Friday, February 29, 2008

Flashback Friday

I have a couple reasons for posting today.
#1- It's leap day! I can't pass up an opportunity to blog on Feb 29.
#2- I haven't done a flashback in a very long time. I only have a few oldies scanned into my computer but I think this is a good one. This is me and my dad in October of 1979. We look rather snazzy, don't we? I love the way he is holding onto my hand- so cute. Aren't my shoes classy?


Thursday, February 28, 2008

Odds 'n ends

*Remember the Prince I bought for Sara to accompany her Fairy Barbie? The other day I said something to her about her boy barbie. She was very offended and said, "Mom, he is not a boy Barbie, he is a play boy." Oh my child. Don't be saying that too loudly.

*Taylor cracks us up with the way he pronounces half of what he says. With the death of President Hinckley, there has been a lot of talk around our house about him. His name is like a tongue twister to Taylor and he just can't get it quite right. In his attempts to say "President Hinckley", it almost always comes out sounding like "Heavenly Princkley" and we just have to laugh (without harming his fragile 5-year-old self esteem, of course).

*It appears Livvy has realized that mommy's belly isn't quite like it used to be. Yesterday as I was getting dressed she wandered into my room, reached her little hand up to my belly, started patting it, and kept saying over and over "uh oh, uh oh." Took the words right out of my mouth, kid.

*Yesterday I took all three kids to the grocery store. I know, what was I thinking? I was in a rush so we didn't spend too long picking out a cart. As luck would have it, I grabbed a cart where all three straps/buckles were broken. Seriously? You're killing me people! Fix the straps on your dang carts! It's not like choosing another cart would have solved the problem- I generally find that most of them are broken. I can see if it's a regular cart but a kid cart- for crying out loud- keep up on it! I love when I am shopping and people give me the evil eye because my child is not buckled. Hey, it' s not me, talk to Maceys about fixing their dang carts. Or buggies. Or whatever you call them where you live.

Anyway, the kids were super silly. Not good. Taylor kept jumping down so Sara would follow and then they would push and drag the cart. In the meantime, I had to throw Livvy into the back of the cart because she was too much of a hazard in the front seat. I look over and she is snacking on the apples and ripping apart the broccoli. Fabulous. So then I'm trying to hold her while pushing this whale of a cart with two other kids on it. And to top it off, I'm pregnant- noticeably pregnant. So I'm sure people are like "what is that woman doing having more children?" Right. Don't worry people, I ask myself that same question every day. There is what I like to call, the point of no return, and that is where I am at. Which is totally fine. If I'm not at the grocery store.

So we check out. The kids are trying to empty suckers and candy bottles (bad invention) from the little candy rack conveniently placed right in the check out aisle at their eye level. I manage to move them away from that to stand by the bagger. The bagger kid was exciting for about .3 seconds at which point Taylor decided to teach Sara the ropes of exiting the grocery store while mommy is still paying. Ugh. These kids... We did manage to get out of there with no bodily harm done to the children.

I get home and am emptying out the grocery bags only to find a box of Tylenol Cold Head Congestion. What? I didn't buy this. Or rather I should say, I didn't put this in my cart. It appears I did, in fact, buy it. I was never anywhere near that section of the store. Ahhhh, the joys of shopping with my children. If you are in need of some Tylenol Cold Head Congestion medicine, give me a call. Wouldn't you know it, I have a whole box.

*I gave Taylor a haircut the other night. He hates getting his hair cut. I usually try to cut it pretty short just to avoid doing it so often. You'd think it had never been so short before with the way he reacted to it. "Whoa mom, I look like Uncle Mike" who, yes, has really short hair. And still, it has been a topic of conversation all week. But anyway, the next day, his little friend came over to play and he said to me all amazed, "Mom, River still recognized me even with my hair cut." So I said, "Yes honey, that's because your face is the same." His response, "Oooooh" with a very serious nod of the head. If only all answers were so simple...

Welcome Spring!

I took a little stroll around part of my yard (the part where the snow has actually melted) yesterday and was so happy to see some signs of spring.

I think these are some red tulips making their way out. They look like little crab claws.



And look at the buds on our little Charlie Brown tree! I really thought this tree was going to grow a bit quicker than it is. The guy at the nursery told me not to spend a ton of money on buying a big one because they grow pretty fast. It still looks like a little stick in the mud out there to me.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

in other news

Finally! A little clip in Livvy's hair. This was a covert operation involving a very large bag of craisins. It appears to have worked.


And because I can't resist a cute "cheese" picture of Olivia:

new neighbors

Well, it looks like we have new neighbors across the street. It all started with a big truck coming and delivering a storage pod. The kids were fascinated.



The next thing I hear from Taylor, "Mom, yook, they have a deer." And then from Sara, "Mom, I don't want to kill a reindeer. I hate killing deers." I know it's probably not funny to any of you but it's funny to me. And because my camera is sitting right here in front of me, why not? I took a picture- this involved some seriously stealth photography from the window- heaven forbid they see me taking pictures- then we would like the weird neighbors. Hey, I don't have a dead deer in the back of my truck, wedged between a card table and other misc treasures...



And don't be confused, I can enjoy a dead deer hanging on the wall with the best of em. I do, in fact, have my hunter's safety. I went hunting once and thought it was the most freezing, boring, and tiring (do you know how early hunter's wake up? ugh) experience of my life but I digress... Who can forget Grandpa Jensen's dead deer, adorned with a rudolph nose during the holidays? Or Uncle Alan's zoo (as stated by Jeremiah). I certainly won't forget.

But I do have to wonder about the neighbor's MC Hammer pants... What are those things called anyways?

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Lil chef

Tonight Sara introduced her domestic diva to the family- she helped make dinner. Her eagerness to help make dinner had less to do with actual interest but more to do with the fact that she gets to wear her "cooker" (aka: apron) when she helps in the kitchen. The cuisine was excellent tonight- German Pancakes and Bacon. Fine dining at its best.

She had to hold the mixer with both hands and even then it was wobbling all over the place. I was afraid. But under no circumstances did she want help. She was slightly put out that I didn't let her crack the eggs into the bowl.


Pouring the eggs into the batter:


Batter into pan- Looks like we need to invest a couple cents into a hair net, ya think?



After popping the delicacy in the oven, we had a few minutes to capture this little chump in her "cooker".



Ahhh...isn't she sweet?



And the final product:


The German Pancakes turned out rather nicely- they came out all puffy and eggy, just like they should. Sara took one look at them coming out of the oven and said, "Oh, I don't like to eat those" and then proceeded to eat 4 pieces of bacon for dinner, dipped in syrup. I did make her eat some of this fine cuisine she created- bribery for more pieces of bacon. I should have known this was going to happen because the entire time we were preparing the batter all she could talk about was the bacon in the oven:

"Mom, bacon comes from pigs?"
"I don't like to eat pigs."
"Oooooh, I like bacon."
"When is the bacon going to be done?"

It's the same thing with chicken, the entire time we are preparing it and eating it she talks about how she doesn't like to eat chickens. You wouldn't know that from looking at her plate- she picks out all the chicken and eats it. And she knows that it's chicken- she calls it chicken. Being three must be so confusing.

What do you think?

What do you think of this for a boy blessing outfit?
I think I like it. We didn't bless Taylor in white because everything I could find in good ole' Mississippi was either frilly or plastered with crosses- not my thing. We blessed Taylor in light blue. I figure if I can find something white for this new baby, it would be good. It's from Gymboree and I have a coupon that I can use (score!).