SUCKER!!

I got Katelyn's pictures back and there's a story to go with them....
I went to Target Portrait Studios with a coupon. It was good for a FREE 8 X 10 and then $3.99/sheet. I planned on getting some 5 x 7s, 3 1/2 x 5s, and wallets for a total of $11.97, right?!?
After they took some pictures of Katelyn...

They said, "Would you like to be in some pictures with her?"
I said, "Oh, no! I don't look good, today."

They said, "How about just your arm?"

I said, "I'm not wearing a nice shirt."

They said, "Just roll up your sleeve."

And we took a few pictures together. And they were CUTE!

I also had Brookelle with me...

They said, "Would you like to have some together with the baby?"

I said, "Oh, no! I literally whisked her from her crib, sleeping, to come here. She's not ready!"

They said, "Babies are always adorable!"

I said, "I don't want her picture taken in this outfit."

They said, "It's very cute with just a diaper on. We have a diaper cover in black or white. Which one do you want?"

What I didn't say, "She's got poop leaking out her diaper & I left the diaper bag in the car!"

I said, "Do you have a bow for her hair?" I didn't have a chance to put one on."

They said, "No...BUT, she's got enough hair, she'll look great without one."

And so the two girls took some pictures together. And they were CUTE! (I'm not sure if poop got on their black diaper cover or not. Hey! They wanted me to do it!)

And I walked out of there spending $53.20! That's a 444% increase above projected budget!

Needless to say, the next time one of our kids was due for pictures, I sent Matt. He took detailed notes of what I wanted and walked out of there spending $11.97!

TRAINED!

Ever since having children, we've had to figure out how to handle middle-of-the-night awakenings together. For obvious reasons, Matt can't do a thing for a hungry baby during this time, so we came up with this plan: I get up with our babies EVERY time until they're weaned AND THEN Matt gets up with them from then on -- for the rest of their lives!! For any of you out there who are thinking that doesn't seem fair must have had better sleeping babies than mine or can't remember those "baby nights!" Believe me...Matt's total # of times will never equal my total #.

Anyway, along those same lines, our children have always been early risers who think they have to come into their parent's room first thing and wake them up/let them know their awake by tapping on the mattress next to our face. They usually ask for "pink milk" and for help turning on a show ~ or nothing! FOR YEARS I have been trying to teach them that it is NOT good manners to wake people up! I also try to teach them that it's not time to wake up until the sun is shining - well, that backfires on me in the summer! But, until they learned that lesson, I also have trained them to go to Dad's side of the bed in the early morning (and leave me alone!) They have got down the "going to Dad's side" part, but were still struggling with the "leave me alone" part (like when he's not there or won't wake up or they're LOUD & come in multiple times.) I continued to reiterate the lesson of "good manners" each time. Needless to say, Matt always obliges them (to avoid the "weeping & wailing & gnashing of teeth"), but he hates it. (They have no reason to stop if he keeps giving them what they want!)

Well, this morning was a momentous one...

Matt had left VERY early to go to the temple, so when Katelyn came in, of course, she found his side of the bed empty. I vaguely remember a voice saying (to herself), "Where is he?" I think I might have groggily replied, "He's at the temple." And then I went back into my slumber and heard nothing more. Later on, I felt a presence and I opened my eyes and saw Haylee on Matt's side looking at the vacated spot, but she thought I was still asleep. She never said anything and turned to leave. I don't know how much later, but eventually I woke up at a normal time. When I went out into the rest of our house, I found the boys & the baby still asleep and Haylee was entertaining herself, but I couldn't find Katelyn. I looked in every room - TWICE! I asked Haylee and she said she hadn't seen her at all since waking up. I finally went out to the garage and there was Katelyn sitting in our stroller with a blanket. I asked her what she was doing. She said she was waiting for Dad to get home. I guess she knew it wasn't important enough to wake me up for nothing!

And then I realized...those girls are finally TRAINED! YES!! Neither one of them tried to wake me up because they have LEARNED that would be rude (and it wasn't officially morning, yet!) It only took YEARS, but we made it!

Not pictured: Me doing the "victory dance" now!

Now if I can only train the kids to clean up after themselves! :)

Ryan just can't stop smiling!

After "the game", Ryan's 1st words were, "I AM SO PUTTING THIS ON THE BLOG!"

And, so here goes Ryan...

UTAH 48, "the team down south" 24

I'll make it easy for you Cougars. I'll make your comments for you, I KNOW what you'll say:

• "It was a TOTAL fluke!"


• "The officiating was sooo poor!"


• "Max Hall had an Off-Game!" (But he's still up for Heisman.)


• "Dennis Pitta was injured!"


• "The weather was a factor!".....Oh wait, we're having record high temps for November.


• "We just wanted a piece of the BCS check!"

But, could the REAL reason be that the Cougars just aren't "living right?!!" :)

BY RYAN

WOW! I surprised myself!

I was reading a TAG post on my SIL, Mandy's, blog and there was a category where you had to write, "8 Things that happened yesterday." Seriously, my first thought was, "I'm glad I don't have to answer that one - I didn't do anything yesterday! I for sure wouldn't have 8 things to say."

This is where Matt gets the idea that I'm a bit of an "extremist." He thinks I use words like, "Never," "Always," "Nobody," "Nothing," "All," "Every," etc. too freely ~ do y'all notice that about me, too? He "always" tries to tell me that what I say when I use those type of words is really not true "at all."

So, I started to reflect on WHY I responded so "extreme" to that TAG question. Well...it's because yesterday I didn't shower. I put on clean underwear and got dressed, but no shower. I also took a nap. My three oldest kids were at school, Katelyn went to a friend's for 4 1/2 hours, and it was Brookelle's nap time -- I just couldn't pass up this perfect opportunity. How often do my lucky stars align that way?!? So, because of those two incidences, I'd jumped to the conclusion that I didn't accomplish "anything." Well, Matt's right - it wasn't completely true - because upon further examination, this is how yesterday actually all went down...(Humor me, allow me to work this out - it's therapy!)

1. Up at 6:45am
2. Fed the baby, changed the baby, held the baby, put the baby to sleep...REPEAT 5X
3. Drove the Jr. High carpool
4. Read scriptures & had Family Prayer w/ kids (Matt had to go into work early again!)
5. Walked my Elementary School kids to school
6. Went out w/ friends to "Birthday Brunch" for Shawnette
7. Made 15 Freezer Meals for hours
8. Taught Ryan how to call & order Pizza (see #7)
9. Ate Dominos Pizza for dinner ~ ya gotta love "Two for Tuesday!" :)
10. Washed a load of WHITES (or else I wouldn't have clean ones for tomorrow - and wonder if I didn't shower again?)
11. Performed "surgery" on my thumbnail that started ripping way too low
12. Read a bedtime story to Katelyn - Trouble in the Barkers' Class by Tomie DePaola
13. Helped Haylee read a "real" book - Bears in the Night by Stan & Jan Berenstain
14. Instructed Kyle on how to put together a "Pioneer" costume for the 4th grade performance/assembly he was in the next day and where to find all the stuff.
15. Spent time with My Man! (Matt)
16. Went to sleep a little after Midnight

So, it turns out...what I initially thought was "Nothing" was really a whole lot of "Everything!" I hit "all" the important things in my life: Time with each member of my family, spiritual needs, taking care of myself, Friends, and household chores. (notice that one was listed last!)

Shop 'til you Drop (or 'til the baby lets you know she's HAD IT!)

I just got back from our Annual Park City Shopping Trip, a.k.a. "The Lakeland Ward Reunion." This is a group of friends I met 12 years ago from where I used to live. At that time, Ryan was only 9 months old and he was my only child. The rest of us had one or none or REALLY YOUNG children way back then, but our families & children have all grown through the years (we now have a combined 58+ children and a couple of them are GRANDMAS!) it's been fun to stay in contact all these years. In fact, only one person in this group is still living in our old neighborhood - all the rest of us have moved other places.

We start out on Friday morning at 10:00 when the Outlet stores open and we don't come home until Saturday evening! We stay at two condos that are next door to each other, but don't sleep much! We shop (duh!), go out to eat together, do a "Show & Tell" the first night...then we all go out shopping the next day and buy what everyone else bought that we loved! For the real DIE HARDS who can stay awake, they end the weekend with dinner & a movie in Layton (I rarely make it that far!)

While in Park City, we usually always go to Ruby Tuesdays and get this big back room...Here we are...(clockwise from the bottom left) Tera, Mandy, Robyn, Jamie, Kayelani, Jenny, Kay, Lauri, Kylie, Diane, Julene, Melanie, Cindy (w/ baby Lindsey) & Me (baby Brookelle was cut out of the photo!). We missed Tish, Kim & Julie this year.

Brookelle REALLY was very good considering what I was putting her through - she got to know her stroller VERY well and I appreciated all the other "Mommies" there to help me. But the interruptions to her eating and sleeping schedule took it's toll and she let me know about it at times...usually while I was half-dressed in the fitting room and couldn't escape quickly! Then she would finally "conk out!"

I always save my birthday money from Sept. and spend it here - Thanks Mom & Dad Fowers & Brenchley. I also get a start on Christmas. Well, I did manage to fill my trunk up. Just one problem...where should I put my stroller now? I even would say I "held back" a little bit more than usual thanks to the Economy being the way it is & all! :)

Thanks to my SIL, Nicole, for giving me a "Friends & Family" discount for GAP/Old Navy/Banana Republic, I got some great DEALS there and I used multiple coupons practically every else too, of course!

Here are some of the favorite purchases:

• Bath & Body Works Anti-bacterial soaps 5/$10 - Have you tried Freshwater cucumber? I like it!
• Black dress boots (that can zip up over my calf! a small miracle!) $27.09 - I really thought about getting some brown ones, too, in a different style, but I talked myself out of it thinking it was a "frivolous purchase" (blame that on the Economy, also!)
• A Pizza Stone $6.38
• A silicone scraper thingy (for pan/pizza stone/counter/griddle) $0.99
• Two LONG white "under shirts" (for when one's in the wash) to cure my "problem" mentioned in my prior blog post! $3.50/each
• A butterfly Halloween costume for next year $4.58
• Some things for Christmas that I can't mention by name because my kids read my blog $3-5
• Matt's (& the other husband's) favorite: A "Special Item" from Rue 21 - another part of our annual tradition :) - to compensate for any "pain & suffering" they may have experienced in our absence $0.99
• Not included in my trunk this year: Wrapping paper - The Paper Factory closed since I was there last. DANG! They had good stuff & I always stocked up!
• Matching dresses off the Clearance rack for all three of my girls - what are the chances that they had EVERY single one of the sizes I needed? They're thrilled to be "triplets!" $5.75-6.39

Now I need to RECOVER - Yah, right - like that's gonna happen!

Random Question of the Week

What time do you get ready for the day?

This is seeming to be a problem for me a lot lately...

You see, I start out getting ready for the day in the bathroom each morning, but if (more like when) I get interupted, I leave the bathroom before I'm done and then I forget that I never finished and I go on with things...Thus, abandoning the "getting ready" task.

Most often, it's minor like I didn't get to blow dry & brush my hair all the way out, so it's all funky & not very cute. Leaving the pick stuck in my hair is a common occurance, too. Sometimes, I go places wearing slippers or those big, thick, fluffy socks by mistake. And then I realize (when I happen to look down) that not only do I not match, but they're buldging out of any shoe opening AND I look absolutely DORKY! Those are bad, but it doesn't stop there! Oh No! It doesn't. I also don't get my make-up on at times - that in itself isn't that big of a deal, but it's when I start, then don't finish. You see, my very first step in applying my make-up is using this cover stick -- that happens to be green! (It's suppose to be good on red splotchy areas and/or blemishes.) So, I dot this on random areas of my face and then...you guessed it... leave the bathroom and that's as far as I get. Later in the day, I'll be talking to someone and I think to myself, "They sure are looking at my forehead/chin/nose a lot (& weird)." And, it's not until I happen to walk by a mirror that I see all the green dots! It'd be nice if someone in my family would tell me about this, but I guess they're used to it and think it's suppose to be like that?!? I think my least favorite side effect of my problem is this one...On occasion, I can be out and I look down and see a white shirt on my body and I think, "Huh? I thought I wore a red shirt today!" Then it all comes back to me...I must've made another premature exit from the bathroom that morning! The white shirt is my first shirt I put on and the outer shirt must still be at home! The problem with this?? This first shirt is SUPPOSE to be an "under shirt" - NOT meant to be worn alone. No, No, No! It is too short (especially on my post-baby body). It's use is to provide coverage & a "pop" of color up top ONLY, like with a V-neck. So, needless to say, it doesn't cover my stomach all the way and looks horrid if worn alone (with everything hanging out.) Again, when I see THAT in a mirror (when it's too late. of course) I run through my mind how many people actually saw me like that - always too many!

Why didn't someone tell me?

They probably didn't want me to feel bad by bringing it to my attention that my shirt doesn't fit! Well, that's not the worst problem -TELL ME!

Anyway...what time do all you normal people get ready?

The "New" Katelyn

Last month when I posted photos of Katelyn's "self-hair cutting" tactics, I asked y'all to give me your critiques...only ONE of you guessed correctly on which side was cut! 75% of you could not even tell and 16% guessed the wrong side altogether! (F.Y.I. it was her LEFT side.) So, because of that, I went ahead and waited the extra month to cut her hair until I got her 4-yr. old photo taken. (After all, ya can't call it a "4-yr. old" picture if she's not officially 4-yrs. old! - does this mean I'm OCD or something? Probably!)
I took her to get her pictures the day after her birthday and then the next day, I took her to get her hair cut to the length she cut it on the one side. Now, watch...just because I'm so "efficient" (for a change) something will probably go wrong with her photos and they'll call us back in to "retake" them! Please, NO!

Here's Katelyn in her photo "get-up." (The "before" picture.)

And, here's Katelyn admiring her new look! (The "after" picture.)

When we were driving home from getting her haircut, I kept looking in the rear view mirror at her. At one point I exclaimed, "Oh my word! Who's that girl in my back seat?!?" She answered, "It's your daughter, MOM! I'm the 'New' Katelyn!"

Moments when it's OK to say, "Oh crap!"

Go ahead, leave a comment...I know you want to!

More and more cute at 4!

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY, KATELYN!!!

Ever since Katelyn was little, little, I've always said to her,

"You're Simply Adorable!"

Last night during Family Night when we were talking about & celebrating HER, I asked Katelyn what I always say and I prompted her by starting out, "You're....." and she finished it, "Simply Adorable!" Of course, everyone there started to laugh and she loudly proclaimed, "I AM!"

YES, SHE IS!

WE LOVE YOU, KATELYN!!!

Katelyn is having her first birthday party today...I asked her what she wanted and she said, "A Princess Party!" (surprise, surprise!) I asked what we should do to make it a "Princess Party." She said she wanted doughnuts with pink icing & sprinkles and to play the Princess Memory matching game.

Period. That's it. That's the whole party!!

*I'm sure my SIL Nicole, "the party maniac," would be appalled with this "party!" :)* Well, I thought that was pretty kind of her to go so easy on me since I can't accomplish much these days, but I also knew her plans needed a little "help." So, I took the liberty of adding a few more activities, food, & details to her party....and because of that, I'm not gonna have time to sweep the kitchen floor, put the stacks of folded laundry away, or clean bedrooms...but 3 & 4 yr. old girls shouldn't mind, right?!

Just please don't let their mothers notice any of it when they bring them! :0

**I've made my "Gratitude List" this week (on the sidebar) all about Katelyn, if you want to know more.**

Look out, Angelina Jolie....

I got this new product. It's called, "Plumping Lip Glaze."

"Hmmmm!" I thought, "Kind of interesting. Does it really work?" "Do I want it to work?"

Well, let me at least try it out....

There's two parts to the tube and two steps in the application.

1) One side is clear and when I put it on...my lips get a tingling feeling - almost stinging/burning. (this must be inducing the "plumping?!")

2) The other side only appears to me to add color & shine.

But, YOU be the judge - did anything happen?!?

BEFORE

AFTER
Are y'all thinking, "She has got to be NUTS!" (to put this close-up of me on here)...or maybe I just have a "healthy self-esteem?" **My inspiration is my cousin, Valerie, I figure if she could post a close-up photo of her "eyelash break-off trauma" about a month ago, I could do this! :)** I don't know...I actually first had the photos on the medium size and it was WAY too horrifying!!

You're Welcome! I'm sparing you with only the small size.