Picture Challenge Days 6 & 7

Last night I had a migraine hit me like a semi truck at about 10 pm.  So, I went to bed before posting.  When I went to go to bed, this is what I found:

 Cute, but seriously?  How the heck am I suppose to sleep in here too?  He's just like his dad!

Yesterday I introduced my 3rd graders to pod casting.  That's what their next project at school is going to be.  I had found some that were LEGO ones.  I showed Nash how to access them & voila:

 I think the kid liked them!

I tried making Parker House Rolls to go with dinner.  My recipes said it made two dozen.  Yea, like 6 dozen later, I was still cutting!  They turned out ok, but they aren't Grandma Allen rolls by any means.  Guess this recipe needs some practice!

When I had Brookelyn in the tub Caleb came in & was entertaining her.  They were really cute together.  I'm actually surprised he listened when I told him he couldn't jump in with her! 

She had some killer hair going on after she got out that I was trying to capture.  Don't mind dorky me.

She's always so sad when I take her out of the tub.  Sister loves the tub!

I started a crocheting project out of the book I put a picture up of the other day.  It's a shawl.  I love this yarn.  My mom had to take it to work to ask one of the ladies she works with how to do the stitch I'm working on now.  This is how far I was last night.  Tonight I'm about +5 rows or so.

These are from today.  I didn't get my ten in (not even close).  After school we had a chiropractor appointment, dance class & a Relay for Life meeting.  Didn't even get home until after 9:30 pm!

Brookelyn still isn't feeling well.  Her fever spiked back up around 4 am this morning.  My mom kept her most of the day today (until she had to work).  She actually took like a 2 hour nap for my mom (that's unheard of - even when she feels well).  I snapped this picture because lately, whenever I put this jacket on her & I remember to put the hood on, she falls asleep fairly quickly.  Not sure if it's because the hood drapes over her eyes and she can't see anything or if it's just because she's plumb tuckered out.  Either way, I think it's adorable.

And last, but not least, my poor pathetic, ewok looking dog.  Charlotte needs groomed so badly!  I bought her a new sweater this fall, but it's a little big on her & she just slips right out of it.  I'm afraid she'll freeze to death if I take her in and get her shaved down!  Guess we'll have to risk it & take her in next week.  I'm not sure how she's not running into walls because her fur is so far up over her eyes!

A special request & Picture Challenge Day 5

Nash's first grade class is learning about letter writing.  Since one form of letter writing is postcards, they are learning about that as well.  His teacher has asked for any postcards we might have at home that they can look at.  They've also asked that if we have family or friends in another state or country if we could have them send the class a postcard.  If you're willing to do it, you would need to address the postcard as follows:

Mrs. Olsen
Canyon Elementary
270 S 1300 E
Hyrum, UT 84319

If you're willing to do it, will you please let me know when you send a postcard their way so I can let his teacher know to watch for it?  Thanks so much for your help!

I'm not too happy with any of the pictures I took today.  Mostly I think it has to do with the lighting.  I do like the lighting in this first picture (it's natural day light).  Guess I'll have to take pictures in more varieties of light to see what I like best.  I'm not sure how much it will change by me changing the setting on my camera. Guess I'll have to play with that too.

I took this first picture while I was waiting for Samantha & Nash to come out of school.  I took it because he was thoroughly entertaining himself.  With what you ask?  With the hole in the knee of his jeans actually.  I could hear him talking about pirates and something about "Matey."  I had to smile.

I only went to work for about an hour and a half today (instead of 6 hours) because Brooke ended up having her fever spike back up and was super sad.  So, we spent the day at home until it was time to go to dance class with Sam.  My mom kept the boys & I took the girls.  When I got back to get the boys, I was eating an M & M cookie.  Brooke was tracking it like a bloodhound.  So, I gave her a taste.  That wasn't enough.  She ended up with half the cookie.  She was so cute with it.  I kept trying to get pictures of the faces she was pulling while she was gnawing on it.

I recently started giving Brooke an occasional sippy cup of water.  The little girl LOVES them!  Not sure if it's because of the cold water or if it's because it's a sippy cup and she thinks she's a big girl now.

Caleb was being goofy and wanted me to take his picture.  I only kept this one because of his hair that's standing straight up in the back.  I actually combed the kid's hair this morning.  Apparently Nash & Caleb hair requires that it be combed in opposite directions.  I can never remember which boy is which direction.  So, after messing with it for a minute I said "Well, that's going to have to do."  Not 3 minutes later after it dried I realized I had combed the wrong direction!  Poor goofy kid went around with his hair like this all day!  Good thing we kinda like him.

I took this one because Brooke was climbing all over Caleb while he was laying down on the floor.  I tried to get a picture of it but she was too quick and got away.  Then she was playing really cute with the wipes.  Nope.  Wasn't fast enough to catch that either!

He had to have a picture with this particular story.  Not sure why.

Nash has been really good to practice the piano whenever I tell him to.  I think he'd actually sit and plink at the thing all day if I'd let him.  He's using the books "Little Mozart."  Sam started with the Bastien series.  The Little Mozart series focuses more on rhythm at first.  Poor Nash is the ONLY kid (so far as I can tell) that wasn't born with a natural rhythm to the music.  It seems to be ingrained in the other 3, but not him.  Maybe that means once he finds his rhythm he'll keep it.  Whereas the others might not use theirs as readily because it's always been there.  Who knows?

Brooke was in her walker right next to Nash the entire time he was practicing.  Have I mentioned how much this little girl ADORES her big brother Nash?  She seriously cannot get enough of him.  It's quite adorable actually.  She was getting her groove on while he practice piano tonight so I had to snap a picture of that.

And last, but not least.  Samantha has finished the primer level in the Bastien books & has moved up to Level 1!  I'm really impressed with how good she's getting.  Now, if I could just get her to practice her flash cards without arguing, I'd be even happier.  She struggles to name the note & identify it on the keyboard.  She can do it, it just takes her a lot longer than it probably should.  Her dad taught her a word trick to remember how to figure out which note is which.  She relies quite heavily on that trick & I think if she'll just do some more drill & kill with the flashcards, she'll get it ingrained into her brain.  I do just fine with the treble clef still.  It's that dang bass clef that kicks my butt.  Perhaps that's why I've had a hard time learning to play piano!

Thought Provoking

A good friend of mine posted this on his blog today with the caption: Why I Write.  I couldn't agree more.  I absolutely loved this and had to share.

Picture Challenge Day 4

 Little sister woke up with a smile on her face today and some serious bed head (look out Nash, you have competition!).  I took her to the dr.'s office this morning because I ended up not having to go into work.  Dr. said Caleb has a sinus infection.  Brooke has a sinus infection AND bronchitis.  Good times.  I have an appointment with our favorite ENT on the 15th of February.  Any bets on just how soon I'm buying pair #10 of ear tubes?

Lately sister keeps getting into this kind of trouble.  Can you see what it is?  Look close at how the chair is connected to the walker.  I have no idea how the little stinker manages to get the chair tipped that far over & hooked onto the spinner on her walker without 1-making the chair crash onto the floor and 2-without making ANY sound!

Caleb got a hold of my camera tonight.  Apparently the camera case is quite fascinating.

At least he managed to get me in a shot!  Don't mind the disaster that is my house!

While I was helping Nash do his reading for his homework, I noticed this:

 Little sister is quite curious these days.  She's figured out how to get around quite well in her little walker.  Luckily, she hasn't been able to figure out how to get over the wood and onto the carpet.  Thankfully we did get our new baby gate & it has already become a permanent fixture at the top of the stairs.  I was trying to catch the look of her complete curiosity.  

Nash is turning into quite a decent little reader.  He doesn't really enjoy it so much, but he endures it.  Too bad.  I wish I could get him to catch the bug.  He does take at least one book to bed with him every night, just like the other two kids.  Those books he enjoys - not really sure if he reads them or just looks at pictures though!

Still listening to Nash read while sister was investigating.

After I caught Caleb with my camera, he tried to disappear.  He has gotten even sassier than usual lately.  I'll tell him something like, "Caleb, please don't.  I don't want to have to spank your bum for not listening again."  To which I hear this type of reply, "Mom.  YOU are not the boss of ME.  I will spank YOUR bum for not listening to ME again."  Great.  I think I've got my work cut out for me!  I've begun to apologize on a daily basis for the way I sassed my mother then entire time I was growing up.  She always said she hoped I got a kid just like me.  Well, thanks mom, here he is:

One brother reading.  One brother trying to hide in the couch.  Sister absorbed in the tv show.  Mom not paying attention.  Destroy paper?  I think so!

Oh!  This one looks good!

With the sinus infection and bronchitis sister has not slept well at all since Thursday night.  I did get her first dose of antibiotics in her this morning.  I've also kept her packed full of ibuprofen & some cold/allergy medicine because the poor girl was sneezing and had itchy, watery eyes like you would not believe.  She's gone from taking at least 1-2 naps a day to taking about 1 20 min. a day.  She's gone from sleeping through the night like a champ & if she did wake up she'd go back to bed quickly with her favorite blanket and a bottle.  To, waking up a million times a night, not wanting anything to do with her bottle and having to be bounced/rocked/held until she falls back asleep.  She finally crashed tonight & when I went in to check on her, I found her like this.  I always worry it hurts her head and then I remember that even with the bumper pads for the other three, they'd figure out a way to push the pad down & have their head rest against the crib bars anyway.

I put the kids to bed just after nine (they were up extra late last night).  I told them they could pick a book but not to stay up too late reading.  At 10 I told Sam, "Lights out within 30 minutes."  At 11, I found this:

And then she tells me, "What?  I'm on my last chapter finally!"  She is her mother's daughter this one.  I will admit that I've stayed up way too long way too many times because I too finally reached the last chapter!

Nash insists on having at least 2 pillows on his bed.  Can you see how far on them his head is?  I had to really look to even find enough of him to take a  picture!  Little stinker!

And finally, let's play "Just how many blankets does one kid need on his bed?"  He has 1-1 flat sheet, 2-2quilts, 3-his I spy quilt, 4-1 fleece blanket, and 5-his rag fleece blanket.  If I go down there before bed, it's highly likely that he'll be laying sideways, not under a single blanket!  Of course, I'd probably have that many blankets on my bed too if I was sleeping in our basement.  It's COLD down there!

Picture Challenge Day 3

 This morning Brookelyn was crawling around the front living room.  She actually  made it quite far on all fours.  (She still prefers the army crawl.)  For some reason or another, she seems to be fascinated with my bookshelf of cookbooks.  She has one in particular that she really loves.  (It's the purple one all the way to the right.)  I think she likes all the Post It notes that stick out of the tops of my cookbooks too!  You can tell by the look on her face that she doesn't feel too hot.  Sister was up half the night last night.  Usually I can just wrap her up in her favorite blanket & give her her bottle and she zonks back out quickly.  Not last night.  Last night I had to hold her & cuddle her & bounce her until she zonked.  She didn't even want anything to do with her bottle.  She only took 1 1 hour nap today too.  Poor girl.  Tomorrow we venture to the ENT.

After I fed her her lunch I was trying to wash her up with a wash rag.  Travis's mom use to call the wash rag "Mr. Sloshy" when he was a kid.  I think she must be getting a few more teeth because man did sister love chewing on a very wet Mr. Sloshy today.

Love this one of both the girls.

Today I broke down & finally made those chocolate octopus cookies that I posted a picture of the other day.  I can give you the recipe, but to be honest, they weren't that great.  I'd just use your favorite sugar cookie recipe & then mold them the way you're suppose to.  The directions said to make the dough & then roll it into a ball & refrigerate for 30-60 minutes.  Then, take the dough out & split it in half & put one half back in the fridge while you work with the first half.  Cut the dough into 5 pieces & roll into sausage link like shapes.  Place sausage link onto pan & lightly press to flatten.  Use a sharp knife to cut four "tentacles" & then spread tentacles apart.  It said to make the tentacles so they weren't pointy & I tried to make sure that the first & last tentacles "boofed" out so that it looked like it was floating in water.

After the octopuses cook & cool, use frosting to adhere m & m eyes.  You can see some of mine look more like hands than octopuses.  Oh well, we had fun (even if they didn't taste too great).

 We went down to my parents' house for the Super Bowl.  There was all kinds of good food.  Little sister LOVED her potato skins.  She didn't even wait for a spoon, she just grabbed the whole thing & stuffed it into her mouth!  Silly girl!

I let Uncle Zacc & Scott dye Sam's hair with kool-ade.  She was SOOO excited.  They used a red & purple.  I think the purple looked blue when it was done.  She was so bummed when I told her she couldn't wear her hair colored red & blue to school tomorrow.  So, when we got home we washed it out.  Now it just looks like she has a bunch of red highlights!  I told Uncle Zacc that he can dye it for real on the last day of school.  Sam's already early awaiting that day!

The kids had fun playing with Grandpa Larry at the Super Bowl party tonight.  Grandpa made a good pony & was playing horse ride & dog pile.  He finally had to quit because he was getting winded!  My kids would have gone on all night long if he had let them!

There's something bugging me that I just have to get off my chest.  I'm sure no one really cares, but in order for me to get it out of my system so I can sleep tonight, I must write it down!
Back in about Sept. I wrote about how someone in the family had left me a msg on my phone accusing me of all sorts of things & telling me that I'm a terrible mother, etc.  Well, this person finally apologized for her actions on Christmas Day.  I told her I forgave her.  I told her this because quite frankly, I had.  I was over it & had moved on.  I no longer had a single ounce of respect for this person, nor did I like her that much, but I said I forgave her.  Travis forgave her too (he had told her she was no longer welcome at our home, etc. because of the things she was saying & doing).  Since Christmas when she apologized, I haven't really thought much about what happened.  I have however thought about how much I really don't like her and I really don't want to be around her.  Nor do I want her around my children.  I still have no respect for her because of her previous actions and I don't believe she will ever change (mostly because I don't think she wants to).  Granted, she's a part of the family, but I can choose who I spend my time with.  Well, I found out today that she finally married into the family within the last week.  To me, that doesn't change how I feel about her.  She's still the same person.  The only difference is they have a piece of paper to make it official after living as a married couple for the previous six years.  I told Travis that it didn't change my opinion of her & I still don't want anything to do with her.  He thinks I'm being petty & that I haven't really forgiven her & that I need to learn to be more like Jesus.  Really?  I told him I couldn't believe we were actually having that conversation.  After the way this person has talked about & treated his grandmothers, his mother, his sister, his wife & his children, he was choosing to stick up for her?  Really?  Ok.  Fine.  Whatever.  I realize I'm not being very Christlike.  I really have forgiven her though.  I don't care that she said what she said all those months ago.  I know I'm not the person she accused me of being.  It's that I've had her not in my life since September & it's allowed me to think about what kind of person she is & what kind of example she sets for not only her own children, but mine as well.  I don't want my kids around that.  I don't want to be around that myself.  To me, it's about choices, not forgiveness.  I forgave her, I'm choosing not to continue a relationship with her.  I don't want my kids thinking that it's ok to treat people the way this person does.  Being around her makes me onery & bitter because I remember the way she's treated the family & the consequences of such for everyone in the family.  Is it wrong that I don't want to associate with her?  I don't think so, but apparently my husband does.  I guess I need to work on being more Christlike.  Who doesn't though, right?