Looking On The Bright Side

One very constipated four-year-old=various remedies (I'll spare you the details)=one little boy freaking out and running around the house naked=finally having an excuse to purchase a carpet cleaner.

My Latest Obsessions

THE CONFERENCE ENSIGN: This last conference was especially amazing. So many of the talks seemed to be aimed right at me


READING: My latest obsession? Who am I kidding. I have always loved to read. I just wouldn't be me if I wasn't in the middle of reading something. I am just about to start on A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I love the various movie versions, but have never read the book.

COOKING: Sometimes I love it. Sometimes I can barely stand it. Lately I've been obsessed with it. I have been experimenting with lots of new recipes, the best of which were these banana muffins. Super yummy!

Unfortunately, not all of my cooking attempts turned out so well. At least someone enjoyed this sausage and mushroom quiche.


CLEANING: I have been super obsessed with cleaning lately and am proud to report that I spent 24 hours lastweek cleaning/doing laundry. My obsessive compulsive side requires :) me to log all my cleaning hours. I should add a disclaimer though that the cleanliness level of my house doesn't always reflect my hard work. My kids are awfully good at undoing my cleaning efforts.

SOAPMAKING:Makenna and I have had a great time making melt and pour glycerin soap lately. Hopefully, we will advance to cold process soapmaking someday. Soapmaking has been a fun mother/daughter activity. We are giving them away as Christmas presents. The pictures are not actually of the soaps we made. Stay tuned for those later. I'm sure you're all on the edge of your seats, right?

Crunchy Cookies

I REALLY wish I had a picture to go with this post! Unfortunately, I didn't think about taking one until it was too late.

This morning I decided to make pumpkin shaped sugar cookies to take to California for Thanksgiving. Not traditional Thanksgiving fare, but I needed something that would survive tomorrow's six hour trip. Besides, Makenna doesn't like pie. Unbelievable, but true.

Anyhow, I had already made the dough and was busy flouring the table when Kevin came in. I had planned the cookie making to be a quick solo project, but Kevin got excited when he saw what I was doing and went to grab the rolling pin. We worked on the cookies for awhile and were just putting the third batch in the oven when I looked down and saw that he was totally and completely covered in flour from head to toe. And that wasn't the worst of it. I looked down at his hands and saw that they were absolutely filthy. Now I'm not talking about a little grime here. I'm talking about totally caked and thick with mud. He had been playing outside earlier. Needless to say, the cookies will not be traveling down to California with us tomorrow. However, I am going to let my kids eat them. I was serious when I said that I am a laid back mom. :)

Cute Conversations

Kevin: "Mama, what is a slave?"

Me (trying to explain in language he might understand): "It is a person who is trapped by another person and has to do lots of work."

Kevin: "Like flying?"

Me: "Umm......sure....and cleaning the house and working outside."

Kevin: "Why does Santa have a slave?"

Me: "Oh, a sleigh!"

Another Christmas conversation-

Jonathon: "Mama, wouldn't it be silly if Mommy and Daddy were really Santa Claus and they put cookies out for Santa Claus and then ate them themselves?"

Happy Halloween

House Update

People keep asking me what happened with this house. We were outbid. :( I'm sad about it, but hopeful that we will be able to find another great house.

Photo Booth

As I was browsing through my Sister-in-law Becky's blog today I came across these pictures of my kids. They were taken at the photo booth at Becky's fair-themed wedding reception. I couldn't resist stealing them.

Halloween Party!

I love Halloween!!! It's probably my favorite holiday. To celebrate the occasion, I am having a Halloween party on Friday, October 23rd at 7:00p.m. in my parents' "forest" (as my children call it). Bet you didn't know that Overton had its own forest, did you? It's basically a grove of trees near my parents house. There is an empty circle in the middle and this is where the party will be. We will be watching "Halloween Town" on our 52 inch big screen tv. We will provide hot chocolate, marshmallows, and whipped cream. I suggest you bring a chair to sit on, a jacket, halloween treats to share (optional), and a flashlight Please RSVP so I can know how much hot chocolate to make. Hope you can come!

The Human Alarm Clock

Are your mornings like mine? Is it a battle to get everyone out of bed in the mornings? I pretty much have to pry my boys out of bed every day, coming into their rooms over and over again with the wake up call. They seem to be pretty good at totally ignoring me. I've tried to get them to wake up with a traditional alarm clock, but they seem even better at ignoring it than they are at ignoring me, the human alarm clock. I'm often pretty annoyed by the time they finally straggle out of bed.

My experience with Makenna is even worse. Her bus leaves at six thirty, so the day starts pretty early. It's been a tough adjustment. Here's an example of a typical morning:

5:30 a.m.
The Human Alarm Clock: "It's time to get up! You really need to hurry!" You can hear a slight touch of irritation in her voice. It really isn't fair for one member of the family to have to get up earlier than everyone else. Wouldn't you agree?

Sleepy Girl: "O.K. I will, I will in ......just a minute." With these words she snuggles down even deeper into bed.

5:37 a.m.
The Human Alarm Clock: "You need to hurry and get up! You've already slept seven minutes longer than you should have!" You can definitely hear the irritation at this point.

Sleepy Girl: "I know, I know I will. I'm just really tired." She still shows no intention of getting up.

5:40a.m.
The Human Alarm Clock: "It's getting really, really late. I'm tired of you sleeping in so late every morning!" The annoyance is mounting by this time.

Sleepy Girl: "I'm sorry, I will, I promise....soon....." Feeling guilty, by now, but not quite guilty enough to get out of bed.

5:45 a.m.
The Human Alarm Clock: "Hurry and get up! I'm really mad at you!"

Sleepy Girl: "Sorry Makenna. I'm getting up right now."

See what I mean? Would you want to be practically dragged out of bed each morning by a cranky tween?

Makenna's New Hairdo

Makenna has a new hairdo. I love it! Her hair looks so adorable short. Sorry about the hairs tweaking out. You can still get the basic idea.

Over the years Makenna and I have struggled to come to a consensus over her hair. Her hair is really fine and thin, so I prefer it short and curled. She wants it long and straight. I insist (for now) on her keeping it short enough to look healthy. But we do have a styling compromise: she styles it M-Sa; I fix it on Su. It seems to be working out okay, though both of us cringe on the day(s) we don't get to style it.

This is a day that I did it. How could I miss those hairs sticking out when we took the picture??? Oh well. If you see Makenna please tell her how great her hair looks. She could use some convincing.

Another House

We viewed this house today and placed a bid on it. It is a super adorable house! I have really fallen in love with it!

The pool is one of the many things I love about it. The thing I don't like about it: the price. It would be a stretch for us. So I'm excited about the possibility of getting this house, but stressed that we might not be able to afford it. Jared seems certain though that we CAN afford it, so I hope he's right because it is a fabulous house. I can't believe that there is a possibility that we might actually be able to live there someday.

My Sleeping Sweeties

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that Jonathon had abandoned his bedroom and bed after taking a facebook quiz. For those of you who didn't catch that post, the quiz was entitled, "What scary creature haunts your room at night?" The answer: A Scary Doll. Since then he has been terrified to go in his room, so he and Kevin have been sharing a bed. I have to laugh at how they fight until they fall asleep and then snuggle the rest of the night.

Neither of them are wearing pajamas as you can probably tell. Some of you will probably be totally horrified and disturbed to learn that none of my boys EVER wear pajamas to bed. Shocking-I know!! They don't seem to want to, so why bother with extra laundry? Please don't report me to CPS!!!!

These last two make me smile. I think I love my kids most when they are asleep. Besides the fact that they aren't crying or whining or fighting (which are all huge bonuses!), they just look so sweet and innocent, almost like they did when they were babies.

Hopefully, Jonathon will eventually move back to his own bed, but until then I will continue to enjoy peeking in on these two at night.

Overton Update

Makenna started middle school this year. Yikes! Where has the time gone? I am seriously wishing that 6th grade was part of the elementary school, but I guess I have to let her grow up someday. Luckily for me, she still thinks boys are gross. Now if she can just maintain those feelings for another 10 or 15 years....

Makenna has adjusted well to middle school and seems to enjoy it despite the occasional challenge of getting her locker to finally open and making it to class in the measly 3 minutes provided by the school. She is playing the flute in band this year, taking dance lessons, and wants to join the school art club.


Matthew is in Mrs. Hall's fourth grade class this year. He seems to be enjoying it. After school he likes to play outside, make complicated paper airplanes, read nonfiction books, and play the wii. He is very creative and has an amazing imagination. He spent over a month this summer traveling with my parents and had a wonderful time. The highlight of his trip was seeing the turtles in Central Park when visiting his Uncle Michael and Aunt Catherine in New York City.

Jonathon is having a great time in Mrs. Bailey's second grade class. He especially loves math. Like Matthew, he enjoys playing the wii and running around outside. This summer we moved him into his own room. Unfortunately, soon afterwards Makenna helped him take a facebook quiz entitled, "What scary creature haunts your bedroom?" The answer: a scary doll. Now he is afraid to go in his room alone, even in the middle of the day. Thanks a lot Makenna! At night he squeezes into bed with Kevin who doesn't seem to mind. They look so cute together!

Kevin turned four in July. He is such a sweet, loveable guy. I love having him at home with me during the day. He smothers me with hugs and kissed and frequently tells me how much he loves me. I may need to go back to school soon, so I am really savoring the time we have together. His latest toy obsession are three little toy "Jedites."

I love these guys (and girl) so much! Sometimes I wish I could trap them at their current ages forever. They are such sweethearts. They mean everything to me!

Forks

Hey all you Twilight fans out there-

Are you jealous?

Michael & Catherine

Can you believe it? One of my brothers finally got married. I seriously thought that day might never come.

I am SO totally completely thrilled to have Catherine Biel Leavitt as my Sister-in-law and so proud of my brother Michael for choosing so wisely. I couldn't be any happier that the two of them are married. We arrived a day early to meet her family. They are fabulous! I am excited that my brother married into such a wonderful family!

They were married in the Seattle temple. Their reception dinner was held at Matt's in the Market at Pike Place Market in Seattle.

Here is the view from the restaurant. I can't take credit for any of these photos though. I stole them all from Catherine's facebook page.

Here is a picture of the newlyweds. Catherine looked stunning in her wedding dress!

Another picture of the cute couple. They are going to be living in New York City for the next few years.

Doesn't Michael look happy? What a great day it was for all of us. I am so happy to have Catherine in the family.