Pippi Longstocking

Today was Hailey's preschool day to dress up like a book character. All the kids pick their favorite book and dress up like that character. A few weeks ago Hailey and I went to the library and pick out some Pippi Longstocking books, thus she was Pippi. She was so darling about it! She pranced around the house and made goofy faces, just like Pippi. I had tons of fun putting her costume together, it was really easy and turned out really cute, if I do say so myself!

Are you kidding me?!?

Really, my children needed to come with manuals that say in big bold print "WARNING: IMAGINATIONS AT WORK" I think they get their ever vibrant imaginations from my mom, the queen of make-believe. This week, my children's imaginations got them in situations I never even thought to tell them that was against the rules.

Monday: Hailey and Aubrey are playing quietly in the basement. I keep listening from the top of the stairs and I can hear them giggling and calling each other "friend." About two hours later they come up the stairs crying and scratching themselves all over. They said it was the cotton-snow they were playing in. Upon further inspection, they pulled the insulation off the walls of our unfinished basement and rolled in it like it was snow! I called Poison Control to see what to do. They said it was the fiberglass and it creates little cuts all over. Needless to say, that was a really bad evening.

Thursday: I am at Enrichment night and Hailey decides Aubrey is watching TV too loud. She breaks an eraser off the end of a pencil and then breaks it in half and stuff it down her ears. Ben was able to get one out, but not the other one. We had to take her to the pediatrician and he digs it out with his tools. She bled out her ear for the rest of the day.

Sunday: Getting ready for church, Aubrey decides to do her own hair . . . and thinks that spray butter will work better than hairspray . . . we never made it to church.

The words "are you kidding me?" came out of my mouth more than once this week. I taught my kids not to run into the street and not to put their hands on hot stoves, but pulling the insulation off the walls, putting erasers in ears and using butter as hair products; I guess I just forgot to mention those.

AquaGlobe-this!

Yes, I admit. I am an infomercial junkie. I love watching them and I occasionally even buy the stuff. LONG before AquaGlobe was everywhere, it was on TV, and I bought one . . . off the TV. For some reason I imagined it would water the plant without my babysitting it. Keep in mind I received this plant as a wedding gift and we are coming up on our ten year anniversary so I've managed thing until now. (note: plant=not good wedding gift) Well, my plant slowly started to die. So, I did what any amazingly brilliant person would do . . . I put TWO AquaGlobes in it! Yeah, so it still looked pretty bad. Grrrr! I was so bothered because I hate wasting money (I also hate feeling duped into buying a crappy infomercial product) so to remedy the situation I went to Walmart bought a cheap plastic plant and ta-da, put the AquaGlobe in it! Much better!

BEFORE

AFTER :)

Christmas 2008

We had a wonderful Christmas. It's hard to capture the magic of Christmas in a photo. It's the feelings that make the season so special. I must say, I enjoy Christmas more as a parent watching my children, than I even enjoyed it as a child myself. Here are a few photos.

In case you didn't recognize him, Santa put his name on his belt buckle. Personally, I thought the red suit and white beard were a dead give-away.I love this picture. To me it is magical. This is a picture of Hailey and Aubrey putting out the reindeer food. I love the mountains in the background and the grey sky. I sewed the skirts they are wearing (they got to pick their own fabric). It is a very sentimental picture for me.

And of course, I had to include the "Night Before Christmas" new Christmas PJs photo. (The girls picked out Ben's PJ's!)

Preschool Christmas Program

Both my girls go to wonderful preschools. Aubrey goes to Miss Lisa and Miss Shaun, just up the street from my house and Hailey goes to Miss Stephanie (my sister). Steph's preschool is only senior preschool (year before kindergarten) Aubrey will go to Miss Stephanie next year. I know that I might be bias, but I really do think Stephanie has a supreme preschool. She is amazing with the children. She plays the guitar and sings darling songs with them. They performed at a Nursing Home for Christmas. It was darling. Here are some pictures and clips from it. This kind of stuff melts my heart and makes me so glad to be a mom.

Tinker Bell Retraction

Okay, so many of you know that I have been totally anti-Tinker Bell. It has always bugged me that she seemed so sexual and had a very immodest outfit. It might just be because I really wanted things to work out between Peter Pan and Wendy and Tink always got in the way. Well, I just watched the Tinker Bell movie and it has changed my mind. I need to issue a retraction on my original opinion on Tinker Bell. I liked that she is a worker fairy and learned to love herself for who she is. I think it is a good example for my girls. (although I still think she is very immodest, but really all the Disney Princesses are too. I mean really, Ariel? Jasmin?) Anyway, I retract my original "Tinker Bell is a slut" comment.

Zits happen, okay?

I had to wait a few weeks to actually post this story on my blog . . . I was too worried you’d want to see the, ah, “growth” and I was too embarrassed. So I waited until it was totally gone before I shared this little gem of a story . . .

So, a few weeks ago I was in my Relief Society Presidency meeting (A new RS Presidency was called, I’m the first counselor, and this was one of our first meetings as a presidency). We meet at the church in the RS room. We sit close together around a small table and we put all our kids in the nursery room to play while we meet. At this particular meeting we had many sensitive and important things to discuss. Our President was discussing these issues and Aubrey came in crying. I tried to quietly hold her and calm her down. While crying on my shoulder she noticed the gigantic zit that I have on my neck, right under my jaw line. Okay, so I’ve had this zit for months now and it really hurts. It is huge and ugly and I can’t get rid of it. Of course I have messed with it and now it just looks ick. Well, it catches Aubrey’s eye and she starts playing with it. I think to myself, “whatever, if I keeps her quiet she can play with it.” I’m pretty sure the other ladies haven’t noticed what she is doing. I really need to focus on what the President is saying. Soon enough Aubrey is fine and goes back to play with the kids. About three minutes later, Aubrey comes sneaking in, with the other children behind her. I notice out of the corner of my eye that she is doing the whole “spy sneak” on her tip-toes and moving stealthily. The other five children are lined up behind her and look terrified. They all follow Aubrey weaving through the chairs closer and closer to us. I am trying so hard to focus on the President who is now discussing things very close to her heart, oblivious of the children. I glance around the table and the others are intently listening to her. I try to refocus, but I hear one of the children whisper to Aubrey,

“I’m too scared, I can’t.”

“It’s okay; you just have to be brave. Everyone, be so brave.”

“No, no, no, it’s too scary.”

“I see it! Just a little bit closer. See it? See it? I’m going to touch it.”

“No Aubrey, don’t! I can’t look!”

I feel Aubrey’s tiny hand touch my gigantic zit and the other kids shrill in horror, “It’s so scary! What is it?” Our President stops mid-sentence, “What is going on?” Oh my heck, is this really happening? I am soooo embarrassed!!! “Um, I’m sorry for the interruption, they are afraid of my zit.” I stammer. Okay really? Did I really just have to confess to the Relief Society Presidency that all of their children are screaming because they are afraid of my zit? This is humiliating. This is worse than seventh grade, I feel thirteen again. The presidency looks at me dumbfounded and I just feel dumb. “So, ah, yeah, sorry for the interruption . . .” Thankfully, Lisa quickly ushers the kids back to the nursery. I try to recover with, “So what were you saying?” Our president looks at me and just starts to laugh, “I can’t even remember now.” Yeah, nothing kills the spirit like a huge zit.