It's Out!

Aspen was so sad all night because her loose tooth was hurting horribly. I mentioned the string idea again and she when straight to the craft closet and brought me about 4 ft of yarn. :) Apparently she was ready to get the thing out.

Instead we got some sewing thread, and after a good 15 mins of trying to tie it around that tiny tooth, Jared was finally able to pull it out.
She was good to go until she saw the blood on the tissues. I think that's when the pain sank in. Not too many tears, but some good hugs and kind words of consolation were MUCH needed. Plus an ice cold wash cloth really does the trick on the sore gums.

And now we have another toothless grin in the house. Aspen is 6 yrs 3 months old and has FINALLY lost her 1st tooth. As you can see, she is very proud. Marched around the house the whole rest of the evening, "I can't believe I lost my tooth. I just can't believe it." :)

Making Messes wherever I go, just making Messes

My sweet little Sicily is getting better and better at her crawling and exploring. We've nick named her Curious George for good reason. It is absolutely amazing what kids can get into when you're not looking. And of course, once she emptied this cabinet she left it and just went on to the next thing to make a mess of.

Crazy Dayz

You know, I thought I only had 4 kids but every now and again that number doubles.

I love our neighborhood and all it's diversity. It's good to see them being crazy once in a while.

Almost Out

Your first loose tooth is always the most memorable. Aspen currently has 4 loose but this one's just about out.
We've almost got her convinced to let us tie a string to it and slam the door. London was always too scared.

Holy Ghost vs Hot Chocolate

Aspen was in charge of Family Home Evening tonight and chose the 1st Article of Faith. For those of you that don't know, it goes like this:

We believe in God the Eternal Father and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.

We talked about every angle you could go on this topic:
They are 3 different beings
HF and JC have a body of skin and bones just like us
We know all this from Joseph Smith's 1st Vision
and most important:
HG is a spirit so he can dwell in us

Phoenix was particularly interested in the fact that the Holy Ghost is a spirit. He thought it was really neat that he can "dwell" in us and comfort us.

Or as Aspen said, "Otherwise when we're scared at night he'd have to knock on the front door and come in to give us a hug. That wouldn't work very well."

So as the wheels turned in Phoenix's head he finally said, "So the Holy Ghost is like Hot Chocolate."

"What?"

"Well when he goes inside your tummy it makes you feel all warm."

I love that even a child of 3 1/2 can understand the basics of the gospel and gain a testimony by comparing the Holy Ghost to Hot Chocolate. Family Home Evening even teaches me a thing or two sometimes.

Beware the Naked Baby

Early one morning, I was followed by Naked Baby. She was not mean, she was not stinky, just cute and naked. Beware of very noisy Batman in the background. You must acknowledge his drawings or he will not go away. But Naked Baby also must say, "Hello," to find her ultimate joy.

Look what I Caught

Jared's latest art Medium. I don't really know how he does it. Mine always turn into little blobs.

Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam!

The one advantage of Aspen's super fine hair is STATIC! Trampolines and Tube Slides Rock with this girl.

Menu

I hate cooking dinner. Don't get me wrong, I love to cook. But EVERYDAY gets a bit monotonous. And I really run out of ideas. So 4:30 rolls around and I'm scanning cookbooks only to find I don't have all the ingredients for any recipe I want to cook. So we always end up with the old stand by, Spaghetti and Meatballs.

So what to do? I've started making a Menu for the week either Sunday or Monday night. That way while Phoenix is at preschool on Tuesday I can go shopping for ALL the ingredients I need for those 5+ recipes. And knowing you only have to choose between 5 items instead of an entire bookshelf of Cook Books, is SOOO nice.

And an added bonus, you have leftovers for the entire weekend so you can play on your weekends instead of cook. LOVE IT!!

Bon Appetite!

Need Some Help?

You know your hubby fixes things a lot when your 15 month old GIRL helps wherever she can. I really have no idea what he had been using the screwdriver for, but Sicily is fixing her cell phone, under Dads supervision of course.

Awesome Houston

The whole family in their very natural state. London-Silly, Aspen-Psycho, Phoenix-not wanting to be in a family picture, Sicily-just sweet.

This is in the down town museum district in Houston. It's a statue of Sam Houston, who is the founder of Houston city, I believe. I didn't actually read the entire plaque.

Another natural state picture of my kids. We specifically told Aspen to NOT play in the water. See how good she is NOT playing in the water. Yeah, she listened for about 2 minutes. Oddly enough that was how long it took her to walk over to the water fountain. :) I got more wet than she did in the end anyhow. London scooped up a big handful and threw it at me. Little turd. :)

Butterflys, Butterflys Everywhere

For New Years break we took the kids to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. It cost WAY more for entry than we thought it would so we opted to just view their Butterfly exhibit.
Sure am glad Caterpillars never actually get this big.

Little bowls of nectar were conveniently placed all over for the Butterfly's to gather, and us to observe. The little orange ones were SO friendly. All the kids got to hold one that so kindly walked from hand to hand. They really tickle when they walk on you.

The blue ones weren't everywhere like the other colors. The iridescence was beautiful.

Aunt Marlene had a piggy back rider for more than 10 minutes. He liked the bright blue I guess.

These are called Paperwhites. They were my favorite. When they flew past they looked like tissue paper in the wind, so delicate.

Sicily tried to hard to get this one in my hand. She LOVED the butterflies.

The Owl Eyes were so pretty. On the tree trunk you couldn't even see them.

Bug Business

We loved having Aunt Marlene for New Years. She was a good helper with these ever so hard insect puzzles.

Honeycombs are good for more than just making Honey.

EEEWWWW!

Nothing like a Chocolate Dipped apple with a few crunchy Meal Worms for extra flavor.

Yumm-O!!

Jared had to have a bite too. I swear that boy will eat anything. :)

No, I won't touch it

Aspen was not about to touch that Katydid. They were kind of soft and cold, she was content to just look.

Sick

I don't know what it is but the weather here has been beautiful for a good part of this week. But it disappeared and I got sick. How does that happen? I'm home most of the day, my kids aren't sick, which says to me they didn't bring it home from school, so where did I get it? But I was very sweet and passed it on to Jared. :( So we're sick together, and trying not to pass it on to the kids.

Free Time

With 4 kids you'd think I don't have any free time. But now that the oldest 2 are back in school (YEAH!) and the youngest 2 take 2-3 hour naps in the afternoon, I'm seriously wondering what to do with all my free time. Exercise, clean, exercise, wash the dog, exercise, iron, exercise, mop, exercise, blog, exercise, defrost the freezer or should I exercise? It's obvious what's on my mind lately. :) So I'm gonna go read a book now. :) j/k I'll do my elliptical first. What do you all do with your "free time?"

I LOVE TO EAT

I just got a belated Christmas Card from a friend and she listed the favorite foods of her twin babies. Let's see if you can guess Sicily's.

LOVE Spaghetti. She gets so excited when you hand her one of those 2 ft long noodles. And man can she slurp! But every now and again the bowl just ends up on her head. I had to pull a "Little Mermaid" and use the fork to get it out. If you grab it it just mashes into her hair, then there's no hope.Every kids favorite, OREO'S! Ever notice how you can give a child a "dum dum" and their entire body ends up sticky? Same goes for Oreos, Popsicles, Ice cream ... etc. I love pictures like this, Pure Pleasure on her face. The only look that can come from an Oreo really.

All those Crazy Kids

We've finally been blessed to live in a neighborhood with about a million children. They literally move in packs, roaming from house to house. Today it was my turn. 4 on the Trampoline and 3 on the Swing Set. I've got it set up so I can watch them while I'm cooking, and keep the window open so I know when someones crying or just "play screaming." I grew up in this kind of neighborhood and I'm so grateful that my kids get to have it too. I just hope it's for a good while, you never know with Jared's job, but we like it here so hopefully we can stay for some time.

New Years Eve!

We hosted a 10:00 New Years Eve Party this year. Too many little kids just can't stay up quite that late. Played some games, ate too much food, and laughed at the dog as he ran to hide from the noisy kids (come 10 pm). Notice Aspen is not in this photo.
We found her in the other room completely zonked. Apparently 3 year olds can make it till 10 but 6 year olds can not. She was none too happy when London blew his horn in her ear. :)K, I know I'm a loon. That's really a water bottle. It was getting late and I was getting tired.

HA HA HA HA

Daddy you're so funny, you tell the best jokes ever!

MARSHMALLOWS!!!

So I thought Ziploc bags were baby proof but apparently they are not.

I have no idea how many Sicily ate before I found her. But she did have that yummy powder all over her face and was very content to keep digging for more.

Flame and Friends

Kids seem to flock to our house because of our zoo of animals. Flame, our Corn Snake, is over 4 ft long now. We bought him Thanksgiving 2006, he was the size of a pencil then. We feed him 2 frozen mice a week and play with him whenever. It amazes me how many people are afraid of snakes. We love our Flame, and the kids love the bragging rights.

What!?!?!?

Honestly...don't ask!

Aspen had been complaining for days that there was something in her nose that hurt. I swear, the things a Mom has to do. :) Ended up being a zit, poor thing.

Pretty Red Cardinals

We get loads of these in our back yard everyday. They feast on the bird feeder, and when that's empty they eat the rabbits food. Plus we have a built in bird bath; Charlie, the dogs, water.

Quotes and Chatter

Phoenix: "On the back of my big pennies dere are a temple and a bird."
Translation: He had one of those new quarters. I think Montana, it's actually a big horn sheep.


Aspen: "Can we watch something else?"
Dad: "No. Football's cool!"
Aspen: "No it's not. It's just people kick'n a ball trying to make a goal."


Big discussion on going to do your job, ended in this:
Dad: "I'm in charge, that's why."
Aspen: "No your not! Mom is."
Though she said this while quickly walking away to go do her jobs.


Phoenix: "Mom, how many minutes is it?"
Translation: "What time is it?"

I love my Jared!

I just have to show you why I love my Jared SOOOOOOO much! He is the bestest hubby ever. And with out a never ending remodel, on our house to do he has plenty of time to help keep the house clean, instead of mess it up with sheet rock and such.

I will admit though, he's only mopping because Phoenix EXPLODED a bottle of Martinelli's while Jared was on kid watch. :)

Milestone #1

Our Sicily is FINALLY crawling!!!! YEAH!! Now I know some of you think I'm crazy to be so happy about this but remember she is 15 months old now, so it's definitely about time. :) Her siblings just love her way to much, they do everything for her, that's mostly why it's taken so long. But we are now on the move. And she did not take very long to find her new toy box either. I am training this one to at least put the Tupperware back after she's done playing with it.
For those of you reading past blogs, you know Sicily had Bellybutton Hernia Surgery the day after Christmas. We got there at 7:00 am and left at 8:30 am. It was really quick, and everything went well. She slept most of that day, thanks to the pain killers. By that evening though she was back to her happy self. She is still favoring her tummy a bit (ex: not leaning against you while you hold her, or lying on her tummy). But she's starting to realize that the pain is going away. The tape covering the stitches is wearing off already, so we should be back to normal in no time.

Christmas Morn

We had a wonderful Christmas Morning. Aspen was up at 5:45 but we made her wait to wake up the boys till 6:30. They quickly emptied their stockings and started munching on some Oreo's. Next came Santa's gifts Roller Blades, Skateboards, Webkinz, Radios, Watches, Rings...etc. Grandmas, Aunts and Uncles and friends all sent the bestest of gifts! Some even arrived on Christmas Eve....just in time. We had an awesome Christmas! I even got some bright red Pots and Pans and a beautiful Opal Ring. Jared got a Router and his favorite Ferrer Rocher.

This is our Sicily with her new tiny wind chime. She got very mad at me in Hobby Lobby when I left the wind chime aisle, so we added this to the cart to keep her happy through the rest of the store.
Jared got the boys a Dart Tag game. Though I think it was more for him than them. I spent the morning dodging darts to the butt and kicking them out of the kitchen (numerous times) so I could cook Christmas Dinner. :)

Twister

Every family HAS to own Twister. And when it's on sale for $10 it's a tough one to pass up. The kids loved it, though playing with socks on is just a bit too tough (I remember that as a kid too). Sicily had to get invoved in the scene. I think she did a slide in dive right here actually.
London and Aspen were hilarious to watch. I think London sat on her head at one point.

This shot was too good not to post. Doesn't my Baby have the cutest backside ever. Kids take the BEST pictures sometimes.

PJ's from the Police Elves

You'll have to watch "The Santa Clause" to know what I'm talking about. But every year the Police Elves bring us our new PJ's on Christmas Eve. They usually come while the kids are in the bath or brushing their teeth. But this year they came while we were ice skating.

One year London saw a little fluffy white hat go by the bathroom window and heard some jingling bells. Last year everyone was on the look out so they Door Bell Ditched us and left the gifts on the front step. This year they borrowed some of Santa's magic and came down the chimney, cause all the doors were locked. Though they left a note to tell us our stairs are pretty steep when you're in a hurry and one of them almost fell down the stairs. ;) But luckily no one was hurt and we all got our new PJ's!

New Christmas Eve Tradition

A wonderful family in our Ward, the Looses, invited about 1/2 the Ward to go ice skating on Christmas Eve. We wondered if the kids were all big enough, and it turns out they are. We had LOADS of fun!

Though Aspens pants were thoroughly soaked, she loved every minute of it. She even has a few bruises on her hips to show all her good effort. She kept looking around while skating, and every time she'd turn her head her skates would turn too. Plenty of crashes but also plenty of smiles.

One of London's best friends from the Ward was also there with his family, Jacob Strathearn. They skated the whole night through. Though I think they spent a good part of their time in the middle of the rink (with wistful eyes) watching the good skaters spin around. They had fun and didn't crash too many times.

Sicily hung out on the sidelines. When all you can do is crawl there's not much interest in ice skating. So she got bundled up all snug, drank plenty of Hot Chocolate and spent some girly time with some of the Young Women that were there.

You'll notice there are no shots of Phoenix on the ice. Though he did have a good evening, it did NOT have to do with ice skating. We did get some skates on him, and though he stepped onto the ice, while holding my hands (both hands), he screamed bloody murder not 2 steps out. So he also spent the evening on the sidelines drinking Hot Chocolate. But unlike Sicily he played Video Games all evening. Happy Camper.

Joy School Nativity

Phoenix was so excited for HIS Christmas Party, since London and Aspen had one in their classes. It was at our house and these kids were the cutest things ever. We've been practicing this Nativity for all of December. And it turned out beautifully. London helped out and was a Wiseman, while Aspen filled in as the Inn Keeper. We all had such fun dressing up. We bought these costumes in Egypt about 6 years ago, and have used them EVERY Christmas since.

Phoenix was our sweet shepherd. His little lamb even sang some music (it winds up). The little angel had just told Phoenix that Jesus was born, then said the Narrators part, "Then the Angel went away" as she ran off stage. They are all so stinking cute.

In the end we decorated Gingerbread Men, super yummy with 3 inch thick icing + 1 inch pile of sprinkles. :) Sicily got a hold of a icing knife and went to town. Dad tried to take it away, there were many tears, so it was returned with much joy on Sicily's part.

Ward Christmas Party

My amazing London has the most amazing Piano skills. The Program for the Ward Party included the Primary of course, and London got to accompany. Enjoy!