wears when he's dressed to impress...and the only time he will ever abide wearing a polo.

Boy Chase Girl

2011-10-14T13:04:00.000-05:00

I was with the kids at the park yesterday evening for a picnic. I was sitting watching the kids play and I realized that Georgia and Scarlett were playing, for the first time ever, a rousing game of Boy Chase Girl with some local boys. As I listened to their girlish faux-shrieks, it was more then a little unnerving to see my future flash before my eyes. And then a little boy caught up with Georgia and she walloped him good. He ran away crying and balance was once again restored in the universe.

overzealous craftiness

2011-10-12T16:48:00.002-05:00

I've always loved Halloween, it's aaallllmost my favorite holiday, beat out by a narrow margin by Christmas. As a kid I reveled in the massive amounts of sugary goodness, excessive amounts of makeup worn, and the excuse to wear things not deemed appropriate for everyday use. Now, as an adult, I love Halloween for the massive amounts of sugary goodness, excessive amounts of makeup worn, and the excuse to wear things not deemed appropriate for everyday use. This year, however, I seem to be getting even more in the spirit, even earlier then normal. I blame the massive amounts of crafting inspiration to be found on pinterest (what, you're not in the loop yet? poor you.). Anyway, just thought I'd share some of the fabulousness I've been up to (is it cocky to call my own crafts fabulous? probably, but I can't say I care)...

I whipped this little number up this afternoon. I know, I know, it smacks of overzealous craftiness to use the word whip and afternoon in the same sentence, but it really is true! A little spray paint here, a lot of spanish moss there, a couple of dollar tree black birds (which, incidentally, give Scarlett some major creeps), and voila! an old school, glamorous, Edgar Allan Poe-esq wreath is born.

See? fabulous.

(I based it off of the wreath seen here)

I spent a good chunk of last week (which I probably should've been spending doing neglected laundry) making Halloween clipboard countdowns for my sisters, mom, and myself. They weren't particularly hard either, which is always nice..'cause I'm lazy like that. The idea came from here. The green zebra is mine, the damask is my oldest sister Stephanie's, the houndstooth is Liberty's and the bat one is my mom's (which actually has tiny patterns inside the bats, so they're actually plaid and polka dot bats. how cute is that?). I think they all fit our personalities and tastes pretty darn well, which was half the fun when picking out the scrapbook paper.

That's all for right now. I know, I know, the entire post was spent tooting my own horn...but I'm a mom...if I don't do it, nobody will :P Anyway, just thought I'd share 'cause Halloween craftiness makes me happy. Hope you enjoyed :)

My Big Fat Greek Family

2011-10-05T18:27:00.000-05:00

The ancient Greeks used to paint their lovely marble works bright, garish colors.

Winged Victory of Samothrace

Apparently they aren't the only ones who prefer colored statuary.

It would seem my children share their sentiments.

Look on the bright side...at least I wasn't all that fond of the bench in the first place...

It's permanent, in case you were wondering.

$5 well spent

2011-10-02T19:24:00.009-05:00

2 years ago when we moved to Kansas, I saw a house a few streets down from our rental that put up a ring of ghosts around a big ol' tree in front of their house for Halloween. They did it again last fall. I absolutely loved the idea. So much so that I made it a point to do a drive-by with Spencer...and my mom...and anyone else who happened to be stuck in the car with me for any amount of time during the month of October. I swore that when we bought a house, if it happened to have a tree in the front yard, I was gonna get me some dancin' ghosts. So...

...this October came around and I found myself in our first home with a big ol' oak tree in the front yard and I couldn't even wait to get started. I used a couple of wood posts from the hardware store, some plastic bags stuffed with paper and some random round tablecloths I had lying around (I know, I know, everyone always claims they have useful/vintage/fabulous stuff "lying around" and you're like, "how the heck do they have that?" but I really DID have 5 big ol' white round tablecloths hangin' around. promise.). All of the pictures I saw of ghost rings online had faces and heads, but I liked mine plain and simple. Not to mention, if I didn't paint faces then I wouldn't have to worry about the placement when I re-use the stuff next year. Anyway, I just adore how it turned out. yay! yay! for a fabulous BIG $5 Halloween decoration! Definitely $5 well spent in my book :)

Isn't is fabulously festive? *happy sigh*

Since I was taking pictures in front of my house, I figured I'd throw a full-shot in there since most of y'all haven't seen it yet :)

Home Sweet Home

(please excuse the random pile of ghost-making supplies on the driveway and the red car that Spence is working on for a friend)

While Spencer and I were busy making our dancing ghosts, Ezra was busy making his very own vampire. How cute is that? It doesn't exactly match the decor, but it's getting left up anyway, 'cause I'm that kind of mom (you know, the kind who doesn't care enough to care ;).

Handyman Ezra and his Masterpiece

Oh, and since we're showing house pictures, here's a couple from last week's tree-chopping. These pictures don't even do it justice. It was a big ol' full-grown tree, I promise!

half-way there...

The hooligans building a fort in the downed branches

What, you don't have random low-riding neighbor boys hanging around your house? poor you.

The End.

ps-are y'all doing anything fun and festive this Halloween season? I'd love to hear :)

Say hello to Baldy.

2011-09-28T16:58:00.003-05:00

My husband informed me that my last post was boring (gee...I wonder who deals with the majority of potty training in our house?). To him I say:

To rest of you who stick with me, boring posts or not, here's a freebie to make you smile.

Say hello to Baldy.

potty training knowledge eternal

2011-09-26T10:43:00.002-05:00

Poor little neglected blog readers (I still have some, right?). Did ya know I actually had to schedule time to update. I had ignore my new accounts on pinterest and facebook (I know, I know, I eventually caved under the pressure of joining the 21st century), the laundry, the dishes, my hair, my children (what, you don't neglect your children for the sake of the blog? goody two shoes.), unfinished sewing, the tempting haystacks the kids and I made last night (although I can't promise you there isn't peanut butter smudges on the keyboard. sorry, spence.), etc, etc, etc.

I hope you feel special.

Now...onto the post.

yay! yay!, I have a new formspring question to answer!

HOW WOULD YOU HANDLE TRYING TO POTTY TRAIN A VERY STUBBORN, ALMOST 3 YEAR OLD GIRL? (SINCE I KNOW YOU HAVE TWO GIRLS). :)

I wish I was the holder of potty training knowledge eternal, but alas, I am not. I've managed to potty train 3 stubborn little hooligans, but a lot of it was luck rather then knowledge. That being said, I'll share whatever little insight I've gained with you.

The single most important thing I've found is that they have to be ready. When they're truly ready, things go smoothly. If they aren't, they'll fight it every friggin' step of the way. You can read book after book on the signs that a child is ready to potty-train, but in the end only they can decide to do it.

That being said, here's a few things I've used with varying degrees of success:
-potty sticker charts (Georgia)
-potty candy (Scarlett-that girl will do most anything for a sugar rush)
-toy rewards (Ezra)
-having to clean up their own messes (Georgia)
-pull-ups (Georgia)
-potty-seat insert (all 3)

As you can tell from the list, Georgia took the most work. Ezra and Scarlett were significantly easier. Miss G, however took a very. long. time. to potty train (we're talking well over half a year). It was messy and difficult and not fun at all. Again, readiness was an issue there, mixed with a big ol' dose of stubbornness. Which leads me to my last nugget of advice...

In the words of Mr. Churchill, "never, never, never give up." That's not to say there's not times when it's best to retreat and regroup...just that potty training sucks but you'll get through it. Stick with it. I suggest giving every serious effort a week to two weeks to take effect before taking a breather (and by effect, I don't mean 100% success. Scarlett has been in panties for nearly a year and still has accidents frequently). It might take a long time (heaven knows, 2 of my 3 kids still wear pull-ups at nights, so I'm not even done with them), but it's worth it to give each effort a good, hard try because each retreat takes it's toll. It won't be quick, it won't be easy, and it DEFINITELY won't be clean, so be prepared for that.

So, when it looks like you'll be sending your girl to the prom in diapers, just remember that every mother since the dawn of time has gone through this and has succeeded and you will too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was going to post other goings-on, but it'll have to wait. It's almost time to pick up Ezra from kindergarten and Georgia from preschool and my hair is not done nor makeup on (remember the previously mentioned neglect?). I'll update again soon, though. I promise.

thanks for hanging in there.

How great is she?

2011-09-20T18:56:00.001-05:00

Soooo...guess what I have sitting on my table? A brand-spankin' new fall centerpiece! Last winter my mom gave me some old fall decor, including a somewhat-mangy out-dated looking (sorry mom, but it's true) pumpkin full of faux leaves. This autumn came and I pulled out my fall decor...along with the sad looking little pumpkin. Well, this past weekend my mom decided to come up for an impromptu visit while Spence did a big ol' bike ride for the National MS Society (which we're all super-proud of him for!) and then went on a recruiting trip for his job down at OSU. While she was here, she did a little...err...lot of sprucing on the mangy pumpkin. It's definitely not mangy anymore. A floral pick here, some berries there, throw in a couple of branches from the yard and...

voila!

A fabulous centerpiece is born.

How great is she? I mean, really?

Thanks mom!

Hell is...

2011-09-09T17:17:00.002-05:00

...a fabric store with screaming kids insisting you buy random buttons and sparkly fabric and endless rows of material that doesn't include the one fabric you're looking for.

What we've been up to...

2011-09-07T14:38:00.005-05:00

Can you believe it's September already? The summer flew by in a crazy-fast way! I really expected this summer to be a little lower-key after the birth of my 4th mowgli, but it was not to be. There was Oak's baby blessing followed by a quick Oklahoma visit with my sister's family, a family reunion in South Dakota, a visit from Spencer's little sisters, Heather and Kim, another quick Oklahoma visit when my other sister visited (Ezra had pinkeye and had to skip school anyway, I promise!), etc. etc. etc. Alas, the Magnificent Magical Scarlett made our camera card disappear and took all of our summer pictures with it. So, sorry for the lack of pictorial records for most of those events. Here's a few events, however, that we DO have pictures for (yay! yay!)...

Over Labor Day weekend my little brother, Jesse, got married in the Oklahoma City Temple. We're super-excited to have the lovely Miss Hannah as part of our family!

The Happy Couple

Our attempt at a grandkid picture with the bride and groom (they were such great sports). This one is worth the time it takes to click on it for an extra-large dose of humor. I'm a particularly big fan of Greyson's jumping skills.

(Note the lack of Gunner. He could not be persuaded to participate.)

Grandad and Scarlett (the little flirt)

Grandad doing a darn good job distracting the ever-pouty Georgia

Following the wedding reception in Arkansas (where Hannah's from) we went camping in Devil's Den State Park. It was so much fun (and let's be honest...a lot of work! Well, actually a lot more work for Spencer then it was for me. He spoils me in eternal gratitude for going camping with four kids (including an infant) in the first place.) and we can't wait to go again! We had a cold front move in which took us by surprise making a camp fire a necessity for warmth instead of a necessity for s'mores.

Gee...I wonder which side of the family they get their eyes from?

hint: not mine.

This is Georgia's new favorite pose (head cocked, hands under chin). I'd post more pictures of her, but they'd all look pretty much the exact same.

Who could resist a moss-filled dredge of a river? Obviously not them.

Miss Georgie had her very first day of preschool today! She was so excited to go and I was pretty excited to have a couple of 2-kid hours myself. I can't even believe she's gotten so old on me!

She made me promise to let her take a picture of me if she let me take a picture of her. So, here's one of her...

...and one of me.

Happy First Day, Georgia Marie!

A Peaceful New World

2011-08-24T15:08:00.003-05:00

A jehovah's witness gave me a pamphlet on Life in a Peaceful New World today at the grocery store. This was after Scarlett's weeping and wailing over the lack of juice in our cart and Ezra's throw-down with Georgia over who got to hold the box of cinnamon graham crackers, but before the writhing tantrum about the "ugly napkins" Georgia insisted we not buy.

As for this New World...

obviously my kids are not invited.

ps-I had like three different people offer to help while shopping (unloading my cart, packing my bags, etc). I have to wonder if it's because they were nice people who offered to help the harried mom of four or if I so obviously had lost control. my guess is both.

First Day Jitters

2011-08-16T10:10:00.001-05:00

Today was Ezra's first day of Kindergarten. Pretty sure I was waaaay more nervous then he was. He was cool as a cucumber while I was super-nervous I was going to screw everything up :P Let's just say he takes after his father in that regard.

When did he get so old?!

Happy First Day, Ezra Emil!

7 year itch

2011-08-07T14:07:00.002-05:00

you were 22.
i was 19.
what were we thinking?
we were just so ridiculously in love.
7 years and 4 kids later,
we're still so ridiculously in love.
i was the happiest girl in the world.

pretty sure i still am.

happy anniversary, my love.
thank you for giving me the best years of my life.

happy sigh

2011-08-03T13:56:00.000-05:00

Guess what?...

It's back.

**happy sigh**

Get yourself some design fabulousness here.

It's in the genes.

2011-07-31T16:09:00.001-05:00

Ezra wore sandals (sans-socks) with his church pants today. I had no say in this, obviously.

He came home from church and promptly changed into gray shorts and brown socks.

It gets worse.

He wore said socks with flip-flops.

Apparently the bad-clothes gene doesn't believe in skipping a generation...

Our mighty little acorn

2011-07-29T20:10:00.002-05:00

Goodness, this summer has been insane! I'm hoping to catch-up on here eventually, we'll see if that happens. So, for the next while you'll be getting old stuff mixed in with new stuff. Hopefully I'll be all caught up in time to start posting fall festivities :P Anyway, enjoy!

On July 3rd, when Oak was almost a month old, we had his baby blessing. It was short and sweet...kinda like him :) We took some pictures in front of our old oak tree (how fitting is that?) after church. We're all looking a little worse-for-wear as we had gone through rain and three hours of church, but c'est la vie.

One big happy family!

Team Testosterone

Team Estrogen

Ahhhhh...

The picture (oddly) makes his face look unusually yellow. I'm sure there's a way to fix that on photoshop, but I haven't figured that out yet :P I'm posting it anyway because it give a full shot of his blessing outfit, which I adore (I seriously had it picked out months before he was actually born and bought it even though it was gobs too big for him).

Annnnd now we have some completely random shots for your viewing pleasure.

Here my sister is trying to prove to me that funny pictures can still be cute pictures...

I call this The Shirley Temple

I'm not convinced.

As an added bonus for making it to the end of the post, you get 2 whole FREE updated pictures of my youngest offspring. yay! yay!

This is what Oak looks like at this. very. second. all 7 weeks, 3 days of him.

How cute is he? I mean, really.

The End.

You say Ketchup, I say Catch-Up, part III

2011-07-17T18:01:00.003-05:00

In May, Ezra had his end-of-year program for Preschool. Ezra's not much of a sharer, so I was blown away by all the fun stuff he had learned and just "forgotten" to tell or show me.

Breakin' it down

Ezzie and Simey

That's all I have time for right now. Hopefully y'all'll get more sooner rather then later, but I'm not promising anything.

Confession

2011-07-14T13:20:00.001-05:00

Sometimes I nurse The Littlest at random times because I'm too darn lazy to go find his binkie.

just so you know.

A.B.A.A.

2011-07-11T20:50:00.001-05:00

Introducing the newest member of A.B.A.A....

Angry Birds Addicts Anonymous

Eternal gratitude to Auntie Steph's nook for introducing Ezra to his newest obsession.

thanks bunches :P

My Amazing Daughter

2011-06-29T19:51:00.003-05:00

Why, you might ask, is my daughter so amazing? Doesn't every 2 year old girl adore playing with a Little People house and princess castle? In short...no. At least Georgia never did. Actually, my two oldest have only fairly recently become interested in imaginative Little People/Imaginext toys at all. Ezra always preferred building things and destroyed most other toys and Georgia pretty much just danced around in a princess dress and destroyed most other toys. So, you'll have to excuse my ridiculously over-the-top amazement at my daughter and her ability to actually play with toys like they're supposed to be played with. Even more astounding is that she plays like this all the time and pretty much has since she was a baby. If it's not Little People, then it's with the play kitchen...and, guess what? She actually pretends to cook in said play kitchen. Don't even get me started on her ability to mother dolls.

Amazing, I know.

You say Ketchup, I say Catch-Up, part II

2011-06-28T00:51:00.001-05:00

I officially hate blogger. I've attempted three different times today to load Ezra's preschool graduation pictures and they all end up sideways. So...you get the one picture of the day that loaded correctly because it was already done landscape-style. grrrr.

As I'm sure is obvious from Gee's Easter basket, this picture is from our Easter egg hunt. I would provide you with more pictures, but all we managed to achieve was a heck of a lot of blurred pictures of the back of curly heads (and one not-so-curly head). Not to mention, with the day I'm having blog-wise, they would've posted sideways anyway :P

Oh well...maybe tomorrow.

ps-on a random note, I had someone ask me if my kids were going to Vacation Bible School this summer. After replying in the negative, that comment led me to a prolonged fantasy of how great it would be if my kids actually were going to VBS. I'd get them out of my hair for a couple of blessed hours a day and they'd get to have gobs of fun while learning primary-ish stuff. Why, oh why, doesn't the LDS church do VBS!? I'm thinkin' I might have to do some Vacation Bible School-shopping next summer. Lest you think I have a problem with other churches teaching *cough*brainwashing*cough* my children...just ask Ezra to tell you his snack-time preschool prayer ;)

a million years

2011-06-24T13:49:00.002-05:00

Seven years ago yesterday, Spencer proposed to me. One of these days I'll give y'all the full story (it was fraught with humorous ironies)...but today is not that day. I will, however, dedicate a song to real love everywhere and my real life sweetheart...because this is a song about real, everyday love. I love it when an artist can take something simple and turn it into poetry and that's what Alexander Ebert does so well in A Million Years. Enjoy!

ps-a HUGE congrats to my fabulous sister, Liberty, for finding this song. Even bigger hurrah! to her for sharing it with her much-appreciative little sis. I love having someone to share music with :)

You say Ketchup, I say Catch-Up, part I

2011-06-23T09:54:00.001-05:00

So...I started this post pre-baby (literally, the evening before I went into labor) and am now just getting around to finishing it. I missed blogging about a couple of big events over the last couple of months *cough*Easter*cough* so here's my last-ditch attempt at a picture catch-up before the summer gets underway with all it's own festivities and I really fall behind. Enjoy!

Easter Egg Fun!

Obviously, dying Easter eggs was a naked event at the Lifferth household...as are most things, it seems. At least they had on aprons, right?

Easter Finery

What a handsome boy!

Georgia showing off her "blue rose" dress

Say cheese!

Scarlett pulling a Marilyn Monroe-worthy pose for the camera

The closest thing to a semi-successful group shot we got

And...I think I'm done for the day. Sorry folks, I had big plans for this post but Oak is fussing, I'm exhausted and desperately need to shower, and blogger is doing stupid things with the pictures. Maybe I'll attempt a second post later in the day. Regardless...you get what you get and you don't get upset.

Yes Sir, that's my baby...

2011-06-12T17:55:00.005-05:00

No Sir, I don't mean maybe

Yes Sir, that's my baby now

Sorry for the long wait, faithful followers, but it's been kind of crazy around here (as expected ;). Oak Gideon joined our family Tuesday morning (June 7th) and life hasn't been the same since. The three older kids just adore him and want to hold him all the time. He's a sweet little guy, although definitely on the spitty and gassy side...which is all too much like his older brother was for my tastes. That's ok, though, he's adorable and we all fell in love with him the moment he came into this world. He has just a bit of blond hair on top and a little bit of light brown hair old-man style on the sides and back. His eyes are blue, as expected (both Spence and I have blue eyes, as do the other kids) and we'll see what shade they settle into. Oak has a bit of a stork bite on the tip of his nose and one on his forehead, back of his head, and nape of his neck. Let's just say he's well-loved by the stork. Luckily none of them are too too prominent. As for eating, he has a bit of a rough time latching on for nursing, but once he's on he's on for good and is a champion nurser from that point forward.

Oak's name comes from my maiden name, Holyoak. So, his name is to honor my family heritage, along with my own father, who instilled in me a need to live up to the honor of my name. Also, we just love the imagery of a strong and indomitable oak tree as Oak's namesake. I can tell he has a mighty oak spirit in his little acorn body.

ps-for all you veteran moms and other interested readers out there, all the gory birth details are in the post following this one.

pps-sorry for the lack of daddy-son pictures. I realized when looking over pictures for this post that Spence has usually been behind the camera not in front of it.

Now...onto the orgy of baby pictures...

Fresh baked and out of the oven

A very tired, but happy, mommy and baby

Checkin' out the competition

Georgie and Oak

You couldn't find a prouder older brother if you tried. Ezra tells me all the time how he's trying to be a good example for Oak to teach him the right.

Baby-obsessed Scarlett thinks it's the best thing ever to finally have one of her very own.

MiMi (my mom) came up from Oklahoma at the drop of a hat. Thank heavens. I think it's helped the older kids have a much easier transition to have her around.

Oak in his home-coming outfit. Ezra picked it out with Mimi the day before. He knew he had to have it when he saw the sharks, his latest obsession.

Ahhh...sweet...

...but give it some time and Scarlett's true feelings will come to light.

I couldn't resist a picture of that little wrinkly forehead. Don't you just love them!

Taken just mere minutes ago, this is the most accurate and up-to-date picture so far. Isn't he adorable?

Well, there you have it, folks. If you aren't beating your head on a desk already from the mere length of this post, feel free to carry on with the birth story below.

The rest of the story.

2011-06-12T17:55:00.004-05:00

This is for all y'all out there that like to have all the gory labor details...

First off, long before labor started, I was walking around at 3 1/2cm dilated, so it's like I was a ticking time bomb. After some on-again, off-again false labor on Monday (the 6th), I woke up in the wee hours (about 3:00-ish) of Tuesday morning (the 7th) with contractions. They were definitely painful, but still manageable.

Spencer woke up soon after to head to his last day of his paper route and I had him set me up with a clock for contraction timing before he left. I was a little less then enthusiastic with being left alone, but I knew things would probably take a while and he'd be back in time to take me to the hospital. Lucky for me, however, there was some confusion at the paper place and they ended up not needing him after all, so he came home and ended up only being gone for about a half an hour after all (thank heavens for that!).

So, for the next few hours, I just labored, timed, and attempted to rest and relax when possible. By the time 6:00am rolled around, I knew there was no way that things would putter out (remember the previous false labor?). It was about this time that (dun, dun, dun [cue scary music]) the nausea and throwing up started. Yes, (non-medicated) contracting while vomiting really is as horrible as it sounds. I was already exhausted, sore, and dealing with intense contractions, so throwing sickness into the mix just about undid me. Let's just say it was miserable and leave it at that.

Anyway, I called my mom at about 6:30am telling her she should head up to Kansas City (from Oklahoma) as soon as possible since we were down to about 6-minute contractions at that point in time. 7:00am brought a call to the babysitter (thank you, thank you, thank you, Jennae!) who got to the house at about 7:30 and we headed to the hospital.

Don't I look just miserable?

When they checked me at around 8:00am after arriving at the hospital, I was dilated to about 6cm. They also gave me some zofran to help with the nausea then too. I'll be honest, I was pretty disappointed I was only at a 6. After nearly 5 hours of intense labor (with loads and loads of serious contractions in the days preceding) and having experienced checking into the hospital at 10cm when in labor with Scarlett, I was definitely hoping to be a little farther along. Not to mention with the vomiting and everything, I was wearing down quicker then anticipated. With going natural with Scarlett, I loved how in-control I felt the entire time. Contractions sucked but I handled them. With Oak...let's just say there was an edge of desperation during labor that wasn't there with Scarlett's.

At about 9:00am, the zofran kicked in and the throwing up abated, although I was still nauseous. It wasn't long after that that I noticed I was beginning to feel kind of pushy. At first I dismissed it since I had been checked at 6cm so recently, but it wasn't long before I insisted a nurse come check things out. Sure enough, I had dilated to 10cm in an hour. Things progressed pretty quickly after that with my midwife hurrying over from her office (it's connected to the hospital) and the nurses getting the baby supplies in the room. Once I got the green light to push, it was all over in a flash. I gave a push and a half during a single contraction and we had a baby at 9:26am with nary a tear or skid mark in sight. Oak came out all squirmy and alert with apgar scores of 9 and 9. Overall, it was a very intense, but short-lived and successful natural labor. Pushing was not my fave (it never is) but who can complain about a push and a half? Most importantly, Oak Gideon entered the world as a healthy heaven-sent little boy and we're so blessed because of it.

And that, my friends, is the rest of the story.

Introducing...

2011-06-08T15:37:00.000-05:00

Oak Gideon Lifferth

June 7, 2011

9:26am

6lbs 14oz

18 inches

Welcome to the world, Little Man.

Woolly Mammoth, anyone?

2011-06-04T09:13:00.001-05:00

I've decided that my lack of leg hair growth while pregnant is Mother Nature's way of saying,

"It's ok not to shave when you can't even bend over enough to see your legs."

To my Georgia, on her 4th Birthday

2011-05-26T15:13:00.003-05:00

Oh my dear, my Georgie-Girl, you have no idea how much I love you. You add your own unique sparkle to our family, with your curly hair, bright blue eyes, and endless giggles (and whines). I can't imagine us without you. You have a larger-then-life personality and bring so much to our family. You are a bewitching little imp of a girl, all highs and lows, flares and simmers. People are simply captivated by you and have been since you were just an itty bitty thing. They're drawn to you, never knowing whether their hand will be bitten or kissed. Remember never to take advantage of them, Georgia. Give them a reason to love you. You are fiercely loyal and endlessly loving to your friends and family. While you might give the cold shoulder to strangers, you give so much love with endless kisses and cuddles to those you love. Auntie Stephie, who is possibly your favorite person e.v.e.r. (shhh! don't tell MiMi ;) can attest to that! Having a brother 19 months older then you and a sister 17 months younger has some advantages, and one of those is your incredible closeness to them. They are your best friends and I hope that never changes.

You are so much fun, Little Miss. You love all things pink and sparkly (of course) but most things rough-and-tumble too. You have zero issue with playing in the mud in your high heels and tiara. I love that about you. You were born to break stereotypes (just like the one that girls are easier to potty-train then boys. You blew that one out of the water :P). You've finally started getting into pretending you're a mommy and playing house. I think it's something that being around Scarlett has taught you since it comes so naturally to her. I love to see the two of you being Mommies together. Georgia, you ADORE dancing and singing and would do it all day, everyday if you could. You're even constantly trying to dance in the aisle during the hymns at church. You love to sing along to Lover, Lover by Jerrod Niemann, Lesley Gore's Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows, Party In The USA by Miley Cyrus (you call it the Butterfly Song), Justin Bieber's Baby (I swear I had nothing to do with it. You starting liking that one all on your own), Simon and Garfunkel's Cecilia, and Golden by Mika. You are very into princesses (what little girl isn't, really?), with your current fave being The Little Mermaid. I hope you'll never grow out of the knowledge that you are truly a heavenly princess, a daughter of the celestial king.

Out of all of my children, you, Georgia, my Georgia, are the most like me. You talk like me, fight like me, and think like me (note the talking one is in expression only, since your natural smoker's voice is all your own ;). If it was possible for a mama to have a not-so-little piece of herself walking around in the big ol' world all on her own, you would be it, Georgia Me. I worry about the day you realize our similarities and start rebelling against them, as daughters are prone to do. As much as the thought breaks my heart, you wouldn't be you if you didn't have that mile-wide defiant streak and struck out on your own in the world. Remember, my Georgia, being stubborn and defiant is a good thing, if you are stubborn and defiant for the right things. It's what Grandad always told me and I'm telling you.

We love you, Georgie Porgie, Puddin' and Pie! The mere thought of you makes me smile. You add sparkle wherever you go and we're so darn happy you're in our family! Happy Birthday, Birthday Girl!

Here's to you, Darlin'...

The Gambler

2011-05-23T22:56:00.002-05:00

I have gobs and gobs of catching up to do, both in posting and reading all y'all's posts. Sorry for the hiatus, but an unexpected funeral (I guess they all are, aren't they?) in Southern Idaho followed by moving into our brand new (to us...it's actually 45 years old) house does that to a nine month pregnant girl, doesn't it? In the meantime, however, here's some random thoughts to keep you company.

So, I was driving home from errands today and The Gambler by Kenny Rogers came on the radio (first off, how random is that? You just don't hear old country songs like that anymore). Immediately, I thought of my dad. Throughout my childhood, and even now, my dad will repeat The Gambler's lyrics like a poem just for the heck of it. It's funny...one wouldn't think that children would be enamored with lyrics about a hard-living, smoking, whiskey-drinking old gambler, but we always were. Today, when the song came on, I told Ezra (one of my dad's particularly faithful followers) about how Grandad loves this song and watched him as he tried to follow the grown-up lyrics with his little boy look of deep concentration. There was something very Full Circle about it, if you know what I mean. I love the little moments like that one...the moments where you realize that being a parent is teaching your child to love something you love, something that someone you love loves too. Cliche as it may sound, it just makes everything so worth it.

When the Cat's Away the Mice Play

2011-05-01T22:33:00.004-05:00

Sorry for the extraordinarily long delay in blog posts, but to say I've been busy this month is practically the understatement of the year. I figured I best do a post now while I have half a minute, or else the opportunity would be missed altogether for another couple of weeks as I'm heading out to Idaho for my much-missed Grandmother's funeral on Tuesday. As soon as I get home (literally, that same day), we'll begin the much-anticipated move over to The Big House. Goodness, I don't remember a 3rd trimester being this busy since...well...Scarlett's.

Before I begin my usual uber-post, however, I'd like to show y'all a little ditty I found early this morning on one of my favorite blogs, Cardigan Empire (thanks Heather!). Enjoy!

Girls With Glasses from Brooke White on Vimeo.

And now back to our regularly scheduled blog post...

A bit ago (the entire last month is a blurry haze, so excuse my lack of date details), I had the super-fun chance to head up to my sister, Stephanie's house in the greater Chicago area for something of a Girls Weekend (my very first ever non-kid trip since Ezra was a mere babe). My other sister, Liberty, was there for it (although she, lucky girl, got to stay for a full 11 days!), along with my mom and (briefly) her two twin sisters. I don't have any photographic proof, however, since I left my camera with Spencer and the kids, although if one of said lovely ladies wants to send me some of theirs, I wouldn't complain any *hint, hint, wink, wink*. So...off to Northwestern Indiana I went while Spence watched the miniature mob and played housewife. The entire trip was a frenzy of laughter, shopping ($7 embellished tees at Banana Republic!), fattening foods, and two separate trips to a small local candy factory to re-stock up on sugar. Thank heavens for sisters.

While I was off gallivanting with the girls, Spencer, luckily, lived up to his reputation as uber-dad (I left the camera with him for a reason ;). Here's a few of the things they got up to sans-mommy:

(note: I can't be held accountable for any outfits and/or hairstyles applied to my offspring during my absence (especially the fact that Georgia is wearing the exact. same. dress. in every picture...no joke). In fact, I'm not sure it's such a great thing to have photgraphic proof of unapproved outfits out there on the vast World Wide Web, but c'est la vie.)

Science City at Union Station

Fireman Scarlett

Ezra with his long-lost twin brother

I'm not sure why Spence took these next pictures, but he had fifty bazillion of them, so I'm assuming it must've been for a valid reason. I suspect it was to show off Union Station's cool ceiling.

The water table was a big hit with all three

The Crown Center

Everybody with me now...
Under the sea
Darling it's better
Down where it's wetter
Take it from me

Root Beer Floats

Apparently, even Daddy isn't immune to the occasional
Mischief-Making...

(What does it say about the mischief-maker in question when he basically signs his name to his work?)

Camping at Clinton Lake

My fashion statement of a daughter

(in case you're curious, she finishes off the ensemble with jeans, striped socks, and sandals)

Talkin' to Mom. How sweet is that?

(I love how Ezra is still attempting to match, even when I'm not around to help. That's my boy :)

Breakfast of champions

(for the record, they basically rejected the eggs soon after this picture was taken. shocker, I know)

I was going to post Easter pictures too, but I'm, frankly, exhausted and I don't even want to think about what I have to do to get ready to leave for Idaho on Tuesday morning. Not to mention this post has turned ginormous on me. That's what happens, though, when you have an uber-husband like I do.

I love you, Honey. Thanks for being such an amazing father to my children...even if you do let Georgia wear the same dress three days out of five. The mere fact you attempted to do the girls' hair everyday more then makes up for it. love you.

Faux-Post

2011-04-25T14:07:00.000-05:00

I have a heck of a lot to catch up on on here. I have a heck of a lot of cleaning to catch up on in my house too. We're not even going to go into detail about the mountains of laundry that are currently waiting to be rotated, hung, and folded (how, in heaven's name, does one man and three small children create more laundry in the five days I'm out of town then we typically do in at least a week and a half?!?).

However, I've currently decided that my mouth hurts and I'm not going to do anything much for the rest of the afternoon...except laundry (the lack of clean little girl panties makes that a necessity).

Let's just say that root canals (especially the big hairy-scary kind) really, really suck.

For now, this is all I have to contribute to the blogosphere. I promise I'll post more later. If I don't do it soon, I fear I'll drown in my own moving mess and won't surface for another month.

The curls are back...and other girly stories

2011-04-09T17:17:00.001-05:00

The curls are back and dad's gonna be in trouble

Hey-la-day-la the curls are back.

Now sing that to the tune of The Angels' My Boyfriend's Back.

I'll wait...

When I saw the girlies playing outside today, that was the first thing that came to mind (it's the first real humid and extra-warm day of the season). Every winter Spence and I wonder if the girls are losing their curls. They're still there during the cold, dry months, but just looser and less obvious. But, like clockwork, every spring they come back in full force to prove us wrong. Here's the proof:

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Scarlett recently decided to try her hand at climbing the window panes. She was a little too successful for her own good.

Also, we're really mean parents.

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The girls decided that this was the best way to turn themselves into butterflies. Lucky for us, this was the Friday before General Conference weekend, so we didn't have to take them to church with faint pink lines still on their faces. They're extra-lucky I'm not showing you the clothes-off pictures for posterity's sake. They did a wicked purple and blue number on their tummies.

That is all.

Enjoy your weekend!

The un-blog-worthy stuff

2011-03-31T12:28:00.002-05:00

If I seem a little negligent of the blogging world lately, it's because I have been. I've had so much going on, yet very little of it seemed blog-worthy. Here's a bit of what's been happening lately...

First off, after two solid months of house-hunting (with innumerable months of internet-browsing and open house-visiting beforehand), we finally put an offer on a house we love and had it accepted last weekend. We have the inspection scheduled for next Tuesday and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything runs smoothly with it. Here's hopin' that everything will go as planned and we'll be able to start moving in May 10th. That will leave me with less then a mere month and a half before baby #4 is due (not to mention I have a tendency to go early). Which brings me to my next point...

I'm 28 weeks pregnant today (7 months for all y'all not familiar with baby lingo), entering the ever-exciting (not really) third trimester. My, how time flies when you're having fun (again, not really). All joking aside, though, I can't really complain too much about this pregnancy. I'm so eternally grateful to be having this baby that I'm willing to put up with a whole lot of pregnancy crap. It's been a little physically harder on me then they usually are (although nothing beats my first; that one was so, so physically draining), which I suspect has something to do with the fact I have to regularly drag Ezra kicking and screaming to his bedroom for time-out, tussle with Georgia while attempting to force some sort of clothing on her ever-naked body, and chase after Scarlett who refuses to stay attached to me in any environment (unless, of course, I'm trying to do something on the computer or consume nutrients of any kind). It'll be insane trying to move into a house while 34 weeks pregnant, but that's ok. I've done it before when we moved cross-country while pregnant with Georgia (I had her just over a week after moving into our rental house) and I'm sure I can do it again.

An extremely unflattering 28 week self-portrait

The kids have all been fairly difficult lately. Ezra and Georgia have just seemed more tired and temperamental then normal and I'm not sure why. I don't know if they haven't really adjusted to day light saving yet or if they've had a bug I haven't picked up on or what, but it's gotten old reeeeal quick-like. Scarlett is pretty much the same little sassy energizer bunny as normal, although now you've got to throw in the terrible twos for good measure. She's also having 3 times as many potty accidents lately. I think she's just hit that lazy phase that most toddlers do when they decide they've got a handle on this potty-training thing and don't need to hurry to the bathroom after all. Throw in some general laziness and high levels of tolerance with wet panties and you end up with five accidents a day. In good news, though, I've started bribing...errr..."rewarding" her with chocolate for staying dry and it seems to be helping a bit. Scarli's also still waking up multiple times a night and it's got me worried for when the new baby comes. It's nothing big, she just thrashes around and throws off her blankets while calling for me and I have to go in and resettle her, but I'm not sure what to do about it. I suspect possibly nightmares since she often doesn't even really wake up while she's doing it. It's exhausting enough right now just being beached-whale pregnant, but throw in a newborn and it might be enough to push me over the edge. Suggestions?

That's about it around here. I've been working on some random crafts. Maybe I'll take pictures of them when I get up the motivation and finish with a big one in particular. I have also been doing some schizophrenic nesting. I don't productively nest like normal women, oh no, I have to do random unnecessary things like wash every wall in my dining room and pick out the blessing outfit for baby 5 months in advance. Thanks for your patience in my blogging funk, oh loyal readers, stick with me and I'll have excited stuff approaching in the next few months (moving and birthing and birthdays, oh my!).

Tschüs!

(which, despite not having taken a German class for 7 years, is still the goodbye I say in my head)

Salmonella, anyone?

2011-03-19T19:45:00.001-05:00

I was planning on posting about Mardi Gras (it was March 8th, also International Women's Day, incidentally), but that turned out to be a total flop. Ezra whined about his mask for a good solid hour (Why did we put a stick on it instead of striiiiiing? Why isn't it stiff enough to stay up on its owwwwwn? you get the idea), my (2) king cakes were under-cooked, and nobody felt like dancing around with beads on (except for Georgia, who will dance anytime, anywhere...but she, unfortunately, was naked for most of the time and generally unfit for pictures). Then, I ended up doing pretty much nothing for St. Patrick's Day since we were driving home from Oklahoma for a good chunk of it, so that one crashed and burned too. Instead you get random Scarlett pictures. Enjoy!

Scarlett was such a great little helper while I was making french toast for dinner tonight. Other then the one slice of bread she attempted to soak and toss onto the griddle by herself (it hit the floor instead...I suspect it still got used inadvertently), she didn't really make much extra work. I just couldn't help but watch her endlessly stirring the batter and realize how grown up she really is getting. I guess it happens to them all, right?

Nothing like a little raw egg and milk. yummy.

All About Ezra

2011-03-08T09:36:00.003-06:00

Poor little blog. I feel like I've neglected you so...

Anyway, I've been meaning to post about Ezra for the last couple of weeks. Not that anything particularly exciting has been happening with him, I just feel like he consistently gets a bit neglected in my little corner of cyberspace. So, today's contribution is all about Ezra Emil...

Ezra has really grown up lately. He's just...mellowed, somehow. As many of you know, Ez has always been my most high maintenance child. I love him to pieces, but he's just very emotionally volatile, stubborn as a mule, and extreeeemly independent. As he's a little grumpy all to often, I'll occasionally refer to him as my little raincloud. We still have daily shrieking-and-floor-writhing tantrums and he'll still whine for an hour if I attempt to mix his butter and jam on the same piece of bread, but it seems as if in the last while, he's just gotten a little bit easier to handle all around. I think getting his tonsils out last August has helped quite a bit because he's more well-rested now combined with just getting older in general. His independence has started to help, instead of hinder, our day-to-day routines. Overall, I'm really enjoying this stage of things.

Ezra's currently attending preschool and is absolutely loving it (he always has been a structure junkie). He has a bestie there named Simon and they're inseparable. They consistently refer to each other as Simey and Ezie, insist on walking out to the cars together, and will even allow themselves to be convinced to wear their coat if the other one has it on first. I had a parent teacher conference the other day and his teacher just loves him. No one can ever believe he's anything other then perfect at home because of how well-behaved he is at school :P

Ezra dressed up on President's Day

Ezie (red shirt) and Simey (white shirt in the front) painting their Mayflowers

Ezra's super-excited for the new baby and it's so adorable. He's old enough to really get it this time around and loves to feel my stomach move and talk about what it's going to be like after he's born. He's even started stockpiling some of his prized possessions for when the baby is born (I've had to explain multiple times that a newborn probably wouldn't appreciate his lego car/blue ikea plate/Dr. Seuss book quite as much as him for the first couple of years). When I first asked him what he thought we should name the baby he said he couldn't think of any boy names and left it at that. Like a week later, out of the blue, Ezra solemnly informed me we should name the baby Hiccup since "it's the only boy name [he] knows" (for those of you not in the know, Hiccup is a boy on How To Train Your Dragon). I didn't have the heart to inform him that his well-thought-out boy name isn't really much of a name at all.

Ezra is one of the pickiest kids I've ever met in my life (and I'm not just saying that because I have to cook him dinner). He's uber-sensitive to textures, tastes, and smells...all of which play a big part in mealtimes. We (only semi-) joke that Ezra is on a one-ingredient diet as he'll basically only eat absolutely plain foods with only butter as an occasional topping (so no sauces, soups, casseroles, sandwiches, or anything else one might typically eat for a meal). Even with all that, however, I feel like, finally, we've come to an understanding of each other. I know what Ezra likes and will eat and he knows what's expected of him at mealtimes. We've had the "3 Things" rule for nearly a year now and it works most of the time. Basically, he has to have 3 different things on his plate for both lunch and dinner (and, much to his eternal dismay, his drink doesn't count). He can choose those three things off of what's on the table, but that's it. I make it a point to have a few things that I know he'll eat so he doesn't completely starve, but if I reeeeally want him to try the main dish (which is almost always his biggest issue), then I make sure that there aren't three sides on the table. Except for milk, he won't touch most dairy and meats are always hit and miss (and even then have to be basically plain and/or grilled), but he likes most fruit and a fair amount of veggies, so we're doing ok. Overall, we've found a happy-medium. He might put odd things on his fajitas like fresh carrots and cucumbers, but if it works for him, it works for me.

Ezra's independence has become a really nice personality trait over the last year. He dresses himself every morning with very little or no help from me (thank heavens it's his natural inclination to match!) and can help make himself breakfast if I ask him to. He's starting to pick up his toys more (which has always been a huge battle) and he's always willing to help out with his younger sisters by turning on lights they can't reach, accompanying them down to the scary basement, and fetching their shoes for me. He likes to help me unload the dishes and will often help me put away laundry. He's extremely meticulous in pretty much everything, so while it might cause some fights with his sisters and means everything he does takes forever, he usually does things right the first time. We've gotten a reward system set up (all the kids get to put pom-poms in a mason jar and when it's full we do a fun family activity) and it really helps encourage him to help out a little more willingly. I don't think I ever realized that a tangible form of positive reinforcement would work so well for him.

Ezra has a strong natural faith. He'll pray for something in complete faith and then recognizes the answer to his prayer soon after, all on his own. His most recent prayer was to help him be more obedient so they could fill up the pom-pom jar faster. He insisted the next night that Heavenly Father had helped him obey all day long. As faith is something I've had to work very hard at, I love to see that little seed of faith burn so brightly in his nature.

I know I've mentioned it a dozen times on here before, but Ezra LOVES to dance and has a huge list of songs he insists on groovin' to regularly. A few of these include Mika's We Are Golden, Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash, OK Go's This Too Shall Pass and Here It Goes Again, I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas, Enrique Iglesias's I Like It, and I Wanna Be Sedated by The Ramones.

Well, that's about all I can think of right now. I know it's very long and probably way more about my kid then you really wanted to know, but it kinda, sorta makes up for months of neglect, right? Hope you enjoyed (or at least the grandparent and aunties of y'all ;)!

2011-02-26T13:10:00.000-06:00

You know what's possibly the cutest thing ever?

This bottom in skinny pants.

Especially when they're saggy.

(as they're apt to be when you have a 2 year old who weighs 23 lbs. and is in panties)

Musheireb Mustache Day

2011-02-24T14:12:00.003-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, my not-so-fashion-minded husband came up with the brilliant idea of having everyone in his little area of the cubicle world sport a mustache for a day. They would spend the next week boycotting all shaving and would then shave a 'stache on the appointed day. It would be called Musheirab Mustache Day and is a date which will live in infamy...at least in my book anyway.

As some of y'all know, I love facial hair on a guy. There's something about it that just looks so masculine to me. I find it particularly flattering on Spencer as it defines his jaw and makes him look somewhere around his actual age versus his clean-cheeked 19 year old alter-ego. Mustaches...however...not so much (unless, of course, you happen to be tom selleck, my father, or my father-in-law).

Ahhh, Tommy Boy. One of the extremely rare manly-men who can pull off a 'stache with flying colors

It's not that I have anything against mustaches in general, per se, I just don't like them on many people, especially not my husband. Let's put it this way...if a mustached-version of Spencer was wearing sweatpants, a gray zip-up jacket, and hanging around a elementary school or park, I wouldn't be the least surprised if a monitor asked him to move along.

Regardless, February, Friday the 18th or Musheirab Mustache Day came and went, all mustachioed up, whether I wanted it to or not.

Here's the proof:

A whole flock of mustachioed engineers

(promise they all have them, even if you can't see them in this picture)

The 'stached man himself

(note that this was a day or two later when a tiny bit of his goatee had begun to grow back, thank heavens)

I'm happy to report that nearly a week later, we're almost back to goatee-worthy facial hair, praises be. I'm sure Spencer is a little relieved himself since he hasn't been seeing much action since :P

Spencer wanted to me put up a poll asking if people liked his short-lived mustache. I'm going to assume my readers have better taste then that. If you don't, however, feel free to let us know in the comments ;)

happy thoughts

2011-02-16T15:22:00.003-06:00

Want to know how you've found a keeper?

He leaves you the leftover Valentine's cordon bleu for lunch and takes the cream o' casserole for himself. *shudder*
(I suspect Spencer thinks I'd die of malnutrition from living on cereal all day if it wasn't for his covert efforts to keep me fed)

I love you, my dearest.

This is for Georgie who has woken up and told me she's dreamed about being at the beach two mornings out of the last three.

In honor of a red-headed Spitfire and our Birthday party for Brother Neil.

2011-02-10T20:42:00.002-06:00

Goodness, it's been a while, hasn't it? In my defense, I've been helping my sister move up to snowy north-west Indiana since January 31st, utterly internet-less all the while. As all we did up there was sit around sans furniture waiting for the blizzard to abate and then unpacking when the moving truck finally arrived, I have no pictures to show as proof. You'll just have to take my word on it.

Anyway...I'm sure most of you have seen this commercial by now, especially if you're the super bowl-watching type, but for those of you who know my Applegate nephews, I request that you re-watch this commercial all the while thinking of them. It has Gavin, in particular, written all over it. So much so, that I now refer to it as the Gavin Commercial (creative, I know). Even if you don't know my 3 favorite scrawny red-headed spitfires, it's still worth a watch.

(for any red-headed Humphrey-ites who might be offended, note the word "scrawny" in the previous statement ;)

In other news, here's a few token pictures of my kids celebrating Neil Diamond's 70th birthday on January 24th. We had more fun then Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show. What? You don't have a Neil Diamond Birthday Party, you say? Well, in my book, everyone whose anyone has one. Just so you know.

The absolutely necessary dance party. We were rockin' Brother Neil tunes, but of course.

It took Scarlett a while to get into things since she was in a foul mood, but even she couldn't resist a good booty-shakin' to Cherry Cherry.

Gotta love those Neil-worthy shades. Now all he needs is an open-neck shirt and some chest hair and he'll be all set.

Every true dance party calls for a Princess dress, you know.

No birthday party is complete without cake. We almost always opt to go the cupcake route since frosting is half the fun (the clean-up, however, negates that half in my book :P).

(sidenote: mini-cupcakes are my new favorite thing. It's all the giving into temptation without having to deal with the whole cupcake...so, you can feel free to have one, two, or errr five.)


I swear I have like 50 of these exact same pictures. All I have to do is change the shirt out and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Like I've mentioned in previous posts, Ezra takes his decorating very, very seriously (as he does most things, really, I suppose).

The usual.

(My apologies as these next two pictures are sideways. Blogger is not my friend tonight.)

Scarli didn't have much interest in frosting. Table dancing was, however, another matter entirely.


The goods.

Take it or leave it, folks, but this is all you're getting. Hopefully any upcoming posts are more interesting and/or witty. I'm just not feelin' it tonight.

PS-Just curious...but what's your favorite Neil Diamond song (if you're cool enough to have one, that is)? Mine is Cherry Cherry, for the record.

Drumroll please...

2011-01-28T19:38:00.001-06:00

Well folks, there'll be a bit more testosterone hanging out in the Lifferth home come next summer. Not to mention snips, snails, puppy dog tails, and all the other lovely things that come with little boys.

Spencer and I are very excited...but, I must say, not as excited as Ezra is.

(So, 23 out of 30 of y'all were right, according to the poll :)

Also, as requested, here's a belly picture. I took this last night at exactly 19 weeks.

As with my previous pregnancies I'm going straight out, but I'm also carrying lower this time around. It seems I just get lower and loooower with each pregnancy. I blame very tired abdominal muscles :P

Pink or Blue?

2011-01-26T12:22:00.002-06:00

Originally, my ultrasound was scheduled for next Friday, February 4th, but because of a short-notice plan change (I'm headed up to Indiana to help my sister, Stephanie, move), I was lucky enough to get it bumped up to this Friday, the 28th. So...the question is, of course, Pink or Blue? What do y'all think? Answer on the poll to the right!

ps-any name suggestions would be much appreciated! Nothing gets me going like a good name discussion.

In other news...

2011-01-22T13:24:00.000-06:00

My eldest daughter has now decided to become a corner worker. Thigh-high boots, she adores...the paparazzi, however, not so much.

Oh, and have I told you lately how absolutely in love I am with this girl? There's a darn good reason why the 18 months to 2.5 years span is my favorite.

Somebody never learns their lesson.

2011-01-14T12:55:00.003-06:00

Yesterday, one of my children discovered that baking cocoa is not nearly as delicious as it appears.

I'll give you one guess as to which one it was...

Somebody never learns their lesson.

"Another shot of tylenol, anyone?" and other musings

2011-01-10T15:16:00.001-06:00

Sorry for the long hiatus. What with the holidays and uber-long vacation in Stillwater and Amarillo (you know, the kind of vacation that isn't actually really a vacation ;), blog posts have been scarce, not to mention blog-checking on my part. Be patient, oh loyal readers, pretty soon I'll be back in the swing of things. In a complete lack of chronological order, here's a quick catch-up.

So, Spencer spent Friday evening in the ER with Scarlett.

[I'm interrupting this regularly scheduled blog post in order to put racing hearts at rest. EVERYTHING IS OK.]

About 3:30 that afternoon, while I was at a midwife appointment, Spencer found Scarlett using the medicine cup as a shot glass and guzzling Children's Tylenol faster then tequila (we'd had it out because Georgia had been running a fever off and on for a while). He had no idea how much she'd consumed, but she had a pretty well-defined grape-flavored mustache by that point in time. Like any other veteran parent, Spence called our good, close friends, Poison Control (bless their wonderful, non-judgmental hearts) and gave them the details of the situation. As we didn't know how much she'd drunk (according to Little Miss, she'd had somewhere between 2 and 20 cup-fulls, or "a little bit"), we were advised to take her into the ER after a 4 hour wait (so that the medicine would be in her system long enough to show up on the test). So, at 7:30pm, off they headed to Overland Park Regional for the unintended Daddy-Daughter date. When the couple finally made it past the waiting room, there was much weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth as the nurses had to hold Scarlett down and draw blood for the test. They left a PICC line in just in case, which she was none too happy about. It took about 45 minutes or so to get the results back from the test, when we learned that Scarlett's blood level was at a 44 and toxicity level would've been at 118 (at which point in time, we'd be worried about severe liver problems and a host of other issues). As 118 would've been roughly half a bottle of children's tylenol (or 2 fl oz), we can tell that Scarlett drank a little less then a quarter of a bottle. I'm not sure what that would translate to in tequila shots, however.

Ya wanna know the biggest irony of the situation? The ginormous fit Ezra and Georgia threw when they weren't allowed to go with Spencer and Scarlett to the ER (Ezra kept on begging me to "please just be a nice mommy"). Apparently, they think it's *the* place to hang out on a Friday night. They were just so sure they were missing out on some great, exciting time. I explained over and over that all the trip involved was a heck of a lot of waiting and probably a shot or two. Spencer undid all my hard work, however, when he mused out loud that the occasional ER sighting of a bone sticking out of a limb is pretty exciting, actually.

For the worry warts among you, here's living proof that Scarlett survived to tell the tale.

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Christmas this year was spent at home and filled with food, fun, and coordinating jammies.

Not to mention plenty of Richard Nixon-like enthusiasm to go around

=
(I know, I know, but I just couldn't resist. Can you blame a girl?)

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In other news, we now have another Nursery graduate in the house. Yesterday, Georgia attended her very first Sunbeam class. We had missed the previous week since there was a bunch of sickies in my sister's house down in Amarillo so it was all new and fresh for Georgia. I was a tiny bit worried about her since she had such a slow warming to nursery, but she jumped in feet first. The draw of being Big Like Ezra was enough for her. The topics of sunbeams was discussed briefly in my 3rd hour youth class and I couldn't help but smile at the definition. How appropriate that little 3-4 year olds are described as rays of sunshine. Georgia definitely brings her own little ray of sunshine into our home.

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I was going to post a current belly picture (I'm about 16 1/2 weeks), but ran out of motivation (not to mention I'm currently wearing one of Spencer's shirts, my hair isn't done, and I have no makeup on). However, I figured this was a decent-sized post without it. So, you get what you get and you don't get upset.

The End

This Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day

2010-12-22T11:53:00.003-06:00

I have to admit...I've been so busy getting ready for Christmas that I just haven't been feeling all that...well...Christmasy. I even took every single ornament off our tree with Grinchy satisfaction (the kids would NOT leave them alone). *gasp*

However, after reading this, I've received a much-needed dose of Christmas spirit to do away with my Grinch-link sentiments. I'm tellin' ya now, it is well worth the read.

(blast you, Julia. I just put my makeup on and now I'm bawling my eyes out)

Random musings and semi-crappy pictures

2010-12-19T14:46:00.010-06:00

I know that I should uber-blog about something or other...but honestly, not a whole lot is going on. I should post about Thanksgiving and the (much-appreciated) visit from the in-laws, but the thought's a little overwhelming and, frankly, I didn't take any pictures. I've been doing a lot of catch-up since I'm feeling slightly better now-a-days, but I'm not getting done nearly as much as I should be (the state of my house and laundry room can attest to that). We're attempting to sprinkle in some holiday festivities here and there, but again, not nearly as much as I'd like. Let this be a lesson to you, young grasshopper, that if you get Christmas prep done early, you can actually enjoy Christmas during Christmas (as I'm sure most of you have already figured out). Oh well, maybe next year. In the meantime, however, here's a few (semi-crappy) cookie-making pictures to hold the mutinous rabble at bay.

The girls caught in the act...

I love this look of concentration on Ezra's face. He takes his frosting very. seriously.

Obviously, it payed off. The kid pays so much attention to detail it kills me! He only got like 5 cookies done, but they all were as meticulous as this one.

The only semi-smiling pictures I got of the girls. For some reason, they just weren't into the picture-taking this time around. But, you get what you get and you don't get upset.

Spencer's ginger-Eve and ginger-Adam.
Spencer insists those blobs on Eve are flowers. I'm a bit suspicious, however.

As an added bonus, I'll throw in a video of my very favorite non-religious Christmas song of all time, Eartha Kitt's Santa Baby. Seriously, I fell for it when I was like 7 or something...back when I really did dream of a light blue convertible :)

Here's it is in all of it's original fabulosity
(feel free to skip the last half, it's just a remix)

ho. ho. ho.

2010-12-10T16:30:00.004-06:00

Ezra spent about 45 minutes this afternoon throwing a fit because I got the wrong kind of candy canes. You know, the peppermint ones. *gasp*

He has then spent the rest of the afternoon consuming aforementioned candy canes at an unprecedented rate. Apparently, he discovered, I actually bought the peppermint candy canes that he does like, which are somehow different then the peppermint candy canes that he doesn't.

thank friggin' heavens.

Who wants fourths?

2010-12-06T15:17:00.006-06:00

You know what has always been one of my favorite things about being pregnant?

Getting to be first in line at every food-serving function. That and the fact that nobody blinks twice when you get up for fourths. It's a lovely, lovely thing.

So...I guess what I'm saying is you'll be seeing me first in line a lot more often...up until June 23rd, anyway.

oh, and yes, we do know how birth control works.
yes, this was on purpose.
yes, I fully realize I will be having 4 kids, 5 and under.
and yes, I'm kinda, sorta a little insane.

in case you were curious

2010-11-30T18:34:00.008-06:00

When Scarlett says the word "fork" it sounds like a very naughty swear word.

This is made all the more amusing because she sounds somewhat like Theodore of Alvin and the Chipmunks when she talks.

It doesn't hurt any that she also not-so-faintly resembles a small woodland animal.

Just in case you were curious.

October Catch-Up

2010-11-15T16:40:00.015-06:00

Wow! Has it really been over two weeks already!? I feel like such a slacker. It's been a rough couple of weeks around here, but hopefully I'll get all caught up with this uber-post and then this blog can get back to it's normal, random self.

As many of you know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In honor of that, Kansas City, also known as the City of Fountains, dyes many of it's most notable fountains pink. One weekend afternoon, Spence and I took the kids for a drive and walk to see many of them. The girls, in particular, got a kick out of the pink sprays.

While we were at The Plaza, we ran into a group of hula hooping hippies. The kids thought they were super-great and the hippies thought our kids were the cutest things ever. It was a win-win all around. They were really nice and let us all give their hoops a try. It was really interesting to see how they had lots of different sized hoops depending on the person using them.

(sorry, this one is a really bad picture)

Spencer wasn't afraid to shake those hips

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On October 23rd, Ezra turned a very grown up 5 years old! He was lucky enough to have his birthday fall on a Saturday, so he got to have Dad home with him the whole day. We ended the night off at The Chinese Rest-ur-naut where he had his fave jello and meat on a stick. Here's a few pictures of the festivities...

Ezra with his loot

This may be the one and only picture in which my son's neck looks long.
Thanks G&G Lifferth for the gift and also for the genetically short neck.

yay! yay! for the long-awaited Scooby Doo movie! Ezra has insisted since August that Uncle Phillip (and fam) would be getting him one for his birthday. Thank heavens he came through for him *phew*

The first gift of the insisted-on present scavenger hunt

The end result of said scavenger hunt
(Thanks MiMi & Grandad!)

Ezra insisted he wanted a blue and green cake with an orange dinosaur.
This is the best I could do under the non-orange dinosaur circumstances.

Happy Birthday Ezra Emil!

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What would our 13 Nights of Halloween festivities (of which there were many undocumented ones, I promise) be without pumpkin carving? We braved the goopy, gross mess (which I abhor) and attempts at carving (which I also hate) to make two pumpkins into Jack-O-Lanterns for the kids.

Ezra wielding his mighty weapon. He was the only kid that kinda-sorta helped at all. Georgia just spent most of her time dipping a finger or two in the pumpkin glop and then running off to wash her hands.

A blurry, yet adorable picture of Scarlett

But, of course, the necessary close-up

Oh look, our local feral child decided to join us for the festivities too

A horrible picture of the end results, but honestly, I've gotten used to those these days

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the 28th, Scarlett turned 2 years old! I can't even believe my baby is so big (and yet so little, weighing it at a whopping 20 lbs :P). She's in her jammies for most of these pictures, but that's because we got up early to open presents before Daddy left for work.

Scarlett with the goods

By this point in time, she's a pro at opening presents

The rare and unexpected small-mouth picture of Scarlett

Pretty sure Scarlett loved the M&Ms more then anything

Scarlett was in love with her (previously tasted) Pinkalicious cupcake...even if I was a loser and forgot the sprinkles

Happy Birthday Miss S!

Well, folks, that's a wrap! I know you were probably expecting some more Halloween pictures in there, but honestly the last post was pretty much all of them. Hope your November is going well and have a fabulous day!

The End

I give you...

2010-11-01T13:48:00.004-05:00

I have loads of things I need to post about, but it's been one of those days. So, in the meantime, this is what you get. I give you...

The Dragon/Dinosaur
(depending on his mood when asked)

The Flapper
(brag alert: I made her costume (using this tutorial) and I love that it turned out so cute!)

The Firecracker

To my Scarlett, on her 2nd Birthday

2010-10-28T11:00:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl! Can you even believe it's been 2 years since you entered our home and our hearts? I can't even imagine our family any other way. Little Miss, when you were a baby, you were so mellow, happy, and easy-going. I was sure you were going to be my easy one. Well...out of those three qualities, the happy one is about all that has remained. You're still my most smiley and happiest baby by a long stretch, but who would've guessed you could fit so many opinions and such a larger-then-life personality is such a tiny little body? You might've learned all that sass from your older siblings, I suppose, but I doubt it. By this time I figure I just breed sauciness in my children.

Scarlett, I can't help but smile when I think of you. I'm going to guess I'm not the only one either. As a friend once informed me, you're the cheesiest kid she knows. With that big ol' grin of yours, cheesy you most definitely are. Oh, my sweet Scarlett, y0u are sunshine to my soul. You have such a huge personality and I love watching it develop and expand as the months go by. Everybody that knows you loves you, Little Miss. I've come to the conclusion that it's pretty much impossible not to. Really, you love to be loved. I've never known another baby so eager for love and affection. Everything you do screams out, "Notice me! Love me!"

You are all girl, through and through. You love dressing up, Pinkalicious, lip gloss, and all things princess. I'm pretty sure you were born with pink sparkles flowing through your veins because you've been a girly-girl since day one. Heaven knows, you have an opinion about evvvvverrrrrything. You're absolutely convinced you're three, four, or five years old, never one (or now two). You consider my make-up your make-up, and search it out from all my hiding spots to use it as your own (much to Daddy's eternal chagrin). Even with all that femininity, you can still keep up with the roughest boys. You don't hesitate to climb over our chain-link fence, scale any counter in sight, and rough-house with the best of them.

Oh Scarlett, my baby girl, I'm so glad you're my very own. You make me smile everyday and I'm so very, very happy that you're part of our family. Honey Girl, it makes my heart ache to think how much I love you. You're like a ray of light wherever you are; you just brighten the room when you walk into it. Like I said earlier...to know you is to love you, Miss Scarlett.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl!

To my Ezra, on his 5th Birthday

2010-10-23T07:50:00.012-05:00

Oh baby boy, I love you so. You were my very first baby (I know you love to hear that) 5 years ago today. 5 whole years!!! It seems like forever and just a moment all wrapped into one. I know it's cliche, but when did you get so big? You're going to preschool and making your own bed (with plenty of coaxing and threats sprinkled in)...and I suspect that pretty soon I'll be fixing your tie for Prom and bawling my eyes out at the MTC. Thank heavens you still cuddle with me nearly every day or I'd be sunk.

All dressed up at preschool

Ezzie, you are so very different then me in so very many ways. The way your bright little mind works just boggles me, my little Engineer. Sometimes I think you're a foreign country where I, frankly, just don't speak the language. Praises be that we have Daddy here for a translator. Although, I must say, I've got one on him when it comes to your very strong emotional side...I'm afraid you got that from me. I know they can be hard for you to control and make life difficult sometimes (for both of us), but I promise they can be a good thing. They allow a person to feel passionate about all sorts of different things, which is one of life's greatest blessing, in my own emotional opinion.

Showing off his artwork

You love building things, whether it's with blocks, books, blankets, or bricks (and it's been that way for years). You're my little book worm and adore being read to and cuddling on the couch in the process. You prefer to eat excruciatingly plain foods (heaven forbid there's anything remotely like seasonings or sauce). You're convinced that you and your cousin, Gavin, are twins (a brother from another mother, right?) and I think Auntie Libby not-so-secretly adores it. You love cooking and baking with me and dancing around to music. Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash, We Are Golden by Mika, and anything by OK Go are your favorites. Wearing jammies has got to be your most favorite thing ever and you'd stay in them all day if I let you. You're a great big brother and you're nice enough to let your sisters play with you and they love you all the more for it.

Ezra and his groupies

Oh, my Ezra. I love you sooo much it's ridiculous, or at least it would be if every other mother before hadn't felt the exact same way. You were my first and so you were the first one to show me it's oh-so-possible to have a big ol' chunk of your heart walking around outside of your body. Happy, Happy 5th Birthday, Sweet Boy. I love you!!

Love,
Mom

The man of the hour

ps-In honor of your birthday, I'm sharing your verrrry favorite YouTube Video (and one of your favorite songs). You refer to it as The Ball Video, ask to watch it all the time, and have tried to recreate at home more then once.

Orange Watermelons

2010-10-15T05:37:00.015-05:00

Did you know that Spencer had Ezra absolutely convinced last year that pumpkins were really orange watermelons? Well, he did. I was all worried he'd be that kid in class who would staunchly defend ridiculous notions because "my dad told me that" (and still do worry about that, to be honest), but even I have to admit it was friggin' hilarious.

Anyway, we started our fall celebrations off with a trip to our much-loved Schaake's Pumpkin Patch (you most definitely can't beat free).

I seriously adore this place. There are multiple play areas for the kids to explore (including a kid-sized hay bale maze). Here's some proof of the action:

Scarlett got the biggest kick out of this thing.

This is pretty much what Georgia does all afternoon long in our backyard...when she's not smearing wet sidewalk chalk all over the house, that is.

Who doesn't love a giant jack-o-lantern?

Nothing like pettin' a pig's rump.

(hmmm...I realize it looks like I don't really love Georgia all that much in this series of pictures. That's because Spence had the camera most of the time and he was the one watching Biggest and Littlest)

We made sure to stop and take the mowglis' measurements
(I've included the pictures from last year for comparison):

This year Scarlett (nearly 2)

Last year Scarlett (nearly 1)
(if you'll recall, this was the best picture I could get because I was attempting to take the picture and hold her up by myself)

This year Georgia (nearly 3.5)

Last year Georgia (nearly 2.5)

This year Ezra (nearly 5)

Last year Ezra (just barely 4)

This where Ezra was chillin' while I was taking pictures of the girls. I love the fun textures and backgrounds in this shot.

After playing for a while, we headed down to pick our faves in the orange watermelon fields.

Our attempt at a hayride photo while in-route.

Gotta love that Kansas skyline.

Like Father, like Daughter, I suppose. Heaven knows she didn't get that big ol' tongue from me (Have you seen mine? It's cute and little, I promise.)

This picture makes me laugh. I was trying my darndest to get all three kids to pose by our pumpkins. First, Georgia headed for the hills, as she's apt to do. Scarlett decided to cooperate and hammed it up (although in the wrong direction), while Ezra just sat around whining that "the sun was in [his] eeeeeyyyeeees." [cue obnoxious whiny voice]

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.
This is Scarlett we're talking about here. All 20 lbs of her actually could.

The Loot.

On a random ending note...

So, we took away Scarlett's binky last week. She's having some struggles coping with things...especially at night...when she's supposed to be in bed. She does what she can, though. Like hide in Ezra's discarded jammies and pretend to be invisible.

The End.

Formspring #2: Motherhood

2010-10-07T08:16:00.010-05:00

As a tag-along to my last post, I figured I'd share a few more mom-related formspring questions and responses. Enjoy!

So, as a follow-up, how many more kids are you planning on at this point?

Probably 5, but we'll see what life brings. I mean, 5 total...not 5 more ;)
(Spencer insists that I should say 12 or we'll stop when I turn 35, whatever comes first :P)

Do you ever feel like you missed out on something by having your kids so quickly and not much time to yourself?

Yeah, the thought occurs occasionally. I used to feel that way a lot more often when I was a newer mom. Sometimes I see young, free college students and I get a little jealous. But, at the end of the day, I do much better in a steady relationship then alone, so I can't imagine life being better if I had married later...then, once you're married it seems the kids come too.

Part of me wishes Spence and I had taken more time to really enjoy ourselves before Ezra came along (we had only been married about 14 1/2 months), but we felt like we were supposed to have him when we did, so that was that.

While I most likely did miss out on a lot of kid-less play and freedom, I can't honestly say I'd have it any other way. My kids make my life so much more full and I can't help but think that it'd be a more then a little lacking if things had gone differently.

So do you ever feel alone in the world of women without a friend to talk to?

Sometimes, especially if the day is particularly rough...but then I remember that I do have people to talk to if I choose to open up and rely on them. I have my sisters, who I talk to very often. I have my best friend from high school (who I co-blog with on Hot Chocolate Talk). I have girls from my ward and friends online.

I think the biggest thing for me is realizing that those women might just be feeling a little down and lonely themselves and it's just as much up to me to reach out to them as it is for them to reach out to me. No matter where one is in life: student, young married, new mom, veteran mom, or empty nester, there are always women who are dealing with the exact same stuff and can reach out and relate. Even better, one can easily cross those lines and realize that a veteran mom can help and relate to a young mom or a young mom to a student or newlywed. We're all just trying to get through the day...but life's trials and joys are so much better when one shares them.

One more thing, just so y'all know...

this song makes me happy :)

(it kinda makes me want to be a hippy)

Formspring #1: Babies

2010-10-05T10:45:00.011-05:00

You asked and I promised to answer. I can't say I was all that shocked when I received this as my first real question from formspring...

"Not that you can go back now, but how do you feel about having 3 kids so close together? Any chance baby #4 is in the works?! You're a fantastic mother!"

You want the short answer? Honestly, I love having 3 kids so close together. Oh, and I also hate it.

As for the long one, we'll start with the Cons: There no denying that there are a lot of difficulties that come with having kids so close in age (currently almost 5, 3, and almost 2 or 19 and 17 months apart). First off, they fight...they fight, fight, fight, fight! I think it has a lot to do with the fact that they play so much together (and so often with the same toys) that arguments are inevitable. But...rumor has it all kids do, so I don't know if their ages really effect it all that much. The hardest so far was when they were babies (we missed the Three Under Three cut-off by 5 days)...because they really were still babies when the next one came along. I used to have people inquire how my baby was doing and I couldn't help but ask, "which one?" in confusion. It was really hard to deal with a screaming newborn and a clingy, whiny toddler all at the same time. Not to mention, it was really really really hard simultaneously dealing with a screaming newborn, clingy, whiny toddler, and naughty, attention-deprived preschooler. We didn't plan on having Scarlett so soon after Georgia and it was a huge shock to the system. I just didn't have enough hands and honestly, still don't. You should see us try to go grocery shopping. We're like a friggin' three-ring circus, which, of course, innocent bystanders don't hesitate to point out to me.

Pros: That being said, there are so many things that I love about having my kids so close in age. They are each other's ever-present best friends. They learn from each other, but they're young enough that there are so many things that they learn with each other. They entertain one another really well (although I can assure you there's massive gobs of destruction and disorder in their wake). I love the thought of them growing up together and having a big rowdy house full of teenagers (crazy, I know ;). One of the things I love most is the idea of them having built-in peers. As my kids are so close in age, I will be having a senior, junior, and freshman in high school all at the same time...I'm really hoping that the peer pressure in this case will be a good thing. I also love the fact that I'm blowing through these baby years and will be done young. I guess the hope is that I can enjoy lots of middle-aged kid-less years to make up for the fact that I started so young.

When it comes to a recommendation, I really can't say. Something like that is so dependent on the parents. It's a good fit for me for a number of reasons: I'm young and have lots of energy, I love change so I really enjoy frequent pregnancies, I don't really feel the need to keep my children babies for very long, and I honestly don't mind being in baby-mode (although I could do without the massive amounts of money spent on diapers). So, if you fit those categories, you might do well with multiple small children.

As for baby #4...We've been attempting for about 6 months now without much luck. It's been a big shock to the system since the other three didn't take much effort (Ezra was the longest at 4 months, but he was our first and we were still working out all the cycle kinks, Georgia was a lucky first time, and Scarlett was our oops). We waited until Scarlett was 18 months to start trying to give us a bit of a break, but we really hoped to be well on our way to #4 by now. Oh well, in the words of Miss Doris Day, "Que Sera, Sera. Whatever will be, will be."

Hope you enjoyed the extra peek into me! Feel free to direct any additional questions to my formspring widget on the sidebar. Have a fabulous day!

Bazillion Picture Catch-Up

2010-09-30T13:22:00.005-05:00

We have had a very busy couple of months around here! August was just insane followed by an equally insane September. Here's a bit of what's been going on around here...

(warning: VAST amounts of un-chronological pictures following)

Ezra's first day of preschool. As I'm sure you can tell, he was verrrry excited.

(ps-I made Georgia's dress this last August. Isn't it adorable? Thanks Grandma B and Mom for the material (circa 1971), pattern, and endless amounts of patience!)

My sister Stephanie and her lovely daughter Ella came to visit a few weeks back, followed by her sons Cooper and Greyson and husband Phillip a week or so later. We attempted to do and see as much as possible with so many kids running around.

We visited the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art's Sculpture Park

(The giant shuttlecock is by the husband and wife team of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen)

There was much hill-rolling to be done there.

We couldn't resist the lure of the Crown Center...twice.

Fritz's

There was the giant Crayola Store

If you've ever spent time with Greyson, you know just how seriously the boy takes his mac and cheese.

They had the best Clifford (ya know, the big red dog) interactive exhibit going on.

Indoors or out, the girls always manage to find flowers to pick.

Ezra's treasures from the beach/sand table

Ella and Georgia as T-Bone and Cleo, respectively

Would you like germs with that?

The fountains are always a must-do.

Isn't this the sweetest picture ever?

There's the necessary Plaza visit

The boys just HAD to get a up-close look at this wicked Mystery Machine look-alike.

Church Sites!

Ezra and Spencer at Liberty Jail

The Boys
(man, Ezra has some bad hair in this picture...and bad outfit...and non-matching shoes. yeah, I didn't have much input on this one.)

The Girls

Scarlett thinks that Greyson pretty much walks on water. Every red-headed boy she sees is Greyson to her. It's adorable.

Giddy-up, Cowboys!

Cooper sweeping the hearth in his frontier cabin

In other news...

My little brother Jesse came home from his year-long visit to Japan (he was doing a college-level foreign exchange). I took the kids down for a weekend visit to see him. Jesse's practically my arm, he's so much a part of me, so I was very excited to have him home again.

A big THANK YOU to Hannah since I totally stole this picture. I was a loser and took not a single picture when I visited Oklahoma.

We had a super-fun (and full) visit from Spencer's little brother Eric and sister Heather. Heather recently returned from her mission in Bangkok, Thailand, so it was a great excuse to get them out here to see us. I was, predictably, a picture-taking slacker, so if someone wants to send me a few of theirs *cough*Heather*cough* I promise they'll make it up here.

Oh look, my children looking like un-loved ragamuffins again. shocker.

The End.

ps-I have an answer to post for one of my formspring questions (refer to previous post), so check back soon!

my life is like an open book

2010-09-24T01:41:00.006-05:00

Throughout my life I've made it a point to let the world know who I am and what I think. Anyone who has known me, even for a little bit, knows that I'll pretty much talk about anything, whether I probably should or not. I've always claimed, and truly believe, that my life is like an open book for those who choose to read. I think that's one of the reasons I've taken to blogging so well...it allows me to express myself in full honesty. I've always believed that if we are truly willing to share our full selves with the world, we'll all be able to relate a little better, hold back the judgment and, at the risk of sounding cliche, just get along. My mistakes, my triumphs, my weaknesses, and my strengths...I own them. They are who I am.

That's why, when I saw that my friend, Megan, had created a Form Spring account, I knew it was my type of bandwagon to jump on. Basically, in the right-hand column you'll see a small box where you can ask me any question you'd like. As an added perk, it's completely anonymous, if you'd prefer. Feel free to ask whatever catches your fancy and I'll attempt to live up to my claim of honesty...and answer. The plan is to share some of the fun ones with y'all. So, ask away :)

I hear a guitar solo coming on...

2010-09-17T10:39:00.004-05:00

You take some big, wig-like, mullet-shaped hair...

add in a Steven Tyler-esque mouth...

throw in a larger-then-life personality...

...and you've got yourself the makings of a great hair band, my friend.

Confession

2010-09-14T10:07:00.004-05:00

Confession:

I

am

a

total

GLEEK.

One week, in counting, until the return of Glee. Be still, my heart, be still.

You might want to pause this last one for a few seconds at the beginning to give it a chance to load.

Please tell me I'm not the only one addicted to this show.

phew.

2010-09-07T07:32:00.012-05:00

On his way to run some errands with the kids the other day, Spencer decided to swing by a park to let them play for a bit*. Immediately he realized his mistake of stopping in an uber-nice area of town. Looking around, there was a ratio of one kid per parent (with each parent closely following their small charge) and the place was flooded with massive amounts of khakis, tucked-in polos, and loafers.

As he sat around watching his bare-footed, crazy-haired, dirty-faced mowglis run around, he was approached by a mom who asked him incredulously if all three kids were his and if he actually came alone to the park. After he responded in the positive, she asked him how he did it as she had two small boys at home and couldn't even manage to leave the house when she was alone with them. At this time, the mom had a bit of a epiphany. She theoretically wiped her brow, telling Spencer that, "It must be because I have TWO boys, while two of your kids are GIRLS." phew, indeed.

With a chuckle, Spencer just gestured to our girls playing together, saying, "I don't know, that one there, she's a wild one."

So, next time Scarlett's standing on top of Georgia's dresser, chucking things off, or Georgia's painting herself, the house, and every window in sight with mud, I'll think to myself, "It's a darn good thing we have girls." [insert eye roll and dripping sarcasm here]

p.s.-Catch-up post a-comin', I promise.

*Yes, he was alone with all three kids on a Saturday morning, running errands, AND stopping at a park? Where does he keep his cape, right?

post-run cuddle

2010-08-26T08:42:00.009-05:00

I snapped these pictures this morning while cuddling with a freshly-woken Scarlett after my morning run. She crawled up onto my lap, insisting "Car-yett is big girl! Car-yett Yif-ett is big girl!" in retaliation to an insult, I'm sure. I was all sweaty and zitty, she was goobery and covered in glitter from a heavy application of lipgloss the night before, but it was such a simple moment that I couldn't help but share.

ps-yes, that is a 3-6 mo binky in her mouth and no, she was not allowed to have it.

my never-ending cycle

2010-08-24T10:19:00.012-05:00

I'm not sure exactly why I bother cleaning my house or bathing my kids. I'd like to say you're seeing the worst of it, but really, you're only seeing the parts that allowed me to keep my head enough to take pictures, so realistically less then half of the really bad times. I'd also like to claim that this was spread out over a long period of time. In reality, these have all happened within the last week. You don't eeeven want to begin to imagine the many states my bathroom has been in this week. It's a never ending cycle of dirt, crumbs, and messes. Welcome to my life.

My daughter has a thing for potting soil.

So it begins...

...and ends

The mud mess (especially in their hair) was so horrible that I had to hose them off before bringing them in for showers. Georgia thought it was great fun...Scarlett, not so much. The ironic thing is that they had done the exact same thing the day before. *sigh*

This picture doesn't eeeeven begin to do justice to the blueness of Georgia (I think it was too light in the kitchen for the light blue chalk). She was totally rockin' it Braveheart style.

I had my back turned for 3 minutes, I swear. I turned around to this...someone thought it was a super-great idea [insert dripping sarcasm here] to have a "flour dance."

That brown blob you see on the floor is Ezra. He's literally rolling around in the stuff.

If Ezra looks a little unsure in his "cheese" here, it's because he can see my glowering face staring at him from behind the camera.

We were right in the middle of dinner the other night when Ezra jumped up and said he "had to do something." We were thinkin' along the lines of a potty break. Nope. Turns out he just haaaad to make this to "catch all of his good dreams." I'm sure you can imagine the tape and paper product trail his amateur dream-catcher left behind.

Nobody ever claimed cupcake-making was clean work...
But I like to think that maybe some of this could've been avoided.

I didn't even get a chance to show you Scarlett bathing in the sprinkles. She got some in her eye while aiming for her mouth. I'll be honest...I totally laughed while she whined.
(don't worry grandparents, she blinked it out very quickly, no scratching sensitive eye area occured)

The End.
(well, not really the end of the messes...unfortunately those never seem to go away.)

Monets and Temples and Rednecks, Oh My!

2010-08-19T21:12:00.011-05:00

Spencer and I celebrated our 6th anniversary on August 7th. To celebrate, we drove to St. Louis (about 3 1/2 hrs away) to do sealings in the temple there and then spent the rest of the day hanging out like newlyweds (minus the vast amounts of PDA).

A huge thank you to my mom for coming up early and watching the mowglis (she was coming up to help with Ezra's surgery the following Monday).

This was our first trip to the St. Louis temple and we really enjoyed it. It's a lovely temple (as are they all), but after the nearly 9 hour round-trip drive, I can't even wait to get our own in north Kansas City a mere 40 minutes away.

As I was too absent-minded to take a picture in front of the temple, you get these instead. No, I didn't take these, but I wanted to give you a chance to see how lovely the St. Louis temple is. Go here for lots more beautiful photos.

After we got done with the sealings we picked up some lunch and headed over to the St. Louis Art Museum. It was totally Spencer's idea to spend our anniversary wandering around, looking at old paintings...does my husband know me or what? :)

Overall, I was really impressed with the SLAM. First off, it was free. I suppose they kind of have to be since they have the motto, "Dedicated to Art and Free to All" chiseled over the massive front entryway. Inside...*happy sigh*...I was in heaven. Absolute bliss. There were works by Monet, Rembrandt, Manet, Warhol, Lichtenstein, a crazy van Gogh and not so crazy van Gogh, Cezanne, Seurat, Rothko, Degas, Gauguin, Giacometti, O'Keeffe, Picasso, and just so, so many more.

It was my first time seeing one of Monet's huge Water Lilies pieces in person and it was absolutely awe-inspiring. You know when you look at a piece and you just...get sucked in. All you can see or think of is the colors and the image; you're practically breathing in the piece, drowning in it. Well, that's how it was. I walked away from the SLAM remembering why it was that I spent my entire time in college studying Art History. When I'm around art, I feel as if I simply can't live without it...but this post isn't supposed to be about art, it's supposed to be about my anniversary, so I'll now show you some pictures of my husband to even up the score.

Cute picture of Spencer in front of the museum grounds.

A very little Spencer in front of the very big museum entrance

Whitney in front of the fountains

On the front steps

After we were done with the museum we walked around the grounds a bit. While they were lovely, I'll still take the Kansas City Sculpture Park (attached to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) any day.

On the bridge

Token kissing picture

We went out to dinner at Fitz's, a fun little burger joint that makes and bottles the best root beer (if you've ever been to the previously mentioned Route 66's Pops, I know they for sure sell it).

While I didn't get any pictures of us there, I did, however, snap one of the restaurant across the street. Apparently, it's a Mac 'n' Cheese shop. How funny is that?

This one is for, you Grey Grey.

After dinner, we started the long drive home, just enjoying the silence radiating from the back seat.

I love you, my dear. Thank you for making me happier then I could have ever hoped for.

I normally would end there. However, Spencer would be entirely disappointed if I didn't include the highlight of his evening. Seeing this beauty pull up next to us in the gas station, I'm pretty sure it was obvious to all that we were officially in Redneck Country.

While I didn't notice it at first, Spencer quickly pointed out to me the absurdity of a station wagon pulling a trailer much longer then itself. The coup de grace?...

The fact that the back wheels weren't even touching the ground.

The End.

ya know, like the band.

2010-08-16T08:18:00.005-05:00

The other day Spence and I came up with a thought that we couldn't help snickering at...

Want to know what would make us the meanest/funniest parents in the world?

Buying Georgia a Better Than Ezra t-shirt.

ya know, like the band.

2010-08-11T23:37:00.005-05:00

Sorry for the mini-hiatus, loyal readers (although looking at my lack of comments on my last post, I'm beginning to wonder just how loyal y'all are...), but there's been a lot going on in our little corner of the world. Ezra got his tonsils and adenoids out on Monday. While the overall recovery is going a bit better then expected, there's still mountains of popsicles to eat and Loratab to force-feed around the clock. I'll be checking back in hopefully sooner rather then later.

Idaho and other random tidbits of life

2010-08-03T13:49:00.011-05:00

We got a new computer last week...and we forgot to take off everything before we unplugged the old beast...which means that I don't have any of our more recent pictures, since I oddly downloaded and erased everything off my camera (highly unusual, I know). So, you only get the (very few) pics I took while in Idaho visiting family. I'll have to do a catch-up later.

I've come to realize that I'm not too much of a picture taker. As I watched some of my fellow reunioners (yup, made up word right there) struggle to get their children to pose and smile for pictures or lurk around looking for that Perfect Shot, it occurred to me that I'm just not one of them. I would much rather sit back and enjoy the moment then stress myself out trying to coax my children into a spontaneous photo shoot. Don't get me wrong, I love the pictures I do get, I just find that I rarely exert the effort and stress needed to get absolutely wonderful photos. Then again, I'm lazy like that.

So, these were the two (count 'em: 1...2) pictures I managed to take at the big family picnic, neither of which were particularly good, I might add:

Luckily, I pulled out the camera a bit more often when we managed to squeeze away from my side of things to meet up with Spencer's family in Bountiful (they were nice enough to drive 2+ hours just to spend the day with us).

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the dress-ups!

The world is a better place when bubbles are involved

The event of Georgia's day? Throwing grass on Uncle Isaac

Aunt Leslie and Scarlett

Ezra and Grandma

We all fell in love with this cool little shake and burger joint we stumbled across

So there's your Idaho update, folks. Sorry for the lack of pictures, but as I warned earlier, I'm not always much of a picture-taker. Apologies also that the post is a little Scarlett-heavy, however, as Pinkalicious's mommy reminds us, "You get what you get and you don't get upset."

Here's a few other random tidbits of life for y'all...

This afternoon Georgie was playing superheroes. After zooming around for a while fighting fires and conquering evil, she plopped down, cape intact, and informed me that Super Georgia was now going to make rolls. I couldn't help but smile 'cause, you know, "the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world."

As a follow-up to my recent exercise post, last week I started to run. I get up at 6:30 in the morning and run for 1.5-2 miles, 3-4 days a week. I was already getting up at 7:00 with the kids most days and I realized that getting up half an hour earlier a few days a week wasn't going kill me. So, I made like Nike and just did it. To be honest, I was really expecting it to go badly. Reeeeally, truly horrible, in fact. You see, my entire life I've abhorred running. H.a.t.e.d. it. The last time I ran even semi-regularly was gym class in 8th grade and it was not a pleasant experience, to say the least. This time, however...not so much. It's odd, it's like my body kinda sorta likes it. It's really been going great, actually. I went out and bought some running shorts the other day to make sure I stick with it ('cause the guilt will get to me otherwise) and I'm really hoping I do, if for nothing else then the stolen Me Time running squeezes in. As for now, in the famous words of Monty Python, "I'm not dead yet."

In response to last week's purse post, I've been asked to provide a picture of the bag I actually did get recently, versus the bags I just dream about. Despite my adulterous day dreams, I really do love my new purse. It's mildly flamboyant and oh-so-me. While it might not make the angels sing, it at least deserves a heartfelt rendition of Stevie Wonder's Isn't She Lovely.

Here's a random thought to end with: Today I found freezer jam in my pantry and a couple of days ago I found melting butter on my entertainment center. I think it's safe to say I'm a little scattered. Three (very) small mowglis will do that to you.

a girl can dream

2010-07-30T10:23:00.011-05:00

Is this not the most beautiful bag ever?

I just bought a much-needed new purse the other day and when I stumbled across this lovely vision online this morning, I was actually a little bummed for fear that I bought the wrong bag. Luckily, I soon realized that Lockheart's dreamy Cut It Out Candice Hobo was an astounding $555 and (also fortunately) no longer available.

While drooling over the Candice Hobo, I was distracted by this dreamy thing...

While slightly more affordable (hah!) at a mere $345, Lockheart's Victoria Jeweled Leather Hobo, is still definitely out of my price range and also no longer available.

...'cause, ya know, they're both sooo last season ;)

So, I took some deep breaths to steady my racing heart and trembling hands (can you blame a girl for feeling a little faint after seeing such stunningly gorgeous fabulousness?) and headed over to Lockheart to see what I could find in this season's collection. And ya know what I found? Ready?

Brace yourselves, Ladies...

{sorry that they're mostly all within the same color-range, it's the default setting on the website}

*dreamy sigh*

be still, my heart, be still

{if you want to see even more rampant fabulousness, go here}