This is mostly Sarah stuff

Sarah had been begging to play out in the snow for days but there was no way I was going out there when it was 12 degrees. Last Saturday I guilted talked Justin into taking Sarah sledding near his parent's house just for a little while. While she waited for her dad to get ready, Sarah made some snow angels in the back yard.

This picture below is one of my favorite pictures of the whole year. This is after they got back from sledding. Sarah's at that age where it's cool to keep your snow pants on. I was putting up more lights in the living room and Sarah was supposedly looking for the hot chocolate in the cupboard. Then she calls out, "Mom, can you come help me? My finger is stuck." I wish I had a picture of her before I helped her but I'm not that mean and she wasn't that patient. The knife block and platter were laying on her and her finger was stuck between them. She wouldn't let me take a picture until I helped her get her hand unwedged. I freed her hand but wouldn't help her up until I got this picture. "Did you fall?" No. "Why were you laying on the counter?" I don't know. 

It's also the greatest mystery of my year.

Henry as Tinkerbelle. Come over at any time of any day and this ensemble or the cars pajamas below will be on him.

 Hey look! Another picture of my kids wearing pajamas. I just want to point out how similar they can look sometimes.  Makes me wonder if Baby #3 will come from the same mold.

 In addition to the 4 advent calendars in our home, Sarah has been keeping track on her own self-made calendar. She's been making calendars since October and has January's done underneath this one.

 Justin found this blank calendar when I was bossy and made him clean out stuff in the basement. Sarah was ecstatic. She copies down everything I write on my calendar.

One of the many things I love about Sarah's preschool is that they make crafts so I don't have to.  I like making stuff with my kids but more along the lines of cutting out snowflakes and color-by-numbers.

Sarah and I had a tea party at the table since that's the only place I'll let her use real water. Sarah pretended she was a preschool teacher and I was a famous photographer.  It's times like these that kind of freak me out how grown up she's getting. We can have long, complex conversations.

Sarah slipped climbing back up our yard.

 But she's okay.

And the concert last week was amazing, thanks for asking. I didn't looooove the soprano lady's opera style but she was a good performer and was still very entertaining. And we were there the same night as President Monson and President Uchtdorf. Aaand I had a nice time riding Frontrunner up with my parents. It was all our first time on the train and then I got to be tour guide on the Trax train into downtown. Aaaaaand we met Justin right away, ate good Mexican food, saw purdy lights and gave away 4 tickets to some lucky stand-by people. But it was so very, very cold.

I'm sooo looking forward to the next couple of weeks. Art show at BYU with family, dinner and lights at Riverwoods with family, seeing Sarah sing in sacrament meeting, dipping chocolates, making sugar cookies, eating delicious food and playing games, going to a movie or two, watching my kids open presents, going out to eat, my parent's farewell (not the good-bye part but the seeing family part), Justin's 30th birthday, sledding, and Justin not working. We'll probably work on the basement sometime in between all that.

Long Days, Long Nights

Even though the days are super short this time of year, I feel like my days are soooo long. Justin has end-of-year deadlines at work so he's been putting in longer hours every day which means I am too.  It seems after 5 o'clock, my energy crashes while my kids energy just picks up and enters spaz mode and won't listen to a word I say.  It's quite the combination. Oh, and if we go outside, we'll meet our death so that makes keeping sane even more challenging.

We've listened/danced to a lot of Christmas music.  Henry's favorite is "Days of Tissmas" (12 Days of Christmas) Sarah loves "Must Be Santa". They both love running around the living room.

And they love to rearrange the ornaments on the tree. In years past I've tried to even things out every day or so but I've given up. Christmas is for kids, right?

I don't know if it's nesting or the impending construction in my basement but I am hating stuff right now. I've been going through storage totes and throwing tons of stuff away. I think I had 50 pounds of college notebooks tucked away neatly in a box. Why? I don't know. Haven't touched them in 8 years, not going to go through them in the future. Gone. I have to roll my eyes at some of the things from my childhood and elementary school days that I've held on to for this long.  

Cleaning out boxes has worked out great for Sarah. She loves stuff and there's a few stuff from my childhood she is so excited about. (I'm saving a few things to give to her for Christmas.) Every now again she says, "Santa's not real" but when I ask her what makes her think that, she just shrugs and then says something completely opposite  and inaccurate like, "Henry, Santa is coming tonight!" I'm not sure if she has real doubts or is just testing my reaction.

Little Mermaid paint set and Little Mermaid paper dolls circa 1992. Of course I've wrangled Justin into going through his boxes too. He loves that.

This was another sweet find. My little Christmas tree tucked in the depths under the stairs. Sarah has taken it over. Henry calls it the baby tree. And those little houses are from my childhood. My mom let us borrow this village because I love them so. I didn't have an extra strand of lights for them and told Sarah we could use the lights on her tree until I got to the store. I guess this is what she thought I meant.

Speaking of Henry, he loves brownie batter. "This is nummy, Mommy!"

 Yes it is, son, yes it is.

 Sarah wanted her picture taken too.

 Sarah is all about making them beds to lay on while they watch Christmas movies before bed. It's annoying sometimes but it makes them happy.

I made this felt nativity I found on Pinterest. The tutorial came with patterns so I didn't have to use too much of my brain. But I really didn't like the angel. It was too small and didn't match the rest.

So I made my own from the other pattern pieces. Much better, right? Sarah said it needs wings but I refused on grounds of religious accuracy.

Tonight I'm fulfilling one of my dreams of going to the Tabernacle Christmas concert! I'm so excited, it's almost nerdy.

Holiday Time

For some reason, my kids were snuggling on the couch singing together. It's times like these that get me through the bickering.

I'm so glad I have 2 mops.  Just a few squirts of floor cleaner and these two will have my kitchen cleaned up in no time. It's only fair since they cause 99% of the spills. And I hate mopping.

Sarah helped out in her new room for over an hour. She filled in holes until there were no more she could reach. And she did a great job.

Here's how it looks now. Mudding and taping are tedious.

I was squeezing lemons for a Thanksgiving pie. Henry really wanted to taste the lemon so I gave it to him, expecting him to hate it. Well he licked it and said thanks mom and went into the other room to watch a show. This kid surprises me everyday.

We ate Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house. Four of my 7 siblings and their kids were there plus 2 aunts and their families. There was 35 of us! It was hot and noisy and lots of fun.

I don't know why I like making my nieces and nephews do funny things. I feel like they owe me from all the diapers I changed. These are a few minute-to-win-it games.  Shake your ping-pong.

 Knock over a water bottle with a golf ball inside a pantyhose. And the pantyhose is on your head.

 Oreos from your forehead to mouth without your hands.

 Here's my little Indian princess. She made her hat in preschool on Monday at wore it every day that week.

Sarah spent all day Friday with cousins and fell asleep on the living room floor at 6 o'clock that evening. At 8:30 I carried her upstairs and she kept on sleeping until morning. (Those headphones aren't plugged into anything. She just feels cool wearing them.)

Last night for family night, we put up our Christmas decorations while listening to Andy Williams Christmas (the best Christmas album ever). Justin doesn't care for this kind of stuff but since he's a nice dad, you'd never know.

Henry, on the other hand, didn't do so well masking his frustration.

Justin graciously lifts the kids up so all the ornaments aren't on the bottom foot of the tree.

 "That's Sella!" (how he pronounces Sarah)

We finished off the night with a double-batch of fudge and watching the Grinch and then putting the Christmas pillowcases on their pillows to get them to go to bed. Tonight we'll make dinner whilst listening to Sing Along With Mitch, the second-best Christmas album ever.

Change is good....right?

First big change: My parents are going on a mission. They opened their call last week.  They are going to London, baby!

Love my mom's eyes in this one.

This is where I hoped they would go so I can go visit them and fulfill one of my life dreams of going to England. They'll be area family history consultants or something like that. I can't imagine a more perfect mission for my dad, except maybe doing the exact same thing in Scotland.  They go to the MTC February 3rd which just happens to be 10 days before I'm due.  My mom is relieved they aren't going foreign speaking and my dad is relieved the average high in the summer is like 72 degrees.

I've probably been their most vocal nag supporter for the last few years but now that it's really happening, I'm second-guessing my enthusiasm. But I'm really excited for them to go to England and I'm excited for my sister and her family to move from AZ to house-sit while they're gone. I just don't like not having my parents around. And what happens when I run out of strawberry jam?!

Second thing: Finishing off part of the basement.  One more kid coming and I think I need more room. We are finishing off a bedroom and the laundry/storage room. Sarah seems excited to have a new room but cross your fingers that she still thinks it's a good thing when she actually moves downstairs. She does not like change (She cried and whined for two days after I cleaned out and reorganized her dresser). I'm hoping these two rooms will be done in January and the family room done sometime in Spring (please, dear husband?)

This is going to be built-in shelves. Sarah's room is to the left, laundry room to the right. I'm standing in the future family room.

Sarah's room.

Sarah's closet.

 Laundry room. Imagine lots of shelves. It's going to make the rest of my house so much more organized.

And that's just 2 weekends of progress thanks to Justin, his dad, and brothers. 

Third thing: The reality that another kid is coming is starting to sink in. Maybe it's the feet in the ribs. Maybe it's that I can't see my toes or sleep on my back or stomach. Whatever it is, it's creating a well of anxiety that I cope with by sewing. A lot. I was previously coping with my baby anxiety by buying clothes she doesn't really need because man, girl clothes are cute. Here's some blankets I've made over the past month.

This is a patchwork quilt I made. I started it right after I found out it's a girl. It took forever but I liked doing it. I feel like I'm channeling the talents of my grandmothers.

This is a quilt top I bought last year because it was so stinkin' cute and was hoping I'd have another girl to make it for. My mom and I hand quilted it then I finished off the binding.

And this is a receiving blanket I made. I like them bigger than the store sells so I decided to buy flannel and make my own. I've made 3 others so I think I should be good.

I'm also making a car seat canopy and comfy strap covers. And then some curtains for Sarah's room. Whew! I've got to get all my sewing out of my system because that is one of the hardest things to do once I've got a baby.

And because I can't post anything without a picture of my kids. Here they are riding their bikes as promised after taking their fall pictures. My husband is hot. And nice. So win-win for me. (Is that what win-win means?)

This is Halloween

Well this first picture is the day before. I love having a little boy. Who else would put monster trucks in my ice dispenser?

I also love having a little girl but she is a tornado. I told her to clean up this mess she made while I was sewing. Can you see her cleaning?

That's because she laid down and went to sleep to avoid cleaning. Little pill.

We started Halloween morning off by driving to Mapleton Elementary to see my nephew in the costume parade. I sang "This is Halloween" all the way there. My kids don't know the song and frankly, I only know that line but I sang it because it's the only Halloween song I know.

Here are my kiddos avoiding getting into the car.  "To infinity, and beyond!" yells Henry.

My super hero also picked me a bouquet of leaves. He loves his mama. And Mapleton Elementary smells the same as it did 20 years ago, just in case you were wondering.

After lunch, Sarah painted her pumpkin.

Henry threw his around the kitchen then climbed on her chair to see what she was up to then he took a nap.

After some skilled negotiation (I swear I could sweet talk a man off a ledge using the skills I have developed as a mom) I got my kids into their costumes. Henry was a piece of cake after he got his shorts on over his pants. Sarah boo-hooed about everything not being right.  Fortunately by the time we got outside, armed with their candy buckets, she forgot about how her skirt was too puffy, and her tights were too tight, and her hat wouldn't stay on when she ran, and her hair wasn't in two braids and on and on. Waa waa waa.

 Henry didn't get what we were doing at first but he caught on fast.  

We hit up nearly every house in our neighborhood. When the kids couldn't carry their own buckets because they were too heavy, we called it a night.

The kids watched Charlie Brown when we got home and ate a ridiculous amount of candy.You'd think those purple tights would be the first thing to come off considering she was near tears putting them on, but no, that would make sense.

Halloween done. It's not my favorite holiday so I'm kind of relieved. All four decorations I put up were put away the next morning.