Visiting the Dentist

Today Audra and Claire went to the dentist. It was Claire's first visit. She was scared that she would get a shot, so we had to explain that dentist's don't give shots. Despite her unwarranted fears, she did awesome. I am always shocked at how well she sometimes behaves in public, but as one friend of mine said, "It's much better if they behave in public rather than at home!" She's right. I'll take tantrums at home over tantrums out in public every day of the week.

 Claire refused to wear the glasses, but other than that she really did great:

And the best news- no cavities!

Little Stinkers

Here's some of what's been going on in our neck of the woods:

 Look how proud of herself this Little Munchkin is for getting into mischief. She just barely learned to crawl, and now she is climbing stairs. What happened to my nice LAZY baby???

Then, witness for yourselves how the older girls have taken to putting half a million toys and pillows in their beds. I don't know how they have room for themselves in their beds!

I don't know what these girls will think up next!

Crazy Clothes Day

Friday was Crazy Clothes Day at Audra's school. She was SOOOO excited! (Of course, when she told me it was crazy clothes day, I thought "Oh, like what you wear every day"- but that's beside the point). She spent a long time getting her clothes picked out (yes, that's a stain on her shirt- this picture was taken after dinner). You can't tell, but she was also very specific about how I did her hair. She had 4 pony tails, one of them braided. All her idea.

I think she was the only one in her class who dressed up crazy. Nevertheless, she had a great time and I think she looked awesome!

(And what's with her pose? I have NO idea! Apparently Crazy Clothes Day also turned into "I'm a rapper- what's up!" day as well)

Cell Phone Pics

I decided to upload the pictures from my phone- I noticed I pretty much only take pictures of Camille. But, in my defense, she is REALLY REALLY cute:

 Here's one of Audra and Claire at the Halloween Party with Ms. Henley:

 Here Camille is just this last Saturday at the park (yes, it was in the 60's on Saturday- we didn't even need jackets):

 Isn't this about the cutest picture you have ever seen:

Lucky Eights

Today was a big day for a couple of reasons:

Ben and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary

AND

Camille turned 8 months old!

Fun, fun!

After 8 years of marriage, I learned something new about Ben. These pictures pretty much describe the difference between the two of us:

 After 8 years of marriage, I looked into Ben's sock drawer (above). It is so meticulously organized! I do not know why I never looked at his sock drawer before. He definitely has a Type A personality, which isn't exactly my type- as evidenced by my sock drawer (below):

Ben calls my sock drawer "disturbing."

Somehow, though, despite our differences we work. In fact, I have to say- I LOVE being married to him. I love being married. He makes me happy, and I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual.

Then, here is our little Camille Bug:

At 8 months she is still a very happy baby. Well, she did get a little sick and she did NOT enjoy that at all. Poor girl.

Here's some of her milestones:

-The biggest one is her crawling! She is ALL over the place, and is very fast. She loves the freedom of crawling.
-Trying new foods: Oatmeal, mango, green beans, squash, flax seed, plain yogurt, applesauce (she doesn't like either the yogurt or applesauce alone, but she does like them together)
-Still not sleeping through the night. She was doing pretty well, but then when she got sick it screwed up her sleep schedule.
-Her pincer grip is getting really good- she can pick up small objects, so we have to be careful to make sure there is nothing of the floor
-She's sitting up great- no worries about needing therapy!
-Her first tooth came in- bringing super rosy cheeks with them

Overall, it's a great day to celebrate two of my favorite people- Ben and Camille!

In Mourning

I KNOW it is really dumb to get so upset over something so trivial, but it doesn't matter.

Ben and I are in a state of depression that the Broncos AND the Seahawks lost this weekend.

I know, I know. Aren't there a million other things to be more concerned about? Aren't there problems MUCH more severe than a silly football game?

Yes, and yes. Absolutely.

But that's just it.

This past year has been incredibly difficult. REALLY difficult- things I have already discussed on this blog in regards to devastating current events. But that's not it- there's been some other things that have been pretty tough to deal with.

Silly football has been a release. Something to be happy and excited about. A distraction from all the troubles of life.

And now it's over.

And we're sad.

Thank goodness we have these cuties to remind us what REALLY matters in life.

Stink Face

 Camille loves making a "Stink Face"- and we love it, too:

 Audra used to make a stink face as well:

I don't like to brag, but I Ben and I sure have cute kids.

Sick, But Spunky

I think Camille and I are the last one sick- the other girls seem to be doing much better.

Yesterday, on top of being sick, Camille also finally cut her first tooth! Her bottom front left tooth popped through. Now I don't know if her fussiness was because of her horrible flu or cutting the tooth. Either way, I feel bad for the poor girl- it's been a miserable couple of days. Even though she still looks cute.

 Then, Audra wrote this note and left it on her door:

It is supposed to say:

"We want to live here. Please do not come in."

She and Claire built forts in their room and then told us we could not go in their room- and they were very serious about it. We had to do the entire bedtime routine outside of their bedroom. Aren't these notes not supposed to come for about another 4 years?

Winter Blues

Things aren't going well over here.

Granted, I know some of you have been hospitalized or are headed to the hospital or had Christmas ruined by sickness. So I know things could be worse.We aren't headed to the hospital quite yet.

But there are plenty of runny noses and sore throats around these parts, which means we have not been able to leave the house. In fact, we have yet to leave the house this year.

Except Ben. He is our one holdout. That's great because he needs to go to work, but bad because that means I am left at home ALL DAY with sick kids with lots of energy who can not leave the house. It's too cold to play outside, and we're too sick to be in public.

We have gotten creative- even though I have absolutely no energy to do so.

The girls dressed up Camille:

 We bowled (this kept them occupied for 45 minutes- yahoo!):

 We made marshmallow snowmen:

There has also been HOURS of coloring and LOTS of reading. They got the book "Enchanted"- based on the Disney movie of the same title- for Christmas. I told them we could watch the movie after we read the book, and we have read almost the entire book- pretty good since it's 150 pages. Tomorrow night we will have a movie night.

We also might be watching a lot of TV tomorrow besides movie night.

I am spent.

Any other sick day activity ideas???

2013 Predictions

I'm posting a lot today- I guess that's what happens when a new year begins!

Last year I did pretty well with my predictions- only missing one of 12. That probably means I make very boring predictions. This year I will try to go a little more out on a limb.

Here's my 13 predictions for 2013:

13. No trips to the ER (Hey, it's worked the last two years, so I'll put it in here again!)
12. We'll take an extended trip to Seattle (we had better- I miss my family and can't wait to see my family and Seattle friends!)
11. Seattle vs. Broncos in the SuperBowl
10. I will lose 20+ pounds. That's definitely a goal of mine, and I do have a plan. Hopefully it will work!
9. I will use my teaching skills outside of primary. (I have a couple of things in the works, which I will not divulge just yet, but I'm starting to miss teaching and I would really like to put those skills back to good use. We'll see!)
8. Ben will go to Bethesda, MD for some job trainings that he has been nominated for (How close is that to you, Shells? Maybe we'll come with him and be able to see your family and finally meet Freya!)
7. Our kitchen re-model will be complete and perfect
6. Camille will hate nursery (it seems the third child always hates nursery)
5. I'm planning on signing Audra up for a running club. I predict she will be brilliant. She absolutely LOVES running, and is faster than all the boys.
4. Camille will be driving me nuts getting into everything
3. Audra will know how to read, and Claire will know her ABC's
2. We will have a whopper of a snowstorm that will shut down the city for a couple of days (we haven't had one for awhile and are about due for one)
1. Overall, things will pretty much continue as normal: Endless political fights on the national level, overall good health for our family, and just trudging along doing the best we can.

Here's to a GREAT 2013!

Camille's Crawling!

After weeks of preparing, Camille is officially crawling! Here's some video for the Grandma's to watch:

 

Claire's Song

There is a song at church that the kids learn that goes,

"When my mother calls me, quickly I'll obey."

Tonight Claire sat down at dinner and sang,

 "When my mother calls me, I will run away."

That pretty much sums up life with Claire- she has her own take on just about everything, and it's usually not good for Mom. (And, as a side note- just what IS nursery teaching???)