It's Almost Christmas!!

Where has the time gone? I haven't even begun to do my shopping! We had a crazy two weeks with Micah being out of town and me trying to survive with three little kids. We had a pretty good time, although they felt the need to be especially naughty.

One day was particularly bad. Let's just say it involved two bottles of baby powder being "puffed" all over the upstairs...what a mess, an impending blizzard, markers, trying to cook for the church party and a baby with an ear infection. I can't even remember what else happened as I have completely blocked it from my mind. BUT, I did get pictures of the marker incident. By that time in the day so many things had gone crazy that I couldn't get mad or I might not have recovered. I was in the kitchen frantically making soup for the ward christmas party when my boys came in and showed me their handiwork. They had decided to make themselves into avatars. They were so proud! And Porter kept dancing around with his hands going in and out saying, "weapons, weapons." I don't let them watch this show, but obviously they have seen it somewhere. They all had lines drawn through their hair down to their necks.
And here are a few cute pictures of them in Holiday gear. I was trying to get a good picture but they didn't really want to cooperate.
Harmon is always photogenic and usually will cooperate. It must be a first child so I took gobs of photographs of him and then nobody else thing.


Notice the naughty look they are giving each other. They were so tickled with themselves for making such naughty silly faces. That was a fun moment to capture. The conspiracy begins!

WE MISS AUNT SERENA!!!

Micah's sister, Serena, came to visit for 2 1/2 weeks. She is a brave soul to leave her single, carefree (from my perspective ;) LOL!!) life and come and spend so much time in a crazy household dictated by three crazy kids. Okay, so mostly it revolves around Micah...he's so high maintenance! Yah right. Anyway, we had lots of fun with her and she is a wonderful houseguest to have. She was lots of help in tending the kids, making sure they were in line and listening to their mother. Porter was sassing me one day and she told Porter that he needed to say "Yes, Ma'am" (raised in the South) and Porter looked at me with his big eyes and said, "yes, mommy." Too funny.

She was happy sitting at home with us...which let's face it...being a stay at home mom is not glamorous. There is a lot of dishes, dinner, sweeping, wiping hineys, and laundry to be constantly doing. An exciting outing is going to the grocery store. She gladly did the dishes many nights, unfortunately, her fingernails paid the price of lots of soapy water. She is such a fun companion to have around. Always willing to help and always laughing. She has a great sense of humor. So here is a post dedicated to Serena! We love Aunt Serena and hope that she will come back to see us again soon! She even decorates trees!!! While I sat on my behind holding a fussy baby. Lucky me!!

Sitting in the snow with Harmon and his hat hair. I tried to comb his hair one day for school and he told me it wasn't necessary, that everyone at school had crazy hair.

Missouri River

Ft Mandan is located on the Missouri River. It is a replica of the fort that Lewis and Clark stayed in during their first winter while crossing the United States. It was a cool exhibit.

Sitting on some Buffalo skins in a bunk at Fort Mandan.

Serena likes hanging with the little kids...she's like a grown 5 year old! :)

Helping Porter up the big hill.



Serena and the boys on a frozen pond...there was no way I was gonna go out on that!!



Another frozen pond...scary!




Oh...the love!!


Brother and sister...and brother and sister!!



A FAMILY PHOTO!! AMAZING!! That never happens around here.
The secret to her way with kids???? BRIBERY!!!

Updates

Micah's sister, Serena, has been visiting and she is keeping a great record of our latest happenings. So, check out her blog here. She will be here until the end of the week and she has been updating daily.

Make it a DOUBLE!

A double what, you ask? Well, it's gonna be a double diet coke day. Yesterday we were enjoying Veteran's day together as family. We went to town, ran a few errands and then came home to a suspicious smell. The sewer drain had backed up into our basement and the neighbors. Needless to say, it was a bit poopy. Now I get to spend my day cleaning...my favorite thing to do! Actually the housing maintenance guy did a great job sanitizing the floor and cleaning up. Apparently some roots had grown into the pipes and there was a tremendous root ball that he had to clear out. He spent 6 hours here yesterday and said that he had never seen anything like it.

We live on the AF base and our house is scheduled to be demoed sometime in the next 2 years. It is pretty old (no dishwasher!!) but has lots of charm and great windows. I really do like living here...most days. Anyway, our house is quite small or maybe we just have too much crap (i'm on a roll with the puns) and we have all of our kids toys down in the basement. I feel like I need to sanitize all of their toys, mop everywhere and clean all of the door handles, etc. Gross huh!

The good thing is that Micah's sister is coming to visit today. She is coming from Orlando and we are very excited to see her. The bad news? I didn't clean up my house too much because kids undo everything within a matter of minutes. So I had procrastinated thinking that I would have lots of time today. Nope. Oh well.

Two things I discovered during this experience. One, you don't realize how much you'd like to make a visit to the bathroom (i.e. poop) until you can't actually go in and do the deed. Two, you don't realize how scared you are to actually poop in your own toilet when you've just seen the whole neighborhood's business down in your basement. Is anyone dry heaving yet? Ha! Ha! I totally just made myself laugh.

In lieu of sympathy cards just send me some good chocolate or a diet coke!

Baby Barf and Blogs

I love everyone's blogs. They are so fun to look at and read. I was sitting here checking up on everyone's latest happenings. Cute Halloween pictures everyone. Ella is fussy and tired, the poor thing needs a nap. She's also gotten quite grabby. She kept grabbing at the laptop so I put her up on my shoulders and was holding her with one hand while I navigated with the other hand. Then she puked in my hair. GROSS!! I mean, come on, I am gonna stink all day now. It's not like I can run upstairs and take a shower. And I certainly can't get away from myself.

Double barf. Porter just came downstairs naked from the waist down, holding his pants and a package of wipes. You know what that means. Now I get to wipe his bottom. Oh the glamorous life of a stay at home mom.

Halloween

No, this isn't Porter's Halloween costume. This is Porter's pajamas. I was upstairs when I heard the front door slam. Porter went outside and was "working" on the four-wheeler. I love the safety glasses. I wish he were a genius mechanic then maybe this thing would actually run.




Porter was Mater, although at the ward trunk or treat he was Lightening, Ella was a butterfly, and Harmon was Optimus Prime.

Sunglasses, Soccer and Laundry Baskets

Just a couple of random pictures. They make me laugh, so I thought I would share.







Porter slept like this all night. I found him in the morning.

Harmon is out there kicking the ball.

A Hike at the Nature Preserve

Here are some cute pictures from a few weeks ago. We went to a wildlife reserve and went on a little hike. It was a beautiful day and the boys thought it was a lot of fun. I found a little leopard frog and the boys were a bit skittish at first. I had to convince them that it was okay to hold it.







Several of the trees had wire mesh around the trunks. We couldn't quite figure out why until we saw this beaver log. It was really fun to see how busy the beaver had been.



Cute little Ella with her little hat on.

The scary frog!

My three cute boys.

Flower

Yes, I did make the flower in Ella's hair. She has a bunch of them. I LOVE them, they are just too stinking cute! They are as big as her head, but so adoreable...and super easy to make.

Cutest Baby EVER!

Today Ella was especially cute. I know every mother is in love with their baby, but seriously, she was SUPER cute today. I bought this dress for her when she was almost 3 weeks old. It is so cute! I wish it would fit her for a few years instead of a few weeks. Oh well, here are some pretty pictures of Ella taken yesterday. She is 5 1/2 mos old.
What can I say? She's learning early.




Miss Pretty lips.






I LOVE the smocking on this dress. Someone at church commented that I must really be enjoying have a girl after two boys. Yep...




I thought this picture was so cute, and she just happened to look down when I snapped the pic.





Ella and her daddy.




This pic is for Aunt Serena. Porter was serenading her. He is quite the little singer now.


Okay, so she might not be the cutest baby ever, but boy are we in love with her!

More Poop

I have been endeavoring to create a "lifestyle change" for myself....i.e. I've been dieting. But today I started out with a mouthful of chocolate chips and a diet coke.
What does that tell you? That tells you that I am surfing the net instead of cleaning my house or exercising. :)

Leaches

Ella is 5 1/2 months old...she doesn't really take a bottle. Who am I kidding? She thinks bottles are crap. She doesn't take a bottle unless it is breast milk and even then she is less than thrilled with it. I am getting tired of breastfeeding. Sometimes it is great and I think I can do it forever. Other times I am pretty tired of being so tied down. I definitely am not going to be one of those people that can nurse their children until they are 5. Eww...definitely not for me. Anyone else feel like you have a big leach attached to you, sucking all your brain cells, energy and....and...oh, rats, I can't even remember what else I have to lose? It's all been sucked out of me. Just thought I'd share.

Oh, and one other thought. Whoever said that breastfeeding burns like 500 extra calories a day did not have my metabolism. And another confession...I can't wait until Ella gets teeth. That first bite and she is getting cut off! I'm just saying....no thank you!

Chicken Tail and Bee Stings

I am on a food roll tonight. Just had these two funny stories from my boys. Harmon has started to realize that there is different kinds of meat and that these different meats come from different animals. He thinks it is really funny to say we are eating "pig" instead of pork or ham. This is how our conversation at dinner went.

H: What kind of meat is this?

Me: Chicken.

H: Like a real chicken?

Me: Yep.

H: Oh! I just ate chicken tail! (said with excitment)

Me: What? (laughing hysterically)

H: Well, it was curved at the end, and I know that Chickens have tails...right?

I then explained it was just curled from cooking. I had cut some chicken breast into strips. This is how the rest of the conversation went.

Me: Well, we don't really eat chicken tail, I usually only cook chicken breast.

H: (With a horrifed look on his face...keep in mind that I am breast feeding and he's recently figured out what "breasts" are and he's reached that age where anything remotely lovey dovey is embarrasing.) What? Chicken breast?

Micah and I are trying to keep a straight face at this point. Then Micah puffs his huge chest up, thumps it, and says: "Yah, it's this part, it's the biggest part of their body and it is right next to chicken wings and chicken drumsticks."

Micah loves chicken wings.


Story #2

Porter has potty trained recently (HALLELUJAH!) and he has been a dream potty trainer...most of the time. A few days ago he was getting ready to take a bath and kept scratching his bottom. It was grossing me out and I was trying to impress upon him that there are a lot of germs in your bum and that you shouldn't scratch it. Then it occurred to me that he might have gone poop by himself and didn't ask for help wiping. This is how our conversation went:

Me: Porter, did you go poop and wipe all by yourself?

P: Nods his head yes.

Me: Well you need me to help you because you probably didn't get your bottom clean enough and now it is making your bum hurt.

P: Nooooo, I just have a bug bite.

Me: Really? What kind of bug bite? (yah right)

P: Just a little bee sting. While I was on the trampoline (the neighbor's) a little bee came and flew up my pants and into my underwear and just left a little bit of honey in my bum and then he bit me!

Me: Ohhhh, a little bit of honey, huh? (Eww...gross!)

P: Nods his head.

Me: Well that must be it, now let me clean your bum.


Moral of the story...chicken tail is TASTY and watch out for bum loving bees.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

So, I've been trying to watch what I have been eating. I even joined a class here at the base and challenged some family members to a biggest loser contest. I've made some good progress. I shared this with my family members and decided to share it with the rest of the big world wide web...i.e. cousins and friends who actually read this crazy stuff.

Who doesn't love a good chocolate chip cookie? I have been making some with whole wheat flour. They are pretty tasty and I have only had one here and there. Until tonight. It was Enrichment and the topic was emergency supplies. We had a guest speaker discuss 72 hr kits and then we made a little first aid kit in a bag. Before we started all that fun stuff they had a "spotlight" moment. Guess who it was...yours truly. So they told some funny things about me and then gave me a cute little basket with halloween socks for Ella, cookies and red candles. Yep...I said COOKIES. CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!! The refreshments were ice cream and brownies. So I had a tiny sliver of brownie and called it good. I felt pretty proud of myself. Then somehow on the way home from Enrichment I decided to eat 5 (gasp) cookies. It was that nasty fat troll sitting in my passenger seat. You know, the one that is invisible and only comes out when you are all alone and no one can actually see what you are eating. I swear they just stuff things down your throat. Anyway....

A few weeks ago this might have given me a little buzz or that nice carbohydrate euphoria. But not tonight. You know that one episode that they have every season during the Biggest Loser? It's the one were some idiot decides to gorge themselves on a fatty nasty treat that they use to eat all the time. And then what happens? We get to see them puking their guts out. Well you know what? I'd really like to puke my guts out right now. I feel so sick to my stomach and I HATE to puke. I will do anything to avoid puking....oh but what I wouldn't do for an hour of Fear Factor right now. That show could always make me gag. Nate...Aaron...where are your hunting pictures when I need them? I am in serious pain here. Oh the agony....and the worst part? I didn't even feel any of that nice carbo high. I just feel like barfing. Guess it's gonna be a while before I gorge myself again. Blah! I should add that they did taste tasty going down.

July TLF

Here are some pictures from July while we were in temporary lodging awaiting our house. Ella is almost 3 months old in these pictures. She looks so little! They grow way too fast. These pictures are mostly for my benefit. I love my beautiful children!



I love Porter's brown eyes. He looks so cute here!





I call this picture "the squeeze." Poor Ella is always getting manhandled. I guess that is what being a young sibling is all about.





Tiny Ella. She looks so little.


I love this phase when they are learning to smile. So precious.





Harmon is our ham. He thinks it is great fun to make funny pictures for the camera. Today is picture day at school. I hope he doesn't pull any of these faces!


And one more of Porter smiling.