Happy Birthday Dear Justin

Happy birthday to you. 26 never looked so good. Now that we're the same age again, you can stop teasing me that I'm so old.

It's New Year's Eve and I can't decide if I'm going to say twenty-ten or two-thousand-ten. The pressure is starting to get to me.

Mouse Update

Justin caught 2 more mice in traps so the body count is now at 4.

But that was last week so we are 7 days mice free.

Merry Christmas.

Sarah the Bull

I think the red eye adds to this picture so I left it.

The dried food on the face doesn't hurt either. Have I mentioned I love one-year-olds?

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Nothing gets me in the Christmas spirit like finding a good deal.

Or should I say steal?

Fisher Price Little People Farm. $35 at Walmart.

Fisher Price Chatter Phone. $8 at Toys R Us.

I bought both for $20 from some lady in Provo.

Pottery Barn Kids Puffy Dollhouse. Online for $49.00 (Seriously)

We bought this last summer at a yard sale in Mapleton.

$5 (Seriously)

Our tree looks a little different this year than in years past. First, there are no presents under the tree. We figure they wouldn't stay wrapped for very long.

Second, ornaments have a 2-foot clearance from the bottom of the tree. We figure they wouldn't stay on for very long.

We do have the additions of these classic Winnie the Pooh ornaments. They came from my mom's house and are older than me.

And this ginormous turquoise jingle bell. Sarah picked it out.

This impressive poster also came from my mom's house. Sarah has to pat Pooh every time we pass it.

And this is just because I think she's pretty.

Where Mice Go To Die

Yesterday I found a dead mouse in my washing machine. That's the 2nd one in 3 weeks for those of you keeping track.

(File photo. There is no mouse in this washer)

Fortunately I realized what it was before I touched it this time. (There is not water hot enough or anti-bacterial soap strong enough to feel clean, let me tell you.)

Of course, I did the first thing women do when they encounter dead things--they keep their curious children away and call their husbands .

"What would you do if I was away on a business trip, you're out of underwear and I'll be gone for 4 more days?" he asked, as if I hadn't already contemplated worse-case scenarios on my run up the stairs to the phone.

"Call our home teacher," I replied without the tiniest bit of hesitancy. Other possible options would be to go buy more underwear, go to a laundry mat, or buy a new washer and have the store haul off the mouse casket one. All of those things would happen before I would touch anything touching that mouse.

Justin wanted some sort of payback for taking care of another dead mouse (the first one's head had to be loosened from underneath the agitator). But since I shoveled his side of the driveway for the second day in a row and was visibly shaken, he just took care of it. He's really nice. Teases until he's nice, but nice in the end.

You missed out Bro. Smith, it could have been you.

One dead mouse in the washer can be a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. Twice in one month is cause for outright fear every time I go down there and lift the lid.

I was afraid of live mice living in my washer and dryer before. I kept them closed all the time and still feared of interrupting animal FHE in there.

Irrational paranoia is one thing. Experiential paranoia is quite another. I don't know how long I can live like this.

***No, I don't know how they get in there and how they die. And yes, I run a load of hot water and Lysol before washing my clothes.***

Sarah's Quiet Book

This book is for Sarah for Christmas. I started it Conference weekend and finished it last week. It turned out better than I thought. I got some ideas googling other quiet book images but mostly I just made it up and drew them myself or traced out of coloring books.

Total cost: $25 (ish) It helps to have a mom with 40 years of sewing/craft stuff.

Total time: 100+ hours (felt like it anyway)

I had a lot of fun making it. And I am addicted to hand embroidery. If you can draw it, you can embroider it. I hope the pictures capture the fine embroidered details. I learned that you only need the rough side of velcro. Felt has enough texture to hold to it just fine.

Here is the inside. Every page represents a month of the year, starting with January.

January and February

Get dressed to go outside. Build a snowman (all the snowman parts velcro to the page).

Hat, boots, gloves, coat, snowpants store in the pocket and then dress like a paperdoll.

March and April

Match the kite colors. Put the umbrella together like a puzzle.

May and June

Pick the flowers off the buttons. Build your own icecream cone.

July and August

Build a fire and a smore (smore stores in pocket). Animal finger puppets inside the barn.

September and October (My favorites)

Pick the apples off the tree and put in the basket (velcro under each apple). Make a scary pumpkin face (extra set to mix and match). "Boo" is Sarah's favorite word so I had to add it.

November and December

Tic tac toe with pumpkins and leaves. Decorate a Christmas tree (I lied; it's not done. I still need to cut out ornaments but I'm having a creative block).

All the kids in church will want to sit with us.

Thanksgiving and Things

It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without the Turkey Bowl (or Justin has led me to believe). The only pictures I took at the Turkey Bowl were of Sarah. She fell asleep in my arms 10 minutes into the game so my hands were occupied. She loves football just like her dad--likes sleeping during it, that is. Doesn't she look so adorable? I love the coat over pajamas look. It's very big this year.

There was a time when Sarah would pose for pictures. Now she tries to evade me. This was the best I could do.

Sarah and a fraction of her cousins playing cards before dinner. Jaana, Jared, Allison, Kyra, Isabella and Sarah.

I think these pictures capture beautifully our love of food on Thanksgiving.

I've included this picture because Sarah LOVES this nesting doll. My mom has a few of them and Sarah goes straight for them whenever we go into the living room. She mostly likes to eat the baby (sorry for the bite marks, Mom) and she's all about putting little things inside bigger things.

Onto the other things. This is Sarah in her new "big girl" car seat. She's still a few pounds away from facing forward but being upright has opened up an entire new world for her. She can see trees, houses, trucks and stores instead of just ceiling and sky.

She's 13 months now. She has taken a few steps but still isn't all that interested in walking. She laughs when she stands on her own. I don't know if she gets that walking is where she'll be spending the rest of her life. I think she thinks it's just a game I try to get her to play. I still have high hopes of her running down the stairs to the Christmas tree and we've still got time.

She may not walk but her hair is long enough for pigtails! I've been looking forward to this milestone too.

I can't believe how much she's grown up in the past few months. She has gone from being shy and scared of strangers to walking up to people at church, sitting on their laps and eating their snacks. She still loves books but she likes "playing books" rather than me reading to her. She spreads them out, stacks them up, and turns pages.

The other day she crawled upstairs alone and when she while was crawling back down, she had her Winnie the Pooh book in her hands. She'd throw it down a few steps, crawl down to it and then throw it down a few more until she got it all the way down. Then she dragged it over to me and handed it to me. How do I not stop what I'm doing and read to her? So stinkin' cute. But it only lasted for a page and she was off to something else.

Sarah Watching Sarah

This is Sarah watching the video in the previous post. I don't think I am ever this excited to see myself on camera. (And no, I don't do her hair like this for reals so don't worry.)

This day in history: 2008

Back in those days, Sarah was already super fussy even though she was just a few weeks old and I spent all day swinging/bouncing/rocking Sarah. So we took a break and came upstairs to bug Justin while he was doing his homework. A year later, Justin still has homework but Sarah is out by 8 and I get to clean the kitchen!

Story Time

Sarah talks like this all day long. It cracks me up and I find it sooooo adorable.

Sometimes she'll laugh while she's jabbering away so I know whatever she's saying has meaning to her.

Parenting Tip #003

Never leave baby unattended with a bowl full of oatmeal.

Every winter our couch gets super staticky and it drives me crazy. But this year I kind of like it.

This week's cool place to play is behind the kitchen curtains. After I vacuumed up the dead flies in the the bottom, it's more baby friendly.

A Ghoul and Her Pumpkin

I wonder what the carving pumpkin tradition seems like to Sarah. We've had the pumpkin on our porch for a couple of weeks. She liked to pat it and say "pa". Then one night we bring it in, gut it, and cut holes in it and then make her take her picture next to it on two separate occasions.

Safety first.

Don't we just love dads?

What scares you most about the picture below? My crazy smile? Sarah's demon eyes? You'd be wrong though, it's the spirit of the pumpkin leaving its body.

On to Halloween. We tried on her costume earlier that the day. Her response concerned us as to how the evening was going to go.

Once we figured out that she was fine once her hands were free, she did all right. We never could get her to roar, only scream.

"Sit next to this pumpkin dressed like a lion so we can take your picture." Only on Halloween.

Justin smiles with candy greed in his eyes.

We only went to a few houses of people we knew because holding out Sarah's bucket and saying "trick or treat" is awkward.

Speaking of awkward, here's Justin with no neck. But I find his arm placement impressively accurate.