Barbie Photo Booth

I found these pictures on our camera last June.

Had to share.

I'll give you three guesses as to who took these photos. And she's sometimes called "Miss Krogsworth." She makes me giggle.

I love you, Raleigh!

Raleigh's Shop of Horrors

Don't be afraid. Just sit here while I hypnotize you with my jelly-guy-on-a-string.

I may look scary in my fake red glasses and "dress" I made myself, but you can trust me.

I promise . . . .

Madeline's Mustache

Well, there it is. Madeline's most recent mustache.

Did you know she has a thang for mustaches? On herself?

Several weeks ago, we had dinner with some friends, and Madeline gave herself the most exquisitely red Raspberry Ice mustache.

And then she saved it for Show-and-Tell the next day at school.

That's how cute Madeline is.

Funnies from Raleigh

Tonight I was editing a book report of Raleigh's. For part of her assignment, she was supposed to tell how she could relate to the character. She wrote, "I can relate to the character because I like my dad better than my mom, too." (sniffle) . . . She came into the room where I was looking over her assignment. I began smiling, and she knew why! She said, "Don't feel bad, Mom, it's just my mood right now."

A couple of months ago Raleigh was having a difficult time sleeping because she was having scary thoughts. I asked her to pull out her scriptures and read them to help her feel better and have more uplifting thoughts. She groaned, "Oh, Mom! Why do they have to be so RELIGIOUS?"

Another night Raleigh was having a meltdown at the dinner table about whether the very last taco she was supposed to be splitting with her sister was a half or a fourth of a taco. (Because it HAD to be exactly right.) Later we were practicing fractions with Madeline, and Raleigh walked by us. I said (in jest), "I bet Raleigh knows the answer to this one! What is a fourth of a taco plus a fourth of a taco??" Without missing a beat, she quipped, "A FIGHT!"

A Plea from Emery

Hello, World . . .

Could somebody please

Find my sister

A good orthodontist???

Some Call Me Poppleton, Some Call Me Sushi

I'm almost eight weeks now, and you gotta get me outta this place! I make a fuss, and nobody listens to me . . . . They call me funny names like Poppleton and Sushi and Babycakes and Lil'Bit (that one's from my big sister, Raleigh.) I think these people are crazy - just look at them:

This is Raleigh, my biggest sister. She spends just as much time doing handstands and cartwheels around the house as she does walking on her feet! And look at what she did to the wall while my mom and I were sleeping! It was the backdrop for a seventeen-act play she directed. Everyone in my family got to be in the play except for me, and they performed it while I was sleeping!!

Here is specimen #2, my older sister, Madeline. She is wearing a purse on her head that she "insided-out" and some other crazy clothes. My Grammy helped her make the purse out of her old favorite blankie "Purps" that she's had since she was two months old, and it was ready to be burned! Hey, two months old? I'm almost two months old!

Now look at this girl. This is my older sister, Kensington. They tell me that's her name, but nobody calls her that. Oh no! It'll probably happen to me, too! This girl is dangerous to be around - they can't leave me alone with her because she smooches and loves me way too much. She goes around the house pretending to be a princess and says things like, "Pleased to meet you," and she calls me "Baby Derdaid" (Baby Mermaid). I hope that name doesn't stick!

I'm serious, guys, you've gotta get me out of this place! Just thinking about it wears me right out . . .

The Best We Could Get and Our Budding Artists

We were all dressed up for a swanky Southern Christmas Party when I decided at the last minute that we should capture this moment on film. (Or should I call it digitalia? Ew. That sounds almost gross.) I couldn't get the girls to act natural and hold still at the same time, so here is what we ended up with:

Those hands on the hips . . . I don't know where they come from! But the two older girls liked it so much that they copied her:

I said, "Okay, whatever. We are NOT getting any good pictures! Just make a funny face!"

And how in the world did Choobs know how to make a funny face? I didn't know that she'd caught on to what that was!

Here's our best family picture from the party:

In other updates, I have to talk about Choobs. She is getting so BIG all of a sudden. Even though she's still so little. I think she is one of those artistic child prodigies. Not really, but she does some pretty amazing things for a kid her age - at least things that Raleigh and Madeline didn't do, and they are both pretty artistic.

For example, she colors SO WELL. I will post a picture of her coloring sometime. She doesn't scribble all over the page; she concentrates on one thing at a time and colors it all in, (going out of the lines of course), but she is very focused. Then she'll sit there and draw circles all over the page, and if one turns out looking like a heart, she'll point and say, "Heart!!"

She is also a singer and dancer. When she is in the car, especially, she likes to sing really loud with a fake vibrato. When we're at home and she hears music she likes, she'll drop everything and "danth" (danth). But it's not your usual bouncing or hip-shaking that you see little kids doing; she uses all of her limbs, she dances at differing levels - she'll get really low, and then go up on her tip-toes, moving the rest of her body at the same time. She uses syncopation and gets really expressive and can honestly feel the music.

It is the weirdest thing I've ever seen.

I have to "act like its nothing" when I see it or else she will get embarrassed, otherwise I would have a video. Maybe sometime.

But the other thing is that she also has an amazing imagination already. She likes to take out this wreath form I haven't put to use yet and step inside of it, holding onto the sides. It looks like she's holding the bottom of a dress. Then she'll pat her chest (as if to point to herself) and say, "Printheth." (Princess.) I ask, "Oh. You're a princess?" And she nods her head and says, "Belle." Now our girls have a few things with the Disney princesses on them, but they have never seen the movies (except for Cinderella awhile ago), so she is coming up with this just from her own observation. And the other times she calls herself a princess (printheth) are when she is dancing.

That's when I feel like a princess.

Now here are some examples of her organizational skills:

Apples:

Barbies: (She set this up on her own. Is this normal? Maybe our other girls were just below-average! Seriously, do two-year-olds set up and play with Barbies? I don't know!)

Do they put Chap Stick on the stovetop? Perfectly situated?

Do they organize their animals into straight rows?

Raleigh is a bit like this, too. I'll find that she's left her mark here and there around the house. Like this:

This is a sculpture she left for us. It is a pair of tweezers suspended by a rubber band from a robe hook. She put it on the toilet, so I don't know if the toilet is part of the sculpture or just a backdrop.

And here is the leaning tower of La Creme:

Vanilla, of course.

I'm sure all kids are like this. But I am feeling very artistically stimulated by our children.

To Be a Fly on the Wall

EW! MOM! Choobs is picking her nose!" exclaimed Raleigh, aghast.

Madeline to Raleigh: "YOU pick your nose!"

"No I don't!" she lied.

"Yes you do," said Madeline. "I pick my nose," said Madeline. "It's a really bad habit. . . . I should try not to. Ew, Choobs, that is so GROSS! Mom, that is REALLY GROSSING ME OUT THAT CHOOBS IS PICKING HER NOSE. Yeah, I think I should stop picking my nose. THAT IS REALLY GROSSING ME OUT!"

"Well, I don't," lied Raleigh again.

The Bug Hunt

Choobs vs. The Gnat

(Please ignore the moving-in mess.)

Choobs vs. More Bugs

Miss Middle

After re-discovering the dress-ups on moving day, Madeline (the bride, wearing her "reading glasses") put on an impromptu story time for Chooberella, who got to participate in dress-ups for the first time in her little life.

Poor Miss Madeline, though. She has been a little accident-prone since we've been here. While taking her first shower in the "Girl's Bathroom" (and very girly it is), we heard a loud crash, and Madeline was covered in shower curtain with a pole on top. Not two days later, I walked past the other bathroom where Dallas and the girls were talking. Madeline was sitting on the edge of the bathtub, and I saw her, (IN SLOW MOTION), fall backwards into the tub with the whole shower curtain and pole falling in on top of her. She lay there kicking her legs, laughing and screaming, (while we were laughing and screaming), and we rushed to find her upper body and head somewhere in the jumble. The entire family saw it. It was a legendary moment for all of us.

But honestly, what are the chances of bringing down TWO shower curtains in THREE days? She's a legend. But it doesn't stop there.

I am reupholstering our kitchen chairs, and this accident happened:

I made her stay there until I could get a picture. (She was "a little sore because Mom made me stay there until she got a picture.")

Okay, wow, and then look at this mess:

All I'm saying is that it was DALLAS and the FILE BOX who caused this bit of trouble. Madeline escaped unscathed, minus her pride. If she had any left after a week's worth of accidents. I'm sorry to say that she is just like her mother in this department. Now where did I get it from???

My Wake-Up Call This Morning

I feel this tapping on my arm, and Raleigh says, "I think Grammy and Grandpa Bear are REALLY getting ready to come right now.  See, the clock says, 'FIVE-FIVE-SIX!'"  Later, when I got up to go work out, I was putting on my sock when I felt a wad of something in the toe of my sock.  I was like, "What the . . . ?" and pulled out Madeline's pink butterfly underwear.  Those little practical jokesters!  They like to do things like that.  They often like to fold Dallas' shirts inside out or put the wrong socks together.  Here are the little goofsters themselves:

Bubbles, Road Rash, and Trader Joe Goodness

I'm a big fan of blowing bubbles if I'm not the one doing it.  And tonight for FHE we held one of our favorite balcony activities: Bubble Blowing.  I got to watch!  This is the first time Kensington has blown bubbles for herself.  It was a proud moment.  Look for the bubble beard!

If you watch the video until the end, it shows our view to the East and North.  

In other news Madeline totally biffed it in the parking lot at Trader Joe's on Friday.  She was running in her flip flops, and one of them curled under, and her whole body kind of rolled up onto her face with her entire body in the air except her left cheek.  I saw the whole thing in slow motion (at least it seemed like slow motion) with this look on my face like, "What the . . . ?"  It happened so fast yet so slowly at the same time.  I'm one of those people who just kind of FREEZES when something bad is happening.  I'm pretty much useless in emergencies.

And speaking of emergencies, while we were in Trader Joe's, Raleigh and Kensington had their own little disaster.  I was pushing Choobs in one of those little buggies, and I was looking for a certain cut of meat in the meat section.  (Which, by the way, I always feel a little self-conscious looking at the meat there or using the actual shopping bags provided by the store.  I feel a little carnivorous/anti-green.  Back to the topic at hand.)  So when I looked back to the girls, the shopping cart was in this (again, slow motion) sideways plunge with Raleigh squashed underneath, and two shoppers and one store worker were attempting to catch it while I looked on with another "What the . . . ?" look on my face.  Luckily, the store worker caught the buggy, and Raleigh and Choobs escaped unscathed.  Besides Raleigh's pride, of course.  Poor kid.  But I would like to thank Trader Joe's for the following DREAMY recipe.  It was such a good sample, I bought the ingredients right then and there.

Trader Joe Smoothie Goodness:

1 can light coconut milk (14 oz?)

1 pint mango-tangerine sorbet

1/2 bag frozen mango/blueberry/raspberry blend (1 cup?)

Dump.  Blend.  Share.

"Tuesday," or, "The Day That Raleigh Ran Away," or, "The Day Dionne Lost Her Cookies"

Ah, yes.  You can see by the title that today was eventful.  And we've had such a good weekend, too.  You would think we'd have a good TUESDAY!!  Well, it starts like this:

I've had a row of cutely-bagged mint chocolate fudge square cookies from Costco (that are absolutely divine, in my opinion) sitting on the counter to hand out to friends and family and people who have come over.  Kind of for the holidays and stuff.  Obviously.  You may have even received some from us.  Anyway, there have been two bags left on the counter that I've been eyeing the past couple of days, hoping in my heart of hearts that no one would come over so that I could eat them myself.  (HA HA!  Don't even THINK about coming over right now- I love my chocolate more than I love you!!  Just kidding.)  It's just been my secret wish, that's all.  But today ruined it for me.

To make the story short, Raleigh RAN AWAY FROM SCHOOL all the way home today (in a blizzard, no doubt) because of a misunderstanding with her teacher.  Luckily, I was home, but we had quite the afternoon trying to repair a little kid's emotions and our relationship with her teacher and the front office staff.  

So the cookies on the counter??  Gone.  We had to give them away as a peace offering.  Gladly, it worked.

But I couldn't help but smile as I chided her about RUNNING AWAY FROM SCHOOL: she told me, "But Mom, halfway home, I stopped and prayed to Heavenly Father that he would keep me safe.  And he DID!"  Sheesh, kid.

I Have Something to Say:

Misery is waking up to the shrieks of your now-five-year-old (at 6:30 am Thanksgiving Day) sitting on the toilet: "Shoo fly!  Don't bother me!" to a gnat.

Bliss is ten minutes later, listening to your five-year-old and her older sister chatting happily in the kitchen, emptying the dishwasher and doing their 'sponsibilities.