Brrrr!

So cold! We had a 2 hour delay this morning for school, but even at 10 it was pretty chilly!

Matt and I woke up with a start at 5am when they decided on the delay. It would be lovely if they could do it the night before and spare us the early morning wake up call. Looks like tomorrow's gonna be another one, which I am very happy with. (:

This morning was a little tricky because it was my day to send the girls to Sarah's. Since I couldn't get back to sleep at 5, I got up and got busy, and then just stayed busy. And then I realized I needed to get the girls to Sarah's super fast, so then we ran around like mad chickens. Sometimes I wonder if I need that stress of rushing around? Or if I'm just a really developmentally challenged person that never learns. I really do hate rushing around, but then why do I do it so much? Deep thoughts.  

Addie was delighted to see when we got home from dropping the girls off that no one was in line yet! She hasn't been the line leader since grandpa asked our 3rd grade buddy to move it or lose it. (; happy girl!

Sarah said the girls did really well. I never doubted they would. In fact, I was so busy and into what I was doing that I never even checked in on them. When Sarah sent me this pic of laney cuddling with the giant unicorn I was like "oh yeah, I have 5 kids!" I wrapped all my presents, cleaned all my floors, and crossed lots off my weeks to do list. Very nice.

Laura asked if we'd like to join them for Josh's birthday dinner which was yummy. After singing happy birthday josh let Frankie lick all the candles. Then laney wanted to lick one, so he gave it to her and she promptly bit it. And then she chewed that candle up and swallowed it like it was her job. I wish she ate her dinner as well as she ate that candle.

Matt took the day off for the great thesis of 2013. He submitted a draft and talked to his teacher, so we're getting close!

Lexi worked her 5th shift at yo kool and it was really kool. Can I keep making that joke, or no? Probs not, it's just a silly name. On her way home from work she called me because she'd seen a lady drive into a ditch. Thankfully the police showed up just after she called me and all was well. Actually, all was kool. I know, it's too much. 

Chris drove us all around tonight. He's got probably 3 hours of wet road driving under his belt now, look out! He demanded to know who was a better driver, he or lex, but I swear I'll never tell. Lips are yo kool sealed. I.cant.stop.

When we got home we found this on our doorstep! 12 days of Christmas?! Awesome!!! We are sooooo lucky! and we are sooooo excited!

It's pretty much yo kool.

sunday

 cold and wet weather today! super bummer cause i wanted to take a family trip to see the temple lights. thankfully matt didn't have to be to dc till 10. we all headed to church and enjoyed sacrament meeting, and then after the closing prayer bishop announced that the rest of the meetings were cancelled just to be on the safe side.

to home!

we watched some movies and played some games. ryan came over and he and lex beat c and i at taboo and then dominos. tough losses. there were some super funny moments though. like when lexi was trying to get ryan to say "attitude" and she said "it's what my mom always says i have..." and he said "bad grades... angry... oh! a man voice!!!" lexi and i died laughing! it was so funny! another time ryan was trying to get her to say "sugar" and he said "glucose is..." the expression she gave him was priceless. like, "how would anyone know that?!" then at the end of meet the parents she was explaining how she would be mad if one of her sisters got engaged at her wedding. then she was like, "oh that wouldn't happen, addie would be like 4." ummm, yeah addie is already 5. gotta love her. :)

landon gave frankie a really neat scratch and sniff book for Christmas and we sent johnna home with a disney plane for him. she sent us a video of him opening his gift. frankie loved watching it. :)

thankfully they let matt go at 2, so he was home by 3. to his thesis! 

ugh.

auntie alli sent me these from her turkey day stay. :)

and this one. yup, that's snot in her hair. awesomeness.

 ah, well.

tonight we ate dinner, put girls to bed, blitzed, watched the 1st pres Christmas devotional, and some other shows. delaney is so cute. we ask her who she loves and she'll answer to whoever is asking her. we also like to ask her for kisses. she'll say "ummm, yes," or "no thank you kiss." she's a super big cuddle bug.

good, cold, and wet sunday. :)

1st Christmas party

saturday night was our 1st christmas party of the season. it was a "decades" party, so matt dressed up in his halloween costume. i have long wanted a pretty vintage 1950's dress (think i love lucy) so i had planned on splurging on one, but then... i forgot. also, we were supposed to dress up in the decade we were born and i didn't really want a 70's style dress. not that there's anything wrong with them per se, i just wasn't feeling it.

it's fun to take a few nights a year and get all dressed up with my hubby. :)

they had a fun photo booth that we hit up twice.

photo booths are totally all the rage. i know i love 'em.

halfway through the night matt decided to put on his sonny bono wig. it's so hot i can hardly stand it. ;) we didn't win anything, but that's ok. a lot of really young, really nice guys and gals won, and we were happy for them and cheered them on. it's fun that matt's been with this group for 5 christmas's now. :)

matt didn't win best costume either. there was some steep competition. the rightful winner (although i did vote for my main squeeze) was mc hammer, complete with a blow up ghetto blaster. and then they put on hammer time and he did the crab and sealed the deal. 

super fun first Christmas party!

kids

on friday sarah and i had a good old fashioned kid swap day. we started off rocky (broken snow globe and sad ellie) but went up from there. just before lunchtime darlaina asked if ashby could come over and my philosophy is always the more the merrier. we actually had a really good day. lexi worked her second shift at yo kool and it was all kool.

on saturday morning it was sarah's turn to drive the big ballet girls, johnna had asked for frankie to come over because landon was in town, and chris had an eagle project to help with. so laney and i (i took pity on lexi and let her sleep) headed out to run errands. i will be flying to seattle on the 16th, so i have a week to get everything ready for my trip and for christmas. can i do it? the jury's still out.

we had a return to make at old navy so little miss spoiled got a balloon and had fun saying hi to the dog mannequin.

then we went to bath and body works (chris asked me to make an exchange) which she loved a little too much. when it was time to go she didn't want to. so then she cried through payless and part of hallmark. she was ok when i put her down at hallmark, but the ladies there are kinda grumpy grumps about littles that like to touch everything.

next up was target!

the popcorn kept her occupied for awhile.

i had lots of coupons and lots of things on my list. after she got bored with the popcorn she held onto a sofia doll for cousin quinn, ate some goldfish and played with paper, and then she asked for my phone. 

dun, dun, DUN!

i've let her play with my phone at stores before and it's been fine. if she ever drops anything (like a shoe) she flips out until its found and returned, she's a little ocd that way. so imagine my horror when i noticed that she was no longer holding my phone. and it was not in my cart. i quickly retraced steps and then asked an employee to call it for me. nothing! we walked around for about 10 minutes calling my phone the whole time and i was super stressed. i have a lot to get done this week and without my phone i don't know how i'll do it! or to have to go get a new phone, just ugh. my calendar, all my lists and notes, the ability to text my children, husband, etc, i know i am very dependent on my phone, for better or worse.

the girl walking around with me was very sweet and when the service desk wouldn't answer her walkie talkie question she suggested we walk over. on our way she told me all about how she thought she'd lost her ipod last week but it was really in the glove compartment of her car. she was sweet and trying to tell me it would be okay. i was sooo relieved when we got there and the girls there pulled out my cute pink phone! i thought for sure it was gone. i am so thankful that there are still good and honest people out there. this whole experience with baby harvey has shown so much of the good in people. i feel like i'm peripheral to the tragedy and yet i have been the recipient of so much good and so many blessings.

this little sweetie is lucky i found my phone too.

this chic!

meanwhile...

these two are so cute. :)

wouldn't it just be adorbs if they really did get married? and we had all these cute pics of them together? love it.

he's so cool.

they walked around the pet store in l-town. i had texted johnna when we left target and she told me they were at the pet store, but i thought they were at petco, so delaney and i walked around there for a few minutes. these kids are wearing me down and i feel my anti-pet resolve slowly slipping away...

i finally met them at the right pet store and frankie, laney and i headed home. d had just fallen asleep in the car but then woke up when we got home. frankie made herself a little bed and fell asleep for about 5 minutes. they were kinda crabby.

next up: navy christmas party!

Introducing...

Rainbow Ellie Sparkle.

Yes, we've joined (extremely late) the elf on the shelf craze. I really didn't want to, but I found a good deal on it and, if there are 2 things I'm a sucker for it's good deals and holiday stuff. Heaven help me, if it had been personalized I would have bought 2.  

So Addie came up with 'rainbow,' then Chris liked 'rainbow sparkle,' but then Frankie really liked 'Ellie.' So we settled on rainbow Ellie sparkle, which all but Alexis was happy with. And since she didn't have any other ideas, thus our elfie was named. 

The good thing about starting a Christmas tradition a full year after everyone else is that you can just copy their ideas! Nice. 

Tomorrow is St. Nicholas' Day, so at 9pm I ran out to riteaid for supplies. I am just that on top of things. Oh well. 

Frankie had preschool today and learned about dinosaurs. She loves dinos and told me all about what they learned. Super cute. 

Matt took the day off to work on his thesis. He spent the whole day at the library. it's better that way, I don't have to keep anyone from bothering daddy. 

Alexis was a big helper. It's been tough having Matt gone so much, so it's been nice to be able to lean on big kids when they're not too busy. Addie had daisy scouts tonight at the yellow door art studio (heaven!) so after we picked Chris up, he was able to drive us over there. 

Delaney took some artsy pics with my phone. She also stripped naked no fewer than 5 times and made no less that 20 large messes. Girlfriend is like a tornado. But she is also in love with her cousin "baby har-vey" and ran around several times today saying "I see baby har-vey," on my phone. And how could I be mad at her after that?

More delaney art-iness. And Frankie cuteness. 

Another day. 

december 4th

little miss so & so likes to run around in the buff. she's pretty much like a little puppy though, since she totally piddles as she runs... and does other things too. i was trying to get her pajamajams on and she kept pretending to be asleep. it was cute. in other cute news, she keeps saying "that's so funny!" almost everything is "so funny" in delaney's world.

i appreciate that she blurred her "naughty bits" so i didn't have to.

yesterday was a meeting kinda day. presidency meeting in the morning and committee meeting at night. it was a warmish day and after our meeting as we walked to the car the girls were having so much fun playing in the leaves, so i let them for awhile.

it's nice to stop and play in the leaves when we're not running from here to there and everywhere.

when addie got home from school we decided to continue to maximize our nice'ish weather by heading to the park. it seems like delaney will forever be chasing her big sisters.

"guys!"

ps - that's some gorgeous december sky!

today was my turn to drive the ballet bus. frankie just adores mrs. brown, it's so sweet how much she loves her. she found some toys in her bag and had to show me in a picture.

 

also:

*alexis worked on cleaning her room. grrrr. on monday night she started her new job at yo kool! goodbye, applebees, hello, yo kool.

*christian is enjoying track, even running sprints uphill like they did today. he also begged for me to drive him to school since he can't drive with alexis. he enjoyed driving the jolly green when i picked him up from track.

*addie went outside to play with charlie all by herself. she is getting so big. i think i need to slow down a little bit and spend some time figuring out who this big new girl of ours is. she's growing 

up right before my eyes and i don't want to miss any of it.

*frankie has developed a nervous kind of stutter. it's not really a stutter, it's just like she can't think of the right words. she'll go

"mama, ummmm, i.... like, i..... uhhhh, when.... like..... i....." and then that lasts for awhile until she can formulate the words. it's kind of frustrating, especially when there's lots going on, but i have learned that when i try to speed her up it only slows her down. so i let her be.

*delaney is a big sweetie girl. she sings the eensy weensie spider and loves on her babies.

tom and bonnie are doing ok. as well as can be expected, i guess. they are planning a memorial, so right now our family is just waiting. tom's best friend, most of bonnie's family, and dad are there taking care of them now. i think everyone has a plan to fly out and be there for them at some point in the next little while, but we'll just play by ear. it's just heartbreaking.

i christmas'd a little. like every december i'm feeling a little behind. we'll get there, i'm sure.

Harvey James

My baby brother became a daddy today. Little Harvey weighed in at 6.15lbs and was born at 11:25am in Seattle. He was also stillborn.

My heart is breaking for my brother and Bonnie. It's such a helpless feeling to be so far away. I know there is a greater plan at work, but it's still sad for those of us here below.

We love you, precious baby boy. And mama, daddy, and big brother anthony.

 

cyber monday

the little girls have been super congested lately so we kept them home from church. when they can't go 30 minutes without a major green sneeze, it's probably not a good thing to spread. i stayed with them and alli until rs. kitty was gone and i was conducting and didn't want to leave jeanette to do everything.

i don't have any pictures from sunday, so here are some unrelated. i call this the lifeguards. ryan lifeguarded at wildwood and chris for leonards grant. and lex just wanted to be included.

alli's bus left at 5:25 so we left at 3:30 and cut it way too close. thankfully we were only slowed down a few times with just a tiny bit of traffic and we made it with no time to spare. we had a fun visit and i am so thankful to have at least one family member out here on the east coast with us.

in other unrelated pictures, this is my grandma clayton's old house in whittier, ca.

 

brotha joe went by back in 2009, and either he just posted these on the fb, or i just saw them. 

 

 

 he totally creeped it up by taking this pic of the pool, but i'm so glad he did. we spent many a summer day out in this pool and rumpus room.

 

this morning it was back to the grind. matt has got a lot going on today (navy and school) so he was up early and nervous. he obsessively cleans when he gets nervous, so before 5 am he was vacuuming his car, which is right under our bedroom. so we started our monday early. it's cyber monday so i did some shopping. almost done with the kiddies. :)

today will be spent cleaning and trying to get christmassy. 

'tis the season.

family saturday

on saturday we went to waldorf to see frozen. it was so cute. i loved that it didn't take a prince to save the day, but love of family. excellent!!!

i had bought tickets as soon as they were released, so we had really good seats. it was the first time the little girls and alli had been to a "reclining seat" theater.

they loved laying back.

delaney was a pro. she sat with matt and munched popcorn for half the movie, then walked over to cuddle with me and drink soda. not the greatest diet, but it's a holiday weekend, soooo.

we saw it in 3d. frankie didn't love keeping her glasses on, especially after an ice cutting scene at the beginning. and lanes didn't wear her glasses at all, but it didn't seem to bother her.

or her double chins.

i had brought some mini m&m's tubes that i passed out half way through. unfortunately, frankie spilled and we didn't realize. she had chocolate all over her bum, shirts, and jacket. then chris picked her up and got chocolate all over his sweatshirt. 3 year olds.

the girls have been so cooped up with the cold weather and their runny noses, and since we were in waldorf we decided to let them play at the playplace at the mall. they also have a cute little potty. that we used twice in 10 minutes. 3 year olds.

we also decided to get our santa pictures out of the way.

it didn't go very well. stone face delaney wouldn't smile and after a few minutes santa started getting antsy. we had several people trying to get a decent picture for us, but after a little while we took what we could get. it's all about the memories, right?

 

on our way home we grabbed some cafe rio yumminess. it was a really fun day. and then it was bathtime, bedtime, modern family time.

 two thumbs up. :)