Blast Off

This is one of my latest projects. Anthony and Spencer's closet doors stood out too much in their room, and I was having a hard time liking their room. Grant gave the suggestion that we paint a mural on the wall. I am no artist, but figured with his help and a few circles we could come up with something decent. Anthony was gone for a sleep over and while he was away his dad and I got to work. Grant drew it and together we painted. I have never painted so many coats of blue nor have I done some many touch ups. It was great to be able to surprise Anthony, and now their closet doors fit in with the room and not stand out.

Sleepy Head

Sometimes sleeping in the toy closet is more comfortable then sleeping in your own bed.

Apple Juice

Why is when your cute daughter comes home from school

bringing home leftover


her little brother

has to find it and begin to spill it all over the living room floor and then after that decides that one little puddle of apple juice is not enough and the whole living room floor and hallway needs to be blessed by his goodness. And what is his mother doing during all this you ask? Working on an outline of our Primary Quarterly Activity that is coming up in a couple of weeks and she needs to finalize the plans so she can e-mail it to the President and Bishopric for approval. Can mommy clean it up right away, no I need I to run and get daddy from work. On the way out the door, Spencer sees another golden opportunity to spread what the little puddles of apple juice around some more; however this time his mommy is faster than him and sweeps him off to the front door. Now an hour later we are home from getting daddy, Mommy who needs to make dinner so she can run off to pack meeting in an hour is on her hands and knees cleaning up Spencer's blessing while Daddy is putting in headlights so I don't kill myself while driving to and from my meeting. Where is Spencer you ask? Fast asleep in the car. I see a golden opportunity, leave him out in the car where he cannot get in trouble and the I proceed to clean up the apple juice blessing with:

Round one took me 30 minutes of being on my hands and knees and with round two I can use my handy wonderfulHopefully it will only take two rounds of cleaning up the apple juice and all its sticky residue, because I have yet been able to completely tackle his last adventure with food in my kitchen. Spencer has a very helpful sister who likes to make sure he has plenty to eat and gives him what he wants or leaves her pancakes covered in syrup for him to get and enjoy on the floor while her innocent mother is attending to other morning chores. I have now realized that there is no way I can keep up and I am now going to surrender to Spencer and his will. I am sure he watches and waits for me to be busy with other motherly duties and then goes for the attack. I wonder what blessing he will find next to spread all over our house.

Oh you ask about dinner, well you guessed it

Note to self: Tell Madeline's teachers to not allow her to bring home her apple juice or just to simplify everything give her water, at least water is not sticky.

2009

When thinking of 2009, these are the words that came to my mind. For 2009 I want:

To create memories and traditions for my family
To grow closer to my Savior, my children, and Grant
To endure whatever Heavenly Father gives me with faith and a smile
To remember my blessing
To find joy in the moment
To feel the love of my Savior, of my children, and the love Grant has for me
To learn how to be free of stress
To use my imagination and see where it takes me

I want this to be the year where I learn to create all around me as well as in all aspects of my life. So for 2009 I am going to create.

The wordle on top can be found here.

What a Holiday

Our holiday was a quiet and simple one this year. For the past few months life has been really busy and stressful and so we were looking forward to a quiet break. Grant was going to be off from work the entire time the kids were out of school and so the prospects of having no schedule no deadlines to meet was really exciting. However, what we didn't expect that at least one member of our family being sick during the holiday. I was sick Christmas Eve and Christmas day with the body aches and an upset stomach. So needless to say we weren't able to do any of usual traditions on Christmas or Christmas Eve. I was able to get up long enough to see the children unwrap their presents (which took all of 10 minutes) and then back to bed I went. I felt better then next day, but then it was Grant's turn to get sick and poor Madeline hasn't stopped her cough for at least two weeks. Took her to the doctor and they did some tests because the doctors were afraid she had a form of pneumonia. It turned out to be a virus and her Pulmonologist put her back on steriods and that seems to be helping. Spencer keeps having a leaky faucet out his nose and Anthony has been the only one that has not been sick in any form. It was still a nice quiet holiday and it was nice to do whatever we wanted whenever. I was able to get my creative juices flowing in finding ways to decorate the house without spending really any money and that has been fun. With me not feeling well and with having a kid and a husband not feeling well it has been a slow process, but I do see light at the end of the tunnel and hopefully now everyone will start to feel better and we can get rid of this bug once and for all. Because we were all sick I have no pictures to show you, because well we were too sick for pictures.

On Christmas morning, Spencer was more interested in finding food to eat (he never misses a meal or passes up an opportunity to eat), and when he wasn't looking for food he was busy playing in his room with his old toys. So the kids opened his couple of presents for him and every once in a while he would pop his head in the living room to see what we were doing and then quickly go back to his room to play. I was able to find a 4 foot dollhouse for Madeline within my budget and she is in heaven. She a little one that she would play with for hours everyday and now she has one that is taller than her. She got a couple of Dora toys which brought her excitement and a couple of Dora movies that I was able to find on e-bay. Anthony got excited when he saw a big lego star wars ship and an Indiana Jones lego set. I was also able secure him some star wars music cds on e-bay for a really good price so those have added to his imaginary star wars battles. Santa brought Anthony and Madeline digital cameras, nothing expensive but the kids enjoy taking pictures and the beauty of it is I don't have to pay to develop pictures.

Now we are embarking on a new year and we are looking forward to all that 2009 and will bring us!