Bossy Pants

Audrey still wears diapers to bed at night mostly because we're lazy and don't want to wake her up later to go potty and partly because she's been doped up on cough syrup at night lately. Two nights ago she was difficult to put to bed, thinking of any excuse. We ignored her, until she said she pooped in her pants and wanted to be changed (I'm thinking she did this on purpose, the little squirt, but I have no proof). We consented, and she came down to get her diaper changed. When Jeromy finished, he told her (paying more attention to the TV than to her) to get back in bed. She pointed to the mess of toys still left in the living room and said, "Now, Daddy, you and Mommy have GOT to clean this up in the morning! OKAY?!?" He replied, "Okay, sweetie, get to bed." I was shocked that he said okay, but he actually wasn't paying attention to her and had no idea what she said. Fabulous.

Fruit Snacks

For those of you who have mild-tempered children, here is an example of what my dear sweet Audrey can be like at times.

The baby is asleep and Kierra too, and Audrey is watching cartoons. So I thought how nice it would be to catch up on blogs, email, goodreads.com, etc. Audrey asks for a fruit snack, and I say yes. She eats it. She asks for a second one, bringing it to me. I say that one's for Kierra, and no, one is plenty, how about some pretzels? She replies: But I want it!!!! PLEEEEAAAAASSSSEEEE!!!! Me: I said no! Just because you want it and say please does not make it yours. Her: Aaarg! as she throws it at my face! I immediately tell her to get in timeout, she runs away from me, tripping on the laptop cord, almost knocking it off my lap onto the ground. By this time I've had it and yell at her to get into timeout. So then she yells and screams on her way to timeout, thus waking up Kierra (and Jacob too I think, but he went right back to sleep luckily), who comes down the stairs (our usual timeout spot) to comfort and console her big sister.

So we're in our separate corners cooling off. Then I have a little talk with her about when Mommy says no, she means it, and we don't throw things, especially not at faces, and especially not at Mommy! I tell her if she still wants another snack, she needs to choose something else because one packet of fruit snacks is enough.

Things calm down, and she grabs yet another fruit snack. Her: But Mom, this one isn't for Kierra, that one is. Please? Me: I'm so glad that you're saying please, but I still say no. One is plenty, choose something else.

Things are quiet, I'm blogging and not paying attention, thinking that she's in the pantry trying to choose something else. A couple minutes later, she says she's going to go downstairs and choose a different fruit snack than the Scooby Doo ones (nice logic there kiddo, Mommy said I can't have a Scooby Doo fruit snack, but maybe I can have the fruit shaped ones). I tell her again that I said no more fruit snacks. I ask her where the other one is that I said she couldn't have and she points to her throat. Urg!!! So now she's in timeout AGAIN and needs to have another little chat. A very serious one.

And then, apparently, I need to make a snack for the little ones.

Gosh I can be such a whiner sometimes. Sorry about that. Things are going a little bit better with Jacob. He actually took a 5 hour nap yesterday! Crazy! He usually only sleeps for half an hour or an hour during the day, so that was a nice break. Speaking of breaks, I'm going out to dinner with some friends tonight! I'm so excited!! Too bad I still have to cook dinner anyway, but chicken nuggets shouldn't be too hard, right?

Okay, so I'm letting Audrey "play" with my hair right now. She's usually pretty gentle and it can be a fun time with just the 2 of us, but she has this weird fetish with rubbing my hair between her palms. It makes for an interesting hairdo!

My Day

My goal today was to do all of the laundry (I'm a do-it-once-a-week kind of gal), and then maybe cut some coupons since I'm like 2 months behind or something like that. But not getting to bed till 1am, waking up at 6am with the baby and then at 8am with the whole gang, didn't get me on the right foot. The baby hasn't been napping really well and it's really starting to take a toll on me. It's just IMPOSSIBLE to get anything done during the day (and we want to move soon?!?)Most nights he sleeps for 8 or 9 hours! I love it! But come morning, he's been so cranky. I'll spend so much time getting him down for a nap, and then 5 minutes later he's up and crying again. I have to feed him really good and then stick him in the swing for half an hour to just get my shower. But as soon as that thing stops, he's up again. Jeromy thinks he's teething but I refuse to accept that as a possibility right now (I don't want to even think about having to nurse him for 6 or so more months when he's got teeth. Cringe.). Maybe I need to read those baby books again.

Ugh, I was going to get so much done today. Did I even get 1 load of laundry started? No. Did I even look at the coupons? No. And here I sit at almost midnight typing away when I could be resting up for the day to come. I've got issues. Well, maybe tomorrow will be better.

Ooh, but I did make a very healthy dinner of chef salad, crudites with ranch dip, and Italian herb chicken, and pound cake topped with homemade strawberry sauce and fat free whipped cream for dessert. Yummy.

Christmas Pix

Here are some miscellaneous pictures from Christmas. Sorry about the belatedness and poor quality of these photos. We are in the process of getting a new camera.

My Dad is reading the Christmas story from the HUGE Bible. It's really hard to keep 10 little ones reverent for this. Especially when they're excited that Santa is coming really soon. Oh well.

It looks like my sister Laurel (the one sandwiched between my Nana and Papa) is really enjoying the story.

We usually act out the Nativity, complete with costume and songs, but we just weren't that organized this year. We did manage to make me be Mary and Jacob was baby Jesus.

Audrey had to show everybody 5x each her Santa hat that Granddad lent her.

Logan

Here's my cute little nephew, Logan. He makes all sorts of different faces that are hilarious! He had us in stitches during the whole vacation!! It's actually kind of odd that he has a normal smile on right now, isn't it Shelly?

Holiday Prayer

Last night Audrey said the dinner prayer. After blessing the food, our silly family, and the usual, she said, "And please bless Halloween, and please bless the Easter parties." We were trying SOO hard not to laugh! Where in the world did that come from?

Kidisms

Here are some funny things our kids have said lately:

Me: Kierra, you're so cute!
Kierra: I not cute, (with a flourish of her hands) I sparkly!

Some funny words Kierra says: ladypop (lollipop), won-duh-full-ull (wonderful), and our personal favorite: buffalo (beautiful). We love trying to get her to say it. We'll say, "Kierra, you're so beautiful!" To which she replies, "No, I not buffalo, I Kaywa!"

Audrey was doing something she wasn't supposed to be doing (big surprise). I can't even remember what it was, but I told her I didn't want her doing it. She put her hand on her hip and told me, "Then don't look, Mom." I was too speechless to respond.

Dance Class

For the last 3 weeks, Audrey has been taking ballet/modern dance lessons from two teenagers in our ward. Here's my little ballerina in her leotard and tights. She loves it!

Sleeping In

The other day I was trying to sleep in after a long night, so when Kierra woke up early, I just pulled her into bed with me. A little while later, Audrey woke up and went downstairs, calling out, "Hello? Hellllllooooo?! HELLO!! I'm awake!!" I didn't want to call out to her and wake up Jacob, so I whispered, "We're up here, sweetie." She didn't hear me. So, bless her heart, Kierra took it upon herself to get out of bed and notify Audrey where we were. She got to the top of the stairs and said in her sweet angelic voice, "Sweetheart, we're up here." Audrey, being the non-morning person she is, yelled back, "You don't call me sweetheart! Mommy calls me sweetheart!" I guess it's time to get out of bed.

Later, when I was telling my Mom this story over the phone, Audrey finished telling it for me, laughing really hard. "Wasn't that funny, Mom?"

My Girls

It is so nice when I walk in the room having been gone upstairs for 20 or 30 minutes taking care of the baby, and I see this. I'm so glad that they can entertain themselves!

Mini Moms

It is so nice to have 2 little girls in the house with this newborn! Their nurturing instincts are kicking in and it's like having 2 mini-moms. Although sometimes that's not a good thing: they fight over who gets to play with the baby, and who gets to sit next to his bouncer. And Audrey considers herself an expert at what Jacob does and does not like. She'll correct me when I'm trying to de-gas him (pulling his feet up to his head so he'll toot) and say he doesn't like that. But they abolutely love him! I keep hearing from them things like: Oh you're such a cute little boy, where's my smile, oh it's okay sweetie, etc. It's especially nice when I'm busy with something and he starts crying because I can send one or both of them to calm him down and buy me a couple more minutes. They'll talk to him and Kierra LOVES to sing Twinkle Little Star to him. It's adorable. I love it!!

Sorry this is such a bad picture. But I thought it was so funny that Jacob slept for over a whole hour like this. I was wondering if his hand fell asleep.

Jeromy's birthday was over a month ago, but I thought I'd post it anyway. Happy 29th hon!


He asked for a pumpkin cream cheese log instead of a cake. We're a little short on birthday candles so we improvised using a #2 and a P. Oh well.

Audrey asked for a second slice, and Jeromy thought he'd be funny by asking her to say, "Please Daddy, you're the best!" She did, and then he asked her to say, "Please Daddy, you're as strong as an ox!" She did, so he went even further and asker her to say, "Please Daddy, I love you more than chocolate!" She thought about it for just a second and then said, "I love chocolate!"

Recipe Request

Does anybody have a cake recipe made with Milky Way bars? Or a good split pea (or lentil) and ham soup?

Shepards

Yesterday we were watching the Liken video about the birth of Jesus. The shepards were on their way to visit the baby Jesus when Audrey asked where they were going. This is basically how the conversation went:

Audrey: Where are they going?
Me: To see baby Jesus.
Audrey: Why?
Me: Wouldn't you want to go visit the baby Jesus?
Audrey: No, Mommy, we're not on TV.

I tried to explain, but she wouldn't listen. A little while later, she and Kierra were fighting over something, and Audrey came to me crying, "Kierra's fighting with me, and I'm right!" I guess she could use a little humbling. Heaven help her future husband!

Bowling

Our girls enjoy bowling on our Wii. Audrey is very competitive and actually really good, usually totalling over 100 points. Well, now Kierra thinks that any sport involving a ball must be bowling. She takes Jeromy's basketball and tosses it after saying, "I gonna get a spare!"

He's back!

Jeromy is back from his conference and things are starting to get back to normal. Whew! It's so crazy when he's gone. Whenever he does go somewhere, he brings us back souvenirs. So while in New York City, he went to M&M World. He got the girls some swirly straws that have the M&M guys hanging on them so you can twirl them around. He got me a kitchen towel with an M&M on it that says "Bake or Broil Baby!" When he was about to take it out of his suitcase, he tried to get Audrey to guess what it was. Thinking of how I like to cook, he asked her, "So what does Mom really like to do?" She answered, "Cleaning!" We chuckled. Then he clarified, "No, what does she like to do in the kitchen? And sometimes you help her with it?" The enthusiastic answer: "Cleaning!" We chuckled heartily. I guess when you're doing something all day long (or at least it feels like I do it all day long) they think you really like to do it.

Christmas Update

Christmas was great! We went to my parents' home in Idaho, all 20 of us (10 adults, 10 kids 5 and under- 4 of which are newborns)! We had a lot of fun, and suprisingly none of us got and spread the flu this year. Most of our free time there was spent watching Psych, our absolute favorite TV show (many of both of our families agree the main character reminds them of Jeromy, which is probably why we're such big fans and also why those who know Jeromy enjoy watching it). It snowed a ton on Christmas Eve, so everyone went outside to play. The adult boys made a huge snow fort complete with furniture and a slide. That night when Santa came, Audrey heard him and his reindeer on the roof and told EVERYONE about it the next day (although nobody else heard him, if you know what I mean). It was really fun to see so many young eyes so big with excitment about Santa.

We wanted to bless Jacob while we were up there since most of our families would be able to attend. We got the needed permission to bless him in my parents' ward, and then they canceled church that morning (church was at 8:30am! Imagine getting 20 people fed and bathed and dressed that early!). So the bishop came over and Jeromy blessed Jacob in my parents' living room. It was really nice. And we were especially grateful that Jeromy's parents, sister and her family, and grandpa came 40 miles away early that morning in not-so-pleasant conditions. It was so nice to have so much family there.

We had lots of fun, lots of good food, and very good company.

Barely Breathing

So I haven't written in awhile for a few reasons. Just so we're clear, I'm not about to complain, but rather to explain why I haven't posted anything in awhile. I know you've all been waiting patiently, ha ha. Here goes.

The week before Christmas, obviously, we were preparing for Christmas. While at my parents' home in Idaho for the holidays, we didn't have the internet for a week and a half (hard to imagine, I know). We got home on the first and had 8 loads of laundry and a cold waiting for us. Then last week Jeromy was working late every night (the earliest of which was 8pm, the latest 11:30) getting ready for the big conference of the year in NYC. Now he is at the conference; he left yesterday. And he won't be back for 3 more days! Needless to say, I haven't had any time to even breathe lately, and won't get another chance till about Thursday. So there's your explanation. See you on Thursday.

(By the way, I'm feeling a lot better now that I'm watching my first episode of John & Kate + 8 on TLC. At least I don't have twins and sextuplets. But I should probably watch something else during my brief amount of down time).