28 days

I have 28 days to lose 10 pounds. This is the sweetness that helped contribute to my 'problem'. He makes me so happy though. I can't imagine not having him around. Last night I slipped into the bathroom and in seconds here he comes pushes open the door and pops his little super grinning face inside. He had his tongue half out of his head and just laughing so much he could barely crawl. He loves to go in the bathroom. I think it must be a magical place to him because we always keep the door closed so he won't go fishing in the toilet. So, when he gets inside it makes him sooooooo happy! I love how he looks in this little sleeper that my mom got him for Christmas. I love watching him crawl- his little bum waggles back and forth- back and forth- and he is so fast. I just love having babies around- as tiring as it is. I hope upon hopes I get to have more kids!!! I am terrified of having another baby in North Cackalacky. I am so glad my husband works so hard so I can stay home and enjoy my kids- which I don't do enough of. Some days I think back to when I was in college and I could take a nap anytime I wanted to- or I could go exercise any time I wanted to. Then I think about how lonely it was. I had friends, but they were usually involved with their boyfriends or studying- which I didn't do much of either (hint, hint Red :) Now, I have a husband and all my babies to eat dinner with me, go to the grocery store with me, go on walks with me, and yes, wake me up at night. BUT-Ezra has finally started sleeping through the night just after one not so great night of Jeebs and me sleeping in the living room. I love how I get him out of his crib in the morning and he clamps on to nurse and holds on like he hasn't eaten anything in YEARS :) Then as soon as he's done having his morning 'big gulp' he immediately smiles his big grin and starts crawling all over our bed looking for something else to put his mouth on. Then after a few minutes or seconds he wants another morning snack and acts like he's starving to death. It's hilarious. I just love him- worth all the horribleness that was his birth.

Family Olympics FHE

Since I blogged about our total failure of an FHE, I wanted to blog about our totally successful family Olympics. I stole the idea from another blog- since our snow melted too fast we had to opt for indoor (it was raining too) snowless activities. We had the headstand hold, block stacking, jingle bell walk, jog skiing, coinslide curling, and the glovey kiss challenge. Taylor and I made medals- and Tates painted an Olympic sign. She had already painted one for me for my sing time activity at church so she is a pro now :) So, after we had a short lesson and passed the Olympic flame- the games were OPEN! We started with headstand hold- no pics of that because it was a pretty short event and I had to hold feet and jeebs had to hold the baby :) So next came block stacking...


Then- the jingle bell walk... They had to walk through the lines of yarn blindfolded- the bells were supposed to jingle when they touched the yarn, but the bells weren't sensitive enough...oh well it was still fun.

Next, Coinslide Curling- This was Jeebs' idea and I thought it was so creative. He put his laser level on the shelf next to the table to make a line on the table. They each had 3 quarters to slide along the table to see how close they could get to the line. This is Cagey just after he slid his quarter- I think he thought if he stuck out his tongue it would stop his coin from sliding off the table :)

Taylor had great focus and concentration...

Then, our last event was the Glovey Kiss Challenge...We started with Jeebs' snowboarding gloves on Cagey, but he couldn't even pick up the kiss soooo we switched to daddy's socks heeheee. This event had a two-fold mission- 1) see how many kisses you could open in a minute and 2) that's how many you get to have for your fhe treat :)Ezra got some medals for being a super cheerleader...then he started eating them so we had to take them off:)


Cagey was very determined- he loves chocolate. It looks like I'm texting or something here, but yo' I'm not! We used Jeebs' phone as a stopwatch :)

After all the medals were awarded and before we had our closing ceremonies we had to snap a pic under the Olympic banner. Jeebs said Olympics needs to be Taylor's next spelling word- but give her a break she's only 7!! She spelled family right :) (no homeschool comments :) I love how Taylor is all excited- Ezra is just thinking "get the candle", and Cagey is just worried about Ezra getting the candle hehehehe. It was really so much fun. Cagey was genuinely excited for something other than VIDEO GAMES- and that is saying something! Happy Family Home Evening-ing.

If you like taxes you'll LOVE NC

I saw that on a bumper sticker this week and thought it was HILARIOUS. It is so true. This place is ridiculous! In addition to all the regular taxes- we have to pay a CAR tax- not like sales tax when you buy the car- no- like a property tax on your CAR! We are finally getting a refund this year, BUT North Carolina is running low on money to pay out tax refunds so we may not get our refund until April or May! Apparently- people don't like the government having their money, (but they'll cast their ballot for those who openly admit they want to spread YOUR MONEY around) because people who owe don't pay in until April 15th and people who are getting refunds always file early. HMMM the commercial "It's MY money and I want it NOW!" comes to mind. Seriously. Need. My. Money. NOrth Carolina- I think you're cool and all, but your government SUCKS. Texas our Texas all Hail the mighty state! oh excuse me, I was thinking of home :)

What do you do...

when church is canceled and your daughter won't let you play with her hair? You play with your OWN hair :) I used Tater's crimp iron for the first time. I haven't crimped my hair since I was little. Crimping your own hair is hard, by the way. As a side note- I'd much rather play with Tater's hair, but she LOATHES having her hair messed with :(

AND- I can't stop making these stupid little things that I don't know what to do with...
I love the big blue one- it's huge. It would be cute on a skinny person- but let's be honest- everything looks good on skinny people. Sucks to you SKINNY PEOPLE!! Anybody want a stinkin' flower? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?

a white Valentine's Day!

If we couldn't get a white Christmas (or even a cold Christmas) we will take the white Valentine's Day we got!! YAY! it is so pretty. AND- I got out of speaking at church 2 times in a row!! I think it is a sign that I am not SUPPOSED to speak! So- since we're not at church this morning I have time to post some pics and hopefully get to making some more Valentine cards- we'll see.

This is what we woke up to Saturday morning!!
This is down our road...It stuck on the road!! There were snowplows out Friday night when we drove to the airport to take Jeebs' rental car back and I laughed OUT LOUD. There wasn't anything at all falling at that point.

This is the only picture I got of Cagey. He has a little cold and so I didn't want him out in it for too long. Tates went down the road to have a snowball fight with the neighbor kids.

Jeebs made a snowman by himself...I had already made Cagey go in. But, once he calmed down I asked him if he wanted to go out and help daddy make a snowman and he said NO. Crazy kid. OH and this is me giving Jeebs' snowman a wet lickery kiss. I called him our Al Gore snowman- he's sad cuz it's snowing!! hehehehe
The Valentine's presents I put together for the kids. We have a Sunday tradition of having microwave popcorn and watching America's funniest home videos. I finally got them some of these cute popcorn tubs for their popcorn for Sundays. I filled them with stuff from the one spot at Target. (Man, that one spot can drag you in. You think- oh it's just a dollar- then you get it home and realize all that stuff is worth about 50 cents!)
We had a white, relaxing Valentine's Day breakfast. I made homemade bagels and hot chocolate. I tried to make the bagels heart shaped- but they rounded out anyway. Jeebs suggested marion berry jam mixed with cream cheese to spread on them and OH it was good! I made cinnamon sugar, poppy seed and plain. I wish I had asiago cheese to put on them- oh how I love asiago cheese bagels!! maybe next time church is canceled :) Happy Valentine's Day!

Projects

I made this cute little valentine garland really quickly last night because I just love a good Valentine project...and those little red poofs are my attempt at making tulle pom poms. They are not the right color red- but I just wanted to try them with tulle I had on hand.

I have also started making some flowers for me, Tates, and my mom (and whoever else wants one) to wear for my brother's wedding. Their colors are hot pink and black- so I am experimenting with the combination on these flowers. I've just made these three so far- whaddaya think?
I wish I could find some cooler black beads for the centers, but all I got is Walmart right now. And you know!!!! My house is a disaster area- but I can't stop making stuff! AND I have to give my talk on Sunday. Ya know the one I got out of a couple of weeks ago because of weather? Yeah- I have to speak this Sunday because Stake Conference was canceled because of weather!! How crazy is that? But as I type this it is snowing snowing snowing outside and I'm wondering if I'll get lucky twice :) Actually, I hope church is NOT canceled because I really need all the time I can get to teach all the songs the Primary kids are supposed to know. OH stress...some reason I cannot focus enough to write this talk. I have to do it tomorrow though... blagh

Happy Valentine's Day!!

This was kind of the idea I was going for with my Valentine cards. But- these were so cute of Cagey I had to post them too :)

Ezra's scrunchy nose

Taylor used to do this face too. He does this all the time. Especially when his daddy has him and he wants me to get him- he'll smile and scrunch up his nose. I think it is hilarious- part of his magical smiles :)