Sunday!

Sundays are always an adventure!
Jeremy and I are now out numbered. To make things even more interesting Jeremy had to work last Sunday. Chandler had napped before church and should have been his happy little self. I was armed with snacks and coloring books! Once I was seated I noted that the entire stake presidency was there. (That is just asking for a major tantrum!)

Chandler kept thrashing in my arms and shrieking! Then Paige and Carter started a kicking, punching, crying brawl during the sacrament. I put Chandler on my hip and grabbed Carter by the arm dragging him out as he went limp and told Paige to follow.

One of our kind young women came to my rescue and took Chandler while I made Carter and Paige sit in an empty class with arms folded.

Once we all headed back into the meeting things went a little better. The Stake President started by saying how much he loved to watch Sacrament meetings. He looked right at me and said that he knew that no matter our circumstances he knew we were there because we know the importance of taking the sacrament, and that we needed to renew our covenant to always remember our Savior so we could have his spirit to be with us.

I don't know if his talk was modified for my benefit or not (his talk was on the temple). But I do know that it was what I needed. I know that we will be blessed for our efforts to do what is right. I definitely felt Heavenly Father's awareness of me on a Particularly crazy Sunday.
For that I am grateful!

Paige wants to be a "Hallerina"

Little miss Paige was so excited for her first dance class! They read a story and the dress up and dance out the book. It is really very cute. She has been saying for awhile that she really wants to be a "hallerina" and dance on her toes!



They read Madeline this week! She is such a poser.

I have tried to really focus on giving Paige some one on one attention everyday; and it seems to go a LONG way with how she behaves the rest of the time. We have been doing lots of fingernail painting and trips to the store with just girls. She really loves to help cook and I have been letting her help in the kitchen more. It has been fun and she loves to create something yummy. She is also a great help cleaning. (As long as it is the right task!) I can pull out my hair trying to get her to put her shoes away, but give that girl a washcloth and hot soapy water and she will clean the chairs, the cupboards, the floors, the walls, windows, you name it! So we go with that! :)

I love my spunky little Paige and hope that we can be as good of friends as me and my Mom!

12 Days of Christmas!

One of my favorite childhood memories is doing the 12 days of Christmas for a family in our ward! It is done in secret so we get to ring the doorbell and run! Last night we started this in our home. The kids were so excited! When we got to the car Carter was laughing and Paige kept asking, "why did we run?"

Here is our first gift:(If your in my ward don't tell on us! :))

Twas the first night of Christmas and all through your house,
not a creature was stirring not even a mouse.
'Cept suddenly one little soul did appear,
It is your Christmas friend bringing you holiday cheer!

Tonight calls for a Partridge in your pear tree,
but partridges are tough catches, you see.
Now, how about some pear bread, instead of the bird.
Indeed it tastes good, or so we have heard.

Tonight, this first night this sign you have been given,
one ring of the door bell, not six, and not seven,
But from every night hence one ring on this phone,
will signal a gift from your own secret Gnome!

Now beware of this warning- Your friends will be here,
But you better not look or he'll disappear.
And then all of your gifts that were carefully planned
on somebody else's doorstep will surprisingly land.


TRY this recipe for Pear Bread it is soo good!

3 Cups flour
1 teaspoon of Soda
1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1Tablespoon Cinnamon

Mix these in a bowl.
Remove about 1/4 of the mixture and toss with 1 Cup of nuts. Then add back into the bowl.
In a seperate bowl combine:
3/4 Cup butter
3 Eggs (slightly beaten)
2Cups Sugar
2 Cups of peeled and finely grated, firm, ripe, Pears
2 teaspoons of Vanilla.

Mix both bowls together just until moistened.
Pour into 2 9X5 Loaf pans and bake at 350. 60-70 minutes or until brown on top and clean tooth pick. Cool completly.

When We're Helping We're Happy!

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Having 19 kids under the age of ten get together for service is always an adventure! We met at our house! Supervised by the 12 adults this great group of kiddos assembled over 60 sack lunches for the homeless. I wish I had taken a picture of the whole group but believe it or not it was slightly hectic. My parents took on one of the most important jobs, while some assembled sandwiches, filled the bags with chips, drinks, apples, and cookies! I found a bag with nothing in it but apples, a few were missing cookies or sandwiches. For the most part they had done an awesome job! :)

We then loaded up in our cars to deliver our meals. After much driving and passing out few meals we decided to go to the Las Vegas library. People are always hanging out and they show free movies in the courtyard.

Carter was SO excited he would see people and ask, "Are you hungry!?" He had to be the one to pass them out! He came back to the car a very excited saying, "Mom we need to go get more! there are still more hungry people!" I told him that was all we had and he was pretty persistent that we needed to feed EVERYONE that was hungry! I tried to explain that we do what we can but we can't help everyone! He thought that over and said, "Well, who is going to build them houses? They were sleeping outside or in boxes!"

A huge thanks to all our friends who helped by coming and bringing supplies! I think it was a great activity and it left an impact on Carter! I hope that we can always teach our children how very blessed we are and the importance of helping those around us!

Big Girls Don't Potty In Their Pants!

That may be a hit song someday....Maybe not!

Paige was so happy that she finally got to ride a horse! She has been working hard to earn stickers on a chart and keeping her pants dry all day. The horse bribe was a huge turning point! Could she look any happier?

My Brother's neighbor was kind enough to let us come over for a ride!

I asked him the Horses name, he hesitated and then said Caballo. (AKA This horse had no name, and we were in the dessert... Ha! I guess it's song night! No there was no rain to get out of) Anyway, I digress!

The evening ended sadly. Paige was under the impression that Caballo now belonged to her! She cried the whole way home because she wanted the horse to come to her house. I asked her why she was crying to which she told me, "Daddy said NO!" I said, "what did he say no to?" She said,(with huge tears) "He said, No, the horse can't come to our house!" It was truly sad!

It is much better now and even though we have an ocasional accident Paige is always dry through the night and so proud to be a big girl.

(One day I suggested she wear a pull up to the store. Paige put her hands on her hips and said, "Mom! I am NOT a baby!")

Lazy Eye!

Carter started going cross eyed ocasionally. Then it became more frequent and he started watching TV and playing with his face turned to the right. We had our pediatrician give us a refferal to an opthomoligist. We learned that Carter has an elevated optic nerve. We then had lots of fun tests to find a cause. We had a MRI, CT scan, Nuroligist consultation, and then a spinal tap. The test all came back normal! (Sigh, glad that's over!)

I just love this picture. It is the epitomy of pitiful. The nurse told Carter that he was so brave and to have a great day. He looked her in the eye and said, "Well, I still don't like shots!"

What a sweet boy. Now we are going to get him in glasses and try to see if we can't fix his lazy eye.

I did ask for some of that medicine to take home but they only laughed.

It's all about the Pink

Anyone who knows Paige knows she is one tough chicky! This last week she desperatly wanted to go for a bike ride when Daddy fixed Carter's training wheels. So.....Daddy, not wanting her to feel left out, put her on the front of his bike. Due to the lovely proccess of insurance we now one week later have a hot pink cast!

We waited for 1.5 hours to get into the room waiting for the Dr. just to have the power go out! The disk with the images from her xray was in the computer. The Dr. said the reprot says her ankle is fractured so we could just go ahead and cast it and then he would call me in the morning. We have no idea how long it will be on or what kind of break we are looking at, but we do have PINK!

She is so excited! (For now) She insisited on having her own gloves and helping smooth the cast. The tech asked her if she was going to charge him and she promptly said Yes! We told her we were done and she said, "No, I need another one on my other leg!" They sure got a kick out of Paige!

We saw a Dr. in our group that is not our usual Dr. Paige sat on the table while he wrote notes and said, "Mom is that the black Dr?" She said it again and again! I was so embarrassed. Then he asked her what color of sucker she wanted. Paige sat and thought about it. He asked if she wanted red or pink. She said, "No, black!"

When we were waiting today I told her we had to wait to see the Dr. before we could leave. She looked at me and said, "Oh, he is black hu!?"

Oh Paige you are crazy! So cute in you pink cast! I love this sweet little girl that speaks her mind!