Brilliant!!

Okay, so these are not the most flattering pics of my kids, but everyone already knows how cute they are, so no biggie. The point of them is to demonstrate my new-and-improved already-brilliant kid food. I guess I have to admit that I did get the idea from a magazine, but the improvement was all mine (even if it was by accident).
So the idea is to use ice cream cones to serve messy foods, like chicken salad. And you can "dress" it up with a funny face made w/ a cherry tomato nose, celery slice eyes, and silly shredded cheese clown hair. Anyway, it's awesome! It's easy to hold, fun to eat, and as long as you don't get sugar-cones, they only have 15 calories each with NO SUGAR! Amazing!
So the new-and-improved idea that I happened upon was when I accidentally bought the tiny-sized cones ("kid sized" said the box). Even better! The kids actually eat way more because they like eating the cones! I love it! Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!

Andrea-ism

(Andrea) "Daddy needs some medicine."
(Net) "What kind of medicine?"
(Andrea) "Some sick medicine."

A bad day

This morning I was reading a friend's blog entry about a very bad day she had. In a comment I posted to her I attempted consolation by relaying my day's bad experience. Little did I know it was only the beginning...
The day didn't start so bad. It was pretty good, actually. By 9:30am we were all up, dressed, fed, and ready for Emily Clark and her son, William, to come over so we could practice (violins). That doesn't happen every day, sadly. And we were actually able to get in some good practice in spite of the demands for juice, water, food, toys, play violins, etc. As things were wrapping up, though, we started talking about how the program that we were playing for would proceed. It wasn't until that moment that I realized the ward Christmas party was going to be the "Jeanette Viehweg show." Ahh! I was putting together and directing 2 of the 3 musical numbers, playing the 3rd musical number, then playing background music for the nativity scene. Then I was supposed to be one of 3 elves in a play where we discuss our concern over Santa being too fat to fit through the chimney. I got to be the one to tell everyone they needed to take diet pills and stop eating Thanksgiving leftovers. Umm..... how did this happen?!
As the panic set in, patient Emily started going over my options and ways in which I could gracefully or not-so-gracefully get out of the different things. And then it was quiet. Too quiet. Emily noticed it first, scared that maybe William had gotten into the Christmas tree room (and therefore ornaments). She checked there while I went into the nursery only to stop dead in my tracks with horror. And then start yelling with horror.
Once again, Andrea decided to change her own poopy diaper. With Lacie's assistance.
Poo was smeared everywhere. Especially on the cream-colored carpet. Needless to say, Emily and William made a speedy exit and the girls spent the next hour in their beds while I stripped the room of all poopy clothes/blankets/binky/juice cup/snow boots and then scrubbed the carpet. Not a happy mama. The following hour I locked myself in the bathroom, using a toothbrush to try to get all the poo off Lacie's new boots, which incidentally have the deepest traction things ever. Nooooot happy. So you can understand my frustration when a few hours later Andrea protested her nap by taking the entire bottle of baby powder and dumping it ALL OVER the room - the room with the wet-ish carpet that I had just scrubbed. Not, not, NOT happy.
I guess everything after that is just icing on the cake -- Lacie draws on the newly-bleached brick I slaved over; Mark comes home sick as a dog; Andrea throws a fit to come with me to mutual then complains the whole time that she's hungry; I can't find my glasses to drive and end up late and blind; I missed opening exercises w/ the YM/YW and therefore my opportunity to go through the song they need to learn -- for Saturday; I miss my favorite tv show.
Okay, so still not as bad as Lisa's, but I'm pretty sure if it all happens again tomorrow I'll quit.

Ummm....

Not sure what to say about this, except typical Andrea. This kid is so funny how she lines up things! Here it's her toys, but she'll do it with DVDs, washcloths, credit cards, etc, etc. It's pretty funny. In fact, here's a picture from about a year ago when she took each letter from the alphabet out of a foam thing we had and put them all on their own individual square of TP.

Santa Baby

Thanksgiving 2

We had decided that since Lex & Nick had just come from Thanksgiving dinner in Austin, and we had just brought back leftovers from the Andersens', and we still had a deep-fried turkey in the fridge from a friend in the ward (who apparently really wants Mark to come work for him!), the idea of another Thanksgiving dinner on Friday was a bit much. So we opted for Saturday. But then we were too tired. So then we figured if it didn't happen Sunday it wasn't going to happen. So we ate that night around 8pm.

Happy Thanksgiving!!



Andrea had a lot of fun with the turkey decorations


Mark making yummy gravy.

Cozy

Yay to Mark who cleaned up the living room (even vacuumed) and then built a nice, cozy fire to enjoy! It was great! The weather has really cooled down to where it finally feels like...well...fall still, but maybe more late fall. I guess it's a start!

"...and Uncle Nick and Aunt Wexye..."

Yay for the Thieles who were able to come up to Dallas for a second round of Thanksgiving! Andrea had been soooo excited for them to come, asking every day for a week if they were coming now. Spencer was so fun! He has grown so much since we last saw him. He was cruising all over the room and playing with the "big kids" like he was one of them. The girls sure loved having him here!


And of course we loved having Nick and Lex with us. Lexye helped me out in RS on Sunday, teaching the women No Golden Carriage, No Bright Toy. Yay! Thank you for that! Oh yeah, and that was after playing Cantique de Noel in Sacrament meeting and I would have made her fill in for my sick ward choir pianist, but Spencer was a little devil and had kept her up all night so we let her rest. (Slacker! jk)



Anyway, we had a great time with them and were all sad to see them go. Especially Andrea. Mark said that night he peeked in on her playing with her toys and she had some of her little puppets in a carriage (from the Weeble-Wobble castle from Rosie & David last Christmas - yes, they still LOVE it!), and then pushed it away while she had other puppets lined up outside the carriage "wave goodbye." Yeah, my kids love you guys.

Sleeping Beauty

So I had put Andrea in sweats and a T-shirt for bed. Later that night I had to sneak into the room to put away some laundry and came across the same pair of sweats and T that I had put on Andrea. Upon further investigation I found that Andrea had other pajamas in mind...

(in case you can't tell, that is her princess leotard w/ built-in Tutu and her new hooded Tweety Bird fleece that she wants to wear, well, everywhere.)

Thanksgiving

Hooray for Thanksgiving!





In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I was thankful this year to have not 1, but 2 Thanksgivings. The first was with the Andersens and Newmans, who are family, and have filled in as family for both Mark and me before and after we were married. So we had a great time this year down at Troy & Delsa's newly and beautifully re-done home. Angela and I had a fun day before making pies (6 pumpkin, 2 lemon meringue, 1 apple ... and then she made 2 more chocolate pecan!), Mark made his yummy creamed corn, we pitched in for cost of food and Oila! Easiest Thanksgiving dinner I've ever 'done!'



And while we were there Andrea made a new friend - Daniel - who apparently enjoyed her as much as she enjoyed him! They were so cute!



Poor Lacie had a headache most the night -- because it took us most the night to figure out what was wrong. Poor kid! But after she got some "good stuff" (I am thankful for pain meds) she was back to her fun self. And then made me the proudest mommy in the room when it was time for prayer and she quietly (and un-promtedly) sat down and folded her arms. Aww!


So after a wonderful dinner and a lot of pie, a couple rounds of Bang and Phase 10, we helped break in Troy's new toy, er, Delsa's birthday present - a 58" plasma. Very, very nice. Made Lord of the Rings a lot more fun to watch, that's for sure!

Tradition

One thing I've been trying really hard to do with my family is make/keep family traditions. It has taken a bit of creativity on my part for some. Others I have gladly gleaned from growing-up - i.e. the "Eating Pumpkin Pie for breakfast on Thanksgiving morning" tradition. Yummm. Thanks Mom & Dad - my kids LOVE this tradition!

Possessive little thing!

It's not unusual that a toddler would think of everything as hers. But it cracks me up when that extends to people as well. Andrea is constantly referring to her friends as 'my kids.' So it really busted me up when we were driving to ward choir practice today and pulled up along-side our neighbors/friends. Andrea exclaimed, "Look! It's my Newmans!"

Andreaism

After church Andrea has been running around, wearing a from nursery that looks like a turkey. When she takes it off I put it on so it doesn't get left or squashed.

(Net) "Andrea, you're such a good kid. I love you."
(Andrea) "I love you too, MamaTurkey."

Dressed to kill...

So we looked more fabulous at the beginning of the night. Hard to tell here. This is after about 4 hours of partying hard on a murder-mystery-filled "cruise-liner." (More pics to come when the hostess develops and sends them.)
It is the year 1914 and Mark (Eldon Dunlop II, ridiculously wealthy American, age 47) and I (Eldon's wife, Candice Dunlop, fashionable flirt, age 21, aka secret government agent who drugged Eldon while gambling in New Orleans and convinced him when he awoke that we had gotten married - all so I could get close to his close, family friend, Secretary of State, Royce Bryce to find out if he was really a spy) were out on a cruise headed for England. Oh yeah, and neither of us knew the other carried a gun. Or who murdered the captain just after he announced Britain and France had declared war on Germany after invading Russia and Belgium. Or if Eldon was part of a gun-smuggling business and trying to 'do me in.'
Good times! Happy Birthday Olivia!

Fun Fashion

Couldn't resist! They have style all of their own!

Prayer problems

So we've been having issues with the blessings we ask over our food lately. Not sure where she got this or why, but if we forget to say "We thank thee for the gospel," Andrea refuses to eat and demands a re-do on the blessing!

Q&A

Question:
What is this?


Answer:
A more-determined-than-skilled Lacie attempt to sneak into the forbidden chocolate milk.

Daddy time

Our girls just love their daddy. It's not hard to see why. Not only does he make them cool playhouses out of large cardboard boxes, but he's one of their favorite playhouse guests!

Working hard

So today was not fun. Did much work. Got a lot done, but my gosh! We spent from sun-up to sun-down raking, scraping, shoveling, bagging, rolling, painting, cutting, caulking, hefting, hauling...and almost bawling that it only put a dent in what it looks like.
I took lots of pics to show "before" and "after" -- but I think I'll wait to post them when the "after" is a bit further along.
But here's my man working hard...

5 Years and Counting...

So most people go out by themselves on their Anniversary. Usually something romantic. Nice restaurant, maybe a getaway somewhere -- something alone. Unless you're us. For the 2nd year in a row now we've celebrated our anniversary by dining out with our kids. Yup - nothing says romance like, "Lacie, get that crayon out of your mouth!" or "Don't knock over that...oh, Andrea!" Oh baby.
Not to bag on anyone in particular. It's not like we didn't start out with more romantic plans. We even had a babysitter lined up. Turns out the flu was to blame. Mark had come home the night before and went straight to bed. Only got up when the home teachers came to give a blessing (which I'm sure was the only reason why he was able to go to work the next day). And tonight he wasn't sure if he was up for anything, but I was not about to cook. So we went out. As for why we didn't keep the babysitter....hmmm...still haven't figured that one out.

Q&A

Q: What's worse than having a sick kid?
A: Having a sick husband.

Q: What's worse than having a sick husband?
A: Having a sick kid and a sick husband.

Q: What's worse than having a sick kid and a sick husband?
A: Having a sick kid, a sick husband and a non-sick kid that wants to play with the sick kid and sick husband and when she can't wants to play with you while you're trying to take care of the sick kid and sick husband.

Q: What's worse than the above stated?
A: Though I'm afraid to find out, check back with me tomorrow; I'm sure I'll have found out by then.

Andreaism

(Andrea) "Mama?"
(Net) "Huh?"
(Andrea) "I'm not 'huh,' I'm Andrea. Mama?"
(Net) "What?"
(Andrea) "I'm not 'what,' I'm Andrea. Mama?"
(Net) "Andrea?"
(Andrea) "Yes?"

Aw, crap

You know those dreams where they just keep getting worse? It's like, around each corner is something scarier? Or the harder you try to run the slower you go? Or your daughter wakes you up because she's upset about her dress covered in poo and then you look down and see that yes, indeed her (new) dress is covered in poo and she is wearing panties instead of a diaper and they, also, are covered in poo, and then you realize that somewhere in the house must be covered in poo as well and so you rush to the bathroom to wash off the poo that is all up her back and find that she had already been there to try to wash her dress and that your younger daughter joined her and is playing in the now-flooded sink spilling poo-water all over the floor and then wants to get in the tub with the first daughter and then they start grabbing all the tub toys and so you're not sure what or whom has poo on it/her so you just start spraying everything with the shower attachment but the girls start bawling because they're scared of it and so you try to do everything fast to get all the poo off before they manage to escape and when they finally do escape, because you're distracted with making sure all the poop remnants actually make it to and down the drain, you follow them into their room and then you see the cause of it all --the poopy diaper on the floor that your daughter took off herself, along with all the wipes and toilet paper she used trying to clean it up herself before she sat on the bed (!!) to put on her panties and her new Rapunzel dress-up dress that cannot be washed (what idiot thought up that idea?!) which was promptly smeared with poo from the panties.
Yeah, I hate that.

Twice fooled shame on me...

You'd think I'd have learned from the other morning's experience that
1: Andrea likes candy
2: Andrea is determined to have candy
3: Andrea is a sneaky-sneak
4: Andrea is quite amazingly ingenious about achieving her designs
So it should have come as no surprise this morning when once again the nursery was littered with candy wrappers and two sticky little girls were bouncing gleefully off the walls.
I guess there are only 2 options left. Either eat all the candy myself or get a vault.

Straight Talk

Remember the whole saying from parents, "This is going to hurt me more than it will hurt you," right before they take a wooden spoon to your behind? Yeah, I never got that as a child. I truly did not believe that it could hurt their hand near as much as it hurt my rear-end. And if it did, why do it? Turns out, I was right. Of course, that's not what was meant at all, but how was I supposed to know that?
I figured for my own kids maybe I'd say it in a way easier to understand like, "I really don't want to spank your bottom..." But the sassy "Then don't!" reply nixed that. So now I've come to the plain old truth:
(Net) "Andrea, lay down. It's time for nap."
(Andrea) "I don't want to take a nap."
(Net) "I'm sorry you don't want to take a nap, but it's still time to take your nap."
5 minutes of arguing later...
(Andrea) "I don't want to take a nap!"
(Net) "Too bad. Lay down!"
(Andrea) "You make me sad!"
(Net) "And I'm going to make you a whole lot more sad if you don't lay down, now lay down!"

Conscience

In Testimony Meeting today, Mark bore his testimony after a few others had borne theirs. When he sat down Andrea looked at me and said, "Mama, it's your turn to say a prayer." She then proceeded to sing Follow the Prophet. Talk about a guilt-trip!

It was bound to happen eventually

I know that I'm a bit of an optimist when it comes to setting that standards bar high -- especially for my poor kids. Some days I have to actually verbalize a reminder to myself how young they are. Even so, I knew that the possibility was out there that one day it could happen. And there would be nothing I could do to stop it. I know it's something you just have to deal with; I remember having to deal with it as a child with younger siblings who did it. And yet, I didn't expect that it would happen so fast. I guess maybe I just wasn't planning on it; or maybe it was wishful hoping? Regardless, it finally happened. Just as I feared it might. And, as feared, I was there to have to deal with it.
It took me completely by surprise. I had no idea. There were bubbles everywhere - conveniently hiding it. And the smell! How had I missed that? My super-sonic-radar-nose hadn't even picked up on it. How did this happen? I even made sure to have each girl at least try before they got in. But it was all to no avail. When the water drained and the bubbles cleared, there it was. And it took me a second to register what had happened before the horror of it all kicked in. But there was no denying it. Ugh! All over! And what to do? Get the kids out or try to take it out? And then, how to handle it? Oh! Gross! It was awful! I can't even go back in there. I can't face the mess left behind. The day had come - someone pooped in the tub.

Daddy's little helper (pics)

Q&A

Question:
What does it mean when Lacie comes into the room with a plastic bead stuck in her ear?
Answer:
That I will be spending the better part of my morning picking up the couple hundred beads Andrea found/spilled out of my craft box.

Playing in the back "yard" (pics)