What I did today.

 

A little bit of this.

I rarely take pictures anymore. {I know that fact needs to change if I'm going to start blogging again!} However, the little monsters I call my children take a plethora of pictures. So to hold you over for a day or more, you can admire their inspiring works of art.

They always want to take pictures of me. They're like my own personal paparazzi.

I have no words for this. I clearly did not take this picture. {Hello! I would not take a picture of my house looking like that! I would just share it with all you lovely people who won't be judging me right now, right? Right?}

Even completely washed out Donald is still super cute and smoochable! {Nickname explanation still to come!}

Anything left out becomes a prop for my little aspiring photographers.

Oh little Max. So squishy and blurry.  <3

Here's another lovely one of the Momma Face. Yep that's me.

Have you ever seen puppy dog eyes like those? Who wouldn't want to give into this handsome little man!

Ah, the place where the light affixes to the ceiling. We shall hold this one near and dear to our hearts for many generations to come.

Taking a picture of a picture is always a good back up plan. Not sure what the back up plan is for, but at least we're prepared!

Yes, we have tiles {pretty sure they're a type of laminate} laid in with our "wood" laminate flooring. It sure is a conversation starter and adds character to our floor and beautiful home. Throw this one in the scrapbook!

Pretty sure this face says it all. {"Get out of my face!"}

Lucy is that you? I couldn't tell except for the fact that your skin radiates like your mother's. Oh and those amazing blue eyes. I love those.

Look at the beauty! Oh and my sparkling clean kitchen. See people, it happens once in a blue moon!

Not sure why this one got to be featured over a little Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, or Miley Cyrus. You'll have to ask Lucy.

The Left Foot

The Right Foot

Both Feet. Amazing, I know.

You might wonder where Squirt was for all of this fun. Truth be told, he probably took many of these beauties. Either that, or Lucy took them while Squirt was at school. She has to entertain herself somehow! I sure do love my little monsters and when I scroll through all the pictures they took I can catch a glimpse of what they see and how they look at the world {or at least our home!}.

The Toddler Turns Two

How does this:

turn into this:

Well, with a little bit goldfish crackers, caprisuns, bubble baths, numerous Toy Story 3 viewings, no talking (at all) and an over abundance of love, you too could grow one of these cute little guys. But it does take 2 years, many sleepless nights, sweeping up many messes, changing too many diapers with diaper rash, avoiding most wheat products, and goobered up shoulders (but mostly only the left one). Still interested? I didn't think so.

Happy Birthday Max! I love you to Reese's Pieces!

Whoever said raising a blog was easy...

I don't know how time does it. It seems to move in slow motion but go too fast to keep up at the same time. One of these days I'll get the hang of how to have 4 kids and then maybe life will be easier. Then again, maybe not!

As you can see, my blog is no longer private but simply edited. The stories are true (and the same) but the names have been changed to protect the innocent. If you don't know my children's real names you won't learn them from reading this blog!

Here are the guilty party:

Child #1: Squirt

Child #2: Lucy

Child #3: Max

Child #4: Donald (I'll explain that one later.)

Many, many, many, many, many things have happened in the past (almost) year since I have last blogged and I will not attempt to update everyone on everything that happened. But to sum up the year, we're all one year older and wiser too except for Donald who was born a measly 7 1/2 months ago. He's such a baby sometimes. Of course, that's the way we like him for now! I will post pictures of our older and more beautiful selves soon enough, but tonight it is bedtime. And thanks for stopping by!

The Princess Party

Rigby High School's spring musical this year was Beauty and the Beast. Before the show they had a "Princess Party" where little girls could show up in their pretty dresses and get their hair and make-up done like a princess. Then you got a picture with Belle and a ticket to the play. We didn't make it back in time for the play, but meeting Belle and some other characters was enough for Lucy!

Max was a real trooper while waiting in line. Well, maybe not, but he sure knew how to cheese it up when the camera was on him!

Here is Lucy's before picture.

Getting her make-up done. It may not look like it, but she was in HEAVEN! She felt so grown up all throughout this process.

Getting her hair done. This girl was such a sweetheart. Lucy's hair had been done in braided pigtails all day and this poor girl sure did her best to cover up the crimped look!

We were supposed to get a picture from them, but like I said we didn't make it back to the show. But this is my picture of Lucy with Belle. All of the characters from the play were so nice and I was really impressed with how well they treated these little princesses.

Post Script: This is the dress that Lucy got for her birthday. It made Lucy feel so pretty and special for this little event.

The Shiner

First off, I promise my children are in a loving and protective environment.

Second, I promise I am not typing this while Lucy screams at the top of her lungs in time-out.

Third, I promise that only one third of the time I say I promise I don't mean it. :)

World, meet Lucy's shiner that didn't go away for a long time! I don't know exactly how it happened. She said she hurt her cheek on the opposite side of her face but ended up with a black eye that continually changed colors but never seemed to be going away!

And, of course, the shiner was present when Max had his little incident.

We build 'em tough.

The day after Max's birthday we found out exactly how tough our little man can be. And just how badly he can scare his parents! We were trying to get everybody ready to head out the door and between all the hustle and bustle the gate at the top of the stairs was left open. When I first saw Max he was on the second stair down (he doesn't do stairs yet) and by the time I got to the stairs I watched him fall off the edge of the open staircase about 5 feet down to the basement floor. And land on his head. Luckily the basement floor is carpeted and that cushioned his fall a little. And luckily he was protected by our Heavenly Father that night. Because of the way he landed and how far he fell we decided to take him into the ER, just in case. It was rough keeping him awake the whole way to Rexburg because it was already past his bedtime and he was traumatized from falling. But we made it there and it happened to be a slow night in the ER. They examined him, did a CT and everything looked fine. We were able to take him home and watch him through the night. The next morning he woke up acting normal and the small rug burn he had on his forehead from landing was almost completely healed. Otherwise, there was no indication he was hurt at all, no bruises or scrapes. Nothing.

I'm not sure why we were so blessed that night, there could have been a lot worse consequences. But little Max was tough through it all and I'm so grateful for that.

All I remember feeling that night is well, extreme guilt because I'm the mom and it's my job to protect my children. But the thought I had was that I haven't had enough of him yet. And I hope that feeling never goes away. I can never get enough of my children.