Twenty One Weeks

I still can't believe how big Gavin is. When we unwrapped this sweater my mom sent for Christmas it looked pretty big, but putting it on him, the only thing too big was the sleeves. And not by much. I love our big boy! He is so happy all the time. As long as he is fed and rested!

Kaylee and Sophie

Sophie loves all of her cousins, and Kaylee is no exception. She came and stayed at our house for almost a month and we couldn't have asked for better house guests (although Max may not agree - he and Allison didn't get along). This is the last day Kaylee was with us. She and her family are off to Turkey for a couple years with Shane's job. What a great adventure. But Sophie will totally miss Kaylee. She loves her so much and they had a great time together doing everything. Everything from having sleepovers to coloring to playing computer to talking about the Jonas Brothers that Sophie now loves, even though she doesn't really know who they are. That's what big cousins are all about.

See you soon Kaylee!!!

Cats and Dogs

There couldn't be anything more fun to watch than these two playing together...

NOT

They Hate each other I think. Allison would steal everything from Max, especially his CARS, and Max learned how to hit Allison. Max would scream any time she went near any toys in the house and Allison would cry. One day we will look back on this and laugh about the whole thing. But not today. I have never seen two kids fight as much as they did. But they'll get along one day - right? Maybe. But she is so stinkin' cute, I hated to see her go. Even though it did quiet the house down A LOT!

Gavin's First Christmas

He was all smiles today. What a special day, and he missed most of it by sleeping, but I won't complain. His first Christmas! Almost 5 months old! He was almost too little to even enjoy the wrapping paper like most babies. But it was so fun for us to watch him today in his little Santa suit. Poor boy was too big to wear the matching hat. It squished his face in. I love this little boy! Merry Christmas Gavin.

Christmas Day

Peter with some of his new Playmoblie toys he got for Christmas.

Sophie, sure that there is just one more present for her hidden under the tree.

The kids hanging out and loving the day.

The kids sitting in the cool new car Santa brought for them to share. And notice Sophie's new penguin webkin. She was so excited.

How cool is this! They are going to be so excited and cruising around the cul-di-sac come spring! Santa really pulled it off this year!

There were 4 families in our house Christmas morning. This was on my mind for months before the actual day came and went. I wanted to find a way to let each family have their own space amidts the chaos. So I had this great idea to give each family their own tree in different parts of the house. It worked out great. Except for the fact that we were slow pokes at opening our presents and everyone finished long before us. Oh well. It worked out great and we spent the day snacking, sleeping, playing and watching new movies. Gotta love Christmas, especially when you can spend it with family.

Aaron and Matt

Seems that my kids aren't the only ones who steal my camera...

We all love Aaron and Matt!!!

Christmas Eve Nativity

Every year the Ford's have all the grandkids act out the nativity. This year there seemed to be such a large group together that extra costumes had to be made so everyone could be included. There were extra parts added too to fill in the story. We had the angel Gabriel, King Herod, and a real star (cute Shelby)! Along with a heavenly host of angels and a flock of shepherds. They did a great job too since Grandma was behind the scenes directing all of the kids. Of course Sophie was an angel and Peter a shepherd, although Sophie did go through a period of indecisivness where she wanted to be a shepherd because she ALWAYS has to be an angel. Sorry kiddo, that's the way the cookie crumbles when you are a little girl cousin. Max, well we decided it best not to disturb his happy mood and he sat with us. Gavin was going to be baby Jesus, but backed out at the last minute on account of sleeping in a classroom down the hall. We had our big dinner and family night at the church. There were 50 of us there!! I wish I had more pictures of the night. Like the cart full of pumpkin pie, or the 7 tables set up in a horse shoe and decorated with the little stockings full of silverware that JoAnne and I slaved over! And all that food! 2 turkeys and a ham. 2 pans of green beans, and stuffing, pitchers full of gravy, and a huge 11 layered jello, a huge vat of mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, lots of salad and so much more! Sad to report that we did happen to forget to assign out rolls. So we were roll-less on Christmas. I was sad, and so was my addiction to bread. But my mouth is still watering thinking about it all over again! It was a great night. And then we came home to get ready for Christmas morning...

Rich

Rich is a pretty cool Chiropractor. He has some great patients. And at Christmas this year he got spioled by some of them. He got goodies, a hand made blanket, treats, and our favorite, this t-shirt! He may never wear it out in public, but it is hilarious!

"snappin' necks & cashin' checks"

Passing the Time

Well, the TV and movies were on WAY too much, but that's not the only thing the kids did. I found these pictures on my stolen camera after more than an hour of quiet from Sophie and her cousin Caleb. Not too bad for almost 6 year olds! They had so much fun!

Gingerbread Houses

The kids had so much fun creating their own gingerbread houses today. But, they were a little sad when I told them we were not keeping or displaying them anywhere. They were to be made and eaten all tonight. There is no where to keep 10 gingerbread houses out when there are 27 people sleeping in the same house!!! But how fun for all those cousins to have mass sleepovers every night??!!! I love Christmas traditions! Thanks JoAnne for the gingerbread houses! Peter. Who needs a house, all you need is candy.

Sophie - notice the lack of frosting. She hates frosting.

Claire, Sophie, Kaylee, and Sarah

Peter, Caleb, Justin, and Joe

Temple Square

Always a fun tradition to go and see the lights at temple square, and always a bitter cold night. We even had the kids bundled beyond belief with snow pants and all. But they were still so cold. The lights were beautiful and the sidewalks crowded with families out enjoying the spirit of Christmas on the last Sunday before Christmas. I loved the nativity scene in the middle of the reflection pond. And no trip to temple square is complete without a visit to see the Christis. The kids favorite thing to see and do. Max was mesmerized by how big it actually is compared to the small picture we have of it at home. But after such a cold night tonight, we have decided to cancel our trip to see Santa's Village outside in Ogden tomorrow night. One cold night is enough for me!

Twenty Weeks

Life is not so good in the sleep depatments these days. Gavin is in our room because of company and I hear him and he hears us and we have had several restless nights.

So Gross!!!

Sophie loves to play with baby Gavin. This time it went too far though! They were laughing and playing around until the next thing I hear is "Ewwwwww, help, MOM help me!!" I knew exactly what had happened, having seen the scenerio play out a thousand times in me head before! And what a good sport she was to hold the moment (with a smile) while I pulled the camera out to capture the spit up waterfall that Gavin poured out onto Sophie during a fun few moments. I was just laughing.

Dance Class

I loved being able to watch my little ballerina today in her parents preview dance class. She is so adorable! And she is so tender hearted. They did some ballet and then some tap. At the end they did a little dance number and Sophie missed a step and she bawled and bawled about it for a long time afterward because she didn't do it right. My heart broke for her. I didn't realize her self expectations were so high. It turned out all right after a while, and she is still going back to dance. I love my little girl.

Peter's knock knock joke

Knock Knok

Who's there?

Peter

Peter who?

Peter loves his mama!

Present for Dad

All the kids came together to do a present for Rich this year. But this afternoon Peter decided that he needed to give Rich another present. IT was all Peter's idea! This is how it went. And he was so proud of himself for doing this all by himself.

I don't really play with this toy (small ninja turtle) anymore mom. What should I do with it? I will give it to Dad for Christmas. Can I get some wrapping paper? Oh, this will work (the wrapping from goodies the neighbor brought over last nigh). I put lots of tape on it mom. And I bet Dad would like this piece of candy cane too(can you see it at the top of the present?). I'll tape it onto the present. Dad will LOVE this present, I just know it. He will be so excited!

Nap time...

This is the second time this week Max has emptied his diaper basket into his crib durning nap time. I guess that is a clue that I need to move the basket.

Words he says:

car, uh oh, more, mama, please, cheese, wow, nana (banana), go go, sucker, gee (binki), Gav (Gavin), gross, done, on, no,

Sounds he says:

oink, meow, woof woof, neigh, roar, moo, ho ho ho,

Tumbling Preview

I was the camera happy mom at parents observation day in Sophie's tumbling class. She LOVES tumbling, and she is actually better than I thought she was. I don't know why I doubted her. She practices every day, no every hour of every day. She cartwheels all around the house. It was too cute when this last week she has been working on her kick over. She wanted to be able to do it all alone for this parents class and she just isn't there yet. She was so worried she spilled a stream of tears over the matter. She even went as far as writing her teacher a note telling her she couldn't do it. I didn't get to read the note because she wrote it and sealed it in an envelope before I had the chance. I love my little darling. Keep on tumbling!

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

With only a few presents under the tree, this giant one was bound to take some attention. The box was so big that Max thought it would be a great stepping stool! He was on and off of it for days. Dancing on it, sitting on it, jumping on it. Good thing it is a sturdy box with a durable present inside for Max. It has already taken a beating and Christmas is still a ways away.

Nineteen Weeks

Gavin found his sea legs. No longer jelly when you try to stand him on your lap. He likes it! Just another sign that he is getting stronger and bigger. But we all knew that. Holding him is like holding a ton of (cute) bricks.

On the hunt

Have you ever made your list, and checked it twice??? And then once you get to the store they don't have what you need/want? This was Christmas shopping at its finest on Saturday. Mostly done, but needed a few more (specific) items, Rich and I headed out for a 'quick' run to the store. It turned into a 3 hour extravaganza looking for two things. We quickly figured out that the hot toy of the year is a Penguin Webkinz. And we have a determined little girl that wants nothing else. They all said the same thing.
"we have lots of webkinz over there, but we're out of the penguin. Good luck finding one..."
And the other was a Cars spiral speedway. It has two twirly ramps with two little cars cars. Perfect for Max.
Well. 24 hours later we have to say thank you to ebay who had a penguin lil'kinz webkinz (that we paid too much for, but we have it) and a hard working late shift employee at Walmart who spent the night searching the stock room for the spiral speed way that the computer said was there but two other employees said was not there. Christmas is complete. Just need some candy. 15 days to go...

Eighteen weeks

Well Gavin has started to wiggle around. He no longer stays in just one spot when lying on the ground. I come back and he is sideways... And he lifts his shoulder and hip off the ground just a little. Just enough to know that rolling is coming... And I thought he would stay a baby forever. Silly me.

Lasting Lessons

SUNDAY
me - Hey Peter, what did you learn in church today?

Pete - Uh, I don't know...

...

Pete - Today my teacher told me that you pick it and you flick it, or you pick it and you stick it. But you can't pick it and then lick it.

me - speechless.

Pete - (lots of loud laughter)

TODAY
And now it is a regular saying in our house. Peter has the best teachers in sunbeams. They are a young married couple, and Zack can really get through to the wild bunch of boys. And now I know why. He can really get down on their level, and they love him for it. I don't know if the nose picking saying has helped curb the bad habit, or if it has only encouraged it for Pete because he loves the little rhyme... Gotta love church.

Seventeen Weeks Old

Uh oh... I have discovered what really happens when I leave the room after putting him down to nap. He usually cries for a minute and then drifts off to dream land. Though I had no idea he had a companion. His thumb. I snuck in his room while he was sleeping to put something away. And I peeked at him and saw him sucking away in his sleep!! Well. I hope it doesn't last. Or at the very least, I hope it doesn't start happening in the day. What is worse. The binki, or the thumb? He doesn't like the binki any way. He's like Sophie in that respect. I tried to make him like it, but the older he has gotten, the more he would refuse it. So we finally put it away all together. Sophie too. And I would find her sucking her thumb in her sleep too. Not once has she ever done it durning the day. And then she finally stopped all together. I hope the same pattern follows with Gavin.

Gimme 5

5 things I was doing 10 years ago:
1. Just finishing my first semester at Rick's College (BYU Idaho). Having just moved there in September without knowing any of my roommates, anyone in Rexburg, the state of Idaho or anyone in the USA for that matter (besides family in Arizona). What an exciting time in my life.
2. Walking everywhere. I didn't own a car.
3. Loving taking the backseat on campus. In high school I was ra-ra-involved in everything from drama to band to student counsel to yearbook. Call me a nerd or whatever. I loved not being involved in anything. But at college no one had any expectations of me and so I didn't live up to them or fall short of them. I was a new me. It was a nice break. Now, as it turns out, I would like to be a little more of my high school self and be more involved in everything going on around me again.
4. Eating like a college student. A lot of cereal, rice, frozen pizza and brownies. Not all together in case you were wondering.
5. Dating? Yes. And of course I thought I would marry everyone I dated. Turns out I settled down and dated the same guy for over a year. That was the longest relationship I'd ever had. And no, it wasn't Rich. We didn't date that long.


5 things to do on my to-do list today:
1. Laundry
2. Mop the floor
3. Make layered jello with 12 layers. For dinner tomorrow. We are having Thanksgiving early tomorrow.
4. Make 6 pumpkin pies. I love pumpkin pie!
5. Take Sophie to tumbling and pick up the kids Halloween pictures from Target. Finally!


5 snacks I enjoy:
1. Apples
2. Cookies/cake (no frosting)/brownies
3. Raw almonds with bittersweet chocolate chips
4. Warm homemade bread with homemade jam on top
5. cheese sticks


5 things I would do if I were a millionaire:
1. Buy a house
2. Invest in Rich's business so it can be all that he wants it to be
3. Save money for the kids college/missions and weddings. So their wedding can be the ones in their dreams (and my dreams)
4. Take a Disney trip with my family and visit all the Disneyland's in the world, and do it with no expense spared.
5. Do service missions in South America where you get to build houses, schools and churches for those that need it.


5 places I have lived:
1. Canada
2. Idaho
3. Iowa
4. Pennsylvania
5. Utah


5 Jobs I've had
1. Sales girl at a shoe store
2. Domino's pizza delivery girl
3. Blockbuster
4. Waitress
5. Apartment Manager


5 Holiday Foods or Traditions I Love:
1. Pumpkin Pie!!! One of my first memories of me and Rich together is Thanksgiving 8 years ago. We weren't dating, but I spent Thanksgiving at his house (another story for sure). We ate a whole pumpkin pie between the two of us for breakfast one morning. It must have been love...
2. St. Nicholas Day. December 5th. We leave a shoe outside of our bedroom door and St. Nicholas leaves a small gift that fits in the shoe (earrings, toy cars, candy) if we've been good. Or coal if we've been bad. I did it all growing up, and we have carried it on with our kids.
3. Dressing up for dinner. We've always worn next to our Sunday best for all special holiday meals. No jeans and T's allowed. I think it makes dinner taste even better when you treat it so special. You go to all that hard work to prepare delicious food and have a beautiful table. The least we can do is dress the part. I can't believe some people actually wear super casual clothes to those dinners.
4. Valentines Breakfast. We pull out our hand wash only fine china. Do up the table all fancy like, and make a gourmet breakfast. And of course cupid leaves his little gift on everyone's plate.
5. Not a real holiday. But we always go out to ice cream when the first snow of the year falls. We love ice cream!!!

Thanks for the tag. I love tags too. You always find out interesting things about others, and even yourself when you do them. And when I'm in a blogging lull they help break the ice.

Logical Laundry

I'd like to think of this drawing as directly relating to my life. But I'd entitle it "the reality of my life" And I'll tell you why...

Me & Rich, happily married. 2 people = 2 - 3 loads / week. No sweat.

Me & Rich & Sophie, a new family. 3 people = 3 - 4 loads / week. Bring on the challenge.

Me & Rich & Sophie & Peter, family of four. 4 people = 4 large loads / week. Not willing to stretch any further.

Me & Rich & Sophie & Peter & Max, bring on the new baby. 5 people = A necessary 5 - 6 stuff the washer to the brim loads/ week. One load a day with no weekend laundry. Down pat.

Me & Rich & Sophie & Peter & Max & Gavin, add the sweet little baby 6 people = Throw a wrench in my wheel. Unwilling to accept the inevitable. Picture me in diagram #7. Must figure out 7 loads/week!! What does a girl do??

I refuse to do regular household chores on the weekend. Rich gets the weekend off, and so should I (as much as possible). We leave the weekend for family fun or big projects (like the garage!). So somehow I need to figure out a new laundry life. I have accepted the fact that I can no longer get by on 5 loads a week. No matter how full I fill the washer. My system has been squashed... How do you out there do more than one load per day? I am baffled.

Sixteen Weeks Old

Gavin is my jammie baby. I have always been big on dressing my cutie-pie's up in real clothes from a young age. But with Gavin the jammies seem to lag on. He goes out in public and even to church once in just his jams. He thinks they are super comfy. And why take a good thing away? Really, I can't decide if I am lazy, smart, busy or just tired and I don't dress him up. Maybe a combo of them all. I think he is in jammies 80% of the time. Wonder when that will end??? But on a different note. He has changed his all night sleeping pattern. He used to sleep 10 hours straight. Not now. It's more like 7 and 4. Midnight snack attack is calling!!! I want my full night of sleep back... But his day pattern is great. Up for 1, down for 2 1/2. Up for 2 down for 3. Up for 1, down for the night. Predictability. Ahh...

I conquered the problem!

About a month ago I was totally fed up with the toy problem in our basement. I was just about ready to throw them all away. Then I had a lightbulb moment! And now to back up a step. For since ever and ever the toys in the house have been kept on the shelves of our food storage room (behind the door at the bottom of the stairs). Random I know - but it seemed to work... Toys were always pulled off the shelves and dumped right there at the bottom of the stairs always being steped on and kicked. And then being shoved into the food storage when we had to do a mad clean up. I HATED IT!!! I did some surveing of the basement to try and think of a solution. I have a rarely used craft room in the basement. And voila!! The solution was as clear as mud. A little clean up of my Monica's closet, put up our stored toy shelf. Buy new toy buckets and I can breath again... It only took a weekend, a little blood and some needed purging and we are a toy happy home. There is enough room for the kids to dump buckets out and for me to not care! The clear and mtaching and labled buckets make for super easy clean up too. The new buckets are the perfect size for the shelves, and they all match. Perfect organization for me, happiness for everyone. And now that it is a month later, I can safely say that this was the best thing I have done in a long time.

Pinewood Derby

So Rich has two callings at church. Executive secratary, and cub scout master.

It really is a miracle this pinewood derby was pulled off in light of the changes in his life lately. Turns out this is the last thing he had to do with scouts.... for now.

Fifteen Weeks Old

I lost Gavin's binki this week. I searched everywhere. Even went to the store to buy a new one. They didn't have the kind I wanted. So... there goes his binki. At 3 1/2 months old he's done. Cold Turkey. He's not quite the addict with it, the way Max is. So it wasn't that traumatic. And I figured it's ok. We'll be better off without it, right?
Gavin likes to sleep in his bed, right? He doesn't like to sleep in my arms. So during those 3 hours of church, you can catch me in the hall most of the time. Just follow the sound of the crying baby. That's Gavin and me... And I don't know what to do. All he wants to do is lay down and sleep. The other week I actually did that. I went in the foyer and laid the blanket down and put him to sleep. Well, he's also a light sleeper. Today Rich took him for a few minutes and he fell asleep for him doing laps around the halls. But he woke up when all the warm womanly chatter began when Relief Society was starting. And then during Relief Society a friend left the meeting and found me (in the hall). Took my dead-tired-can't-do-anything-other-than-cry-my-eyes-out baby and told me to go in and take a break. I was so grateful to her. Gavin really is a wonderful baby. When he's rested and fed.
Speaking of feedings. There is no problems there. Check out those mega thighs!! Gotta love it...

Disney On Ice

Surprise!!

Rich called me Friday afternoon and asked what we were doing the next day. I was a little annoyed because he KNEW the long and tedious list of things to do on our one day off together. Especially since his parents were coming back on Monday and there were some outstanding projects that needed our attention. He shortly interrupted me and blurted out "I GOT TICKETS TO DISNEY ON ICE!!!!!" So let's drop everything...

We didn't tell the kids until we were driving to Salt Lake in the car. It was so awesome and they were thrilled with the excitement of a good secret and then the bursts of cheers were priceless when we finally told them where we were going! We went out to dinner at the Gateway after turning ourselves away from Build-A-Bear where there was a 35 minute wait in line... But that's really another story. But to interject a side story. Max, our wanderer, was happily walking beside our stroller. I didn't want to rock the happy mood in our family and let him walk. Well, when we entered the food court Rich and I looked at each other and asked "where's Max..." My heart dropped to my shoes. He was totally gone. What happened? Rich bolted off in the direction we had come pushing past the crowds of people running and scanning the outdoor mall for our little boy in his red winter coat, carrying his little fire engine. I was frozen for a minute, thinking, do I stay here with my 3 other kids, do I follow, do I ask for help. What do I do? I took the kids and we followed, at a much slower pace, behind Rich. In probably 90 seconds, but what felt like hours, we were reunited with our whole family again outside of a jewelry store. Someone found him, all alone, and took him in. We had to wait for security to come, and then we were off. Shaken beyond belief, but ready to continue. I'd have to say this was below the bottom of the totem pole in good parenting moments in my life. We feel blessed that things turned to our favor so quickly. The kids barely knew what happened, and Max wasn't phased at all. I should have put him in the stroller. I didn't want to share this experience. Embarrassed that we could have done this. But I didn't want to forget. You hear that this happens to everyone. Rich was actually left at a store once, and his family went home unknowingly. But until it happens to you, you just don't think about it in the same way. It was scary because Max is so little. He can't even say his own name. But as strange as it may sound. This was a bit of a spiritual experience for me too. I could feel my Heavenly Fathers love for me and my children. I could feel His trust in me as a parent. I could see answers to my quick and pleading prayers in my heart. I felt so deeply bonded with each member of my little family. I am so grateful for my family... It is the most important thing to me in this world. And we all returned to our happy family and had the best time in our back row seats at Disney on Ice. At first I was a little bummed, but soon realized they were rockin' seats for us. Because I had to get up and stand with Gavin a few times, and was still within range of my family. I'm surprised my kids didn't get frost bite on their eyes - they were glues to the ice!!! Max especially. And when Timone and Pumba came out (from the Lion King) Max couldn't stop with his little and loud 'snort snort'. We let the kids get cotton candy and a snow cone. We had SO MUCH FUN!! The whole day was just the way I wanted it (minus the loosing Max in the mall part). Everyone was happy, and we were just hanging out - doing the family thing. I loved it.

(This was Max, through the whole show)

She is ONLY five years old...

Today when picking Sophie up from school she was telling me a little about her day she was interrupted by a tap on the shoulder. A quick exchange of flowers from his hand to hers, and he was off. Sophie was so confused... I asked who he was. Cameron. But she wasn't really paying attention to me. Her attention was on the scenery of dead leaves all over the ground around her and in her tender innocent voice said "I don't know where these came from, I don't see any flowers anywhere..." She thought he must have picked them. I had to explain that they were a gift from Cameron because he thought she was a special friend. I had to admit I was a little jealous... My special friend hasn't given me flowers in quite some time. And no, left over flowers from the office don't count.

Turns out, Sophie has more than this one admirer. In parent teacher conferences last week her teacher told us about them. There is another one that likes to take care of Sophie. And she said Sophie is a really good friend. Always watching out for others, especially those that need friends. She is so sweet and thoughtful. It was so nice to have another grown up notice the same thing I do about my darling daughter. She had a good report.