In the middle of the night.

3:00am:
I feel a little body trying to wiggle into bed with me, when my incredibly-heightened sense of smell detects a waft of urine. Blast.
I jump up to dissuade her climbing into bed with me without being "mean." We groggily head to her bedroom. Sure enough, all blankets are soaked. And I mean soaked. Blast.
I give silent gratitude for the plastic sheet covering the mattress. Then I silently curse her top bunk bed position.
I'm frustrated.
I hate changing sheets/blankets in the middle of the night. I hate doing laundry. I know it's not her fault, but it's really hard to not be mad. Especially since she "forgot" to wear her nighttime pull-ups.
I'm really, really frustrated.
But I don't say anything. I just try to hurry and get it done so I can go back to bed. So I don't say a word. Not a single word.

I'm finished. I help her in bed and then start to leave, when I'm stopped by a weak, "Hey, Mom?"
Sigh. Turn around.
"What, sweetheart?" a little more sharply than I intend.
"I love you - more than I ever have."


3:14am:
I'm climbing into bed; my heart is about to burst because I have the greatest kid ever.

Andrea

"I just crack myself up!
[pause]
That's just a saying, Mom."

Thanks for the clarification. ;)

More -isms

Lacie: "I think you'd better come keep an eye on me."

Andrea: "Hey! I see you have a CTR ring."
Lady at church: "That's right. CTR: that means 'choose the right'."
Andrea: "I know. It's an acronym."
(the funny part of this -ism is the look on the lady's face when a 5 yr old so nonchalantly demonstrates that she knows what an acronym is.)

Mom: "Lacie, how'd you get so pretty?"
Lacie: "I ate lots of food."

Lacie: "Hey! Andrea is almost starting to like me now! ... Andrea? Do you like me now? ... Well, even if you don't, I'll still love you."
(rest assured, Andrea likes and loves Lacie as well)

Joke of the Day

by Andrea

What did the sun say when she fell down?

-- I want my mailbox!

Get it? MAIL box.


(yeah, I didn't get it either.)

She's Craf-ty

Well, not really. Wish I were. 

That's why I get so excited when I do something and it actually turns out! 

Lately I've been doing myself a huge dis-service by looking at all these amazing craft-themed blogs and taking a hit to my esteem at each click of the mouse. No kidding, these people are ridiculous. I honestly can't figure out how someone can be so creative & productive AND have time to blog about it! And of course they're all mothers to 8 kids, make gourmet meals (and share their recipes - naturally), and apologize profusely when every hundred pics there is one that shows some semblance of realness in their perfectly kept homes. Sheesh. I have a hard time keeping up with the dishes!

Anyway, so after a few nights of this ritualistic torture I decided I'd better get on the ball and get crafting before my hopes of being a "with-it" mom were dashed to pieces. Here's what I came up with:

Attempt #1: Candyland Cake

This was actually put/thrown together for a fund-raising auction. If I'd taken more time I'm sure I could have done a better job. Oh well.

Attempt #2: "tile" picture

soooo, the original idea said to use tile board. Tile board? Never heard of it. 2 days, 6 craft stores, 3 hardware stores (and not a lot of patience left), later, I gave up and used real tiles. And since I am NOT a patient person, of course the measuring was too bothersome to do perfectly, and well, as you can see, it's not perfect. But I am really pleased at how brilliant the blue turned out. I think that totally saved it.

Oh, a week later I learned in church that tile board is something you can get (and only get) at Provo Craft. In Utah. Of course.

Attempt #3: Menu board

This one I'm actually quite pleased with... finally. I think I worked on this project for an entire week and spent more money than it's worth trying to do it. The original idea was to use chalkboard paint on a metal surface. I didn't have a metal platter, but I did find the frame (which I love!) on clearance. So I tried painting the cardboard backing. Didn't go so well. So I cut out some dry-erase board and painted that. Even worse. Finally a dear friend rescued me by suggesting that I just use the glass as a dry-erase board. Felt kinda stupid for painting the stuff I had! Blast! until I put that blue & white checked paper behind the glass. Now I love it. LOVE. 

Attempt #4: Kids' silhouettes 

These definitely would have turned out better had I not laminated the black. Bad move. But I had printed out pics of the kids, cut them out & painted them, and they were curling like crazy on all the edges. And tape would have looked tacky. Oh well. Ultimately I'd like to put these in shadow-box frames, but for now the kids just love looking at themselves this way. Pretty funny, actually.

Ella!

Last week we were so lucky to get to see our friends, the Davidsons, while they were up here, adding to their family! Hooray!

We had a great time playing with Caleb while he anxiously awaited his sister's arrival. He and Hyrum made quite the pair! They are 2 months apart in age and just loved playing together.

Lacie loved having Caleb here as well. I think poor Caleb got a little too much of her love...

What a great big brother!

We love you, Davidsons! Congratulations!

worth a thousand words

mind you, I'm only about 3 seconds along. this was a "6 day before" test, so technically I haven't even missed my period yet. and though I realize there are risks to announcing so soon, the way my body works I want to get all the credit I can for the sickness, exhaustion & already-expanding waistline (yes, already. some people can't catch a break).

Happy 4th of July!

We are sure grateful for our founding fathers as well as all the brave men & women who have kept our country strong, proud & free. 

In keeping with tradition, we spent our morning watching the City of Irving parade. Wow. Watching that thing, you'd never know we didn't live in a tiny town out in the country somewhere! The floats were mostly sponsored by churches, and we saw more politicians than we did in D.C.! But it's tradition. And we love it. And the kids love the candy. Lots and lots of candy...

Afterwards we went to a nearby park where Hyrum enjoyed watermelon

and the girls got their faces painted.

Too bad we didn't think a little earlier about it being hot, humid, and as soon as the kids got in the car they fell asleep. Do'h.

But they were happy. And Hyrum ended up with a cool balloon.

Hope your day was great!