genius

I am a genius. This is my new baby gate! What do you think? I know, you are thinking it looks beautiful right! Probably not...

Davie kept knocking down the traditional baby gate and the kids were having hard time getting over it to go up and down the stairs. Because Davie is most likely our last child I really didn't want to install one of the open and closing kind that attach to the wall. So I figured three 50 pound buckets of wheat would keep him from tumbling down the stairs; plus this way the kids can just climb over and use them as drums in the meantime. So FUN!!!

the latest and greatest

I know...finally! Here are some pictures and an update of what we have been doing...Due to General Conference falling on Easter Sunday we decided to dress up for Easter that last Sunday. The girls looked so pretty and Springy!


Adam loves the chickens. He likes to let them out in the yard and wander with them. When it is time to put them away he has come up with this very efficient method of carrying them two at a time. It is so cute!

Lily has been begging and begging to get her ears pierced for a couple years now. I have been all for it (if it were up to me I would have done it when she was a baby), but Scott has really been dragging his feet. He is really having a hard time letting his little Lily grow up. So he would tell her things like, "sure you can get them pierced, but it will hurt so bad and you will cry and cry." or "Remember how much the flu shots hurt? Well this is even worse - it is double to pain." It didn't work though and she still wanted them pierced. I finally decided that he really didn't have any good reason and I am her parent as well so I decided to get it done. Scott actually didn't fight me too much on it surprisingly...so last weekend she and I went to the mall and got it done. She was so brave and I have to tell you; she looks so adorable!!!!

We saw wild turkeys at Lisa's house. They were just out roaming on her property. It was really cool. They get all big and puffy trying to impress the ladies (turkeys, that it).
Lily had her 7th birthday at Aunt Lisa's house in California. The kids and I drove out there for Spring Break. I can hardly believe she is 7; I have to say...she the smartest, cutest, best little girl ever!

Davie is finally well! And so cute. He loves to make funny faces for me when I pull out the camera.
Lily lost her two bottom teeth (due to the dentist pulling them out - her two big teeth were grown in behind them quite a bit). It was her first lost teeth and she was pretty thrilled!

the belly rules the mind

Ok, so I know I have been promising a new entry; but I haven't downloaded my latest pictures, so in turn I haven't felt motivated enough to post anything new. I have, though, started a new blog that I thought I would introduce. It is entitled "the belly rules the mind" - basically it is my weekly menu. I will explain...

For several years now, in an attempt to keep my life predictable and organized, I have made a weekly menu. It is a menu of everything we will eat that night; from main meal to side dish and often dessert and special drink if applicable. Over time I have had requests to share my menus with people who need ideas or are busy (my sister Michelle mostly - she is a pretty busy girl). So I figured I would put them up each week with the recipes and that way anyone who needs some new ideas will have the option to use them.

I feel the need to make this warning: we do not eat like regular Mormons (I am sorry if you find that insulting); meaning there won't be a lot casseroles, I seldom you cream of... soups, or really anything with the word cream in the title, there are a lot meatless dishes, and a lot soups (I love soup). So if your family is big into meat and potatoes then this blog probably won't satisfy them (although their heart, blood pressure, and cholesterol may wish it would). I do occasionally cook with those ingredients and we do occasionally eat really fattening foods. But for the most part I try to make my meals as healthy as possible (to a point; I still like flavor). Lest any of you think I am a health nut, I should make it clear that I am not. I wish I was, but I like Cheetos way too much.

Here is the link; I hope this helps with your planning each week...

www.menumarvel.blogspot.com

Good Luck!

i promise i haven't fallen off the face of the earth...

someday soon I will post something totally awesome! Because I know I have millions of readers out there waiting in complete anticipation of what I will say next....

pic, pic, pic...here are some pics

Poor Davie; this was when he was really sick. So sick, in fact, that he actually fell asleep on Scott; normally that would never happen. It did make a cute picture.

I couldn't get this bottom pic to turn the right way....nonetheless; Gracie wanted "lots" of ribbons in her hair yesterday. So this is the result; six different ribbons, one happy girl in a tutu.

The funny part is that even when I took a picture of the back of her head she still said, "Cheese."

the time has come...

I have to admit, I have grown tired of blogging. I simply do it for the sake of my kids' grandparents who are all on the other side of the world (in opposite directions). I actually wish I could get on and rant and rave about the political climate, my frustrations with public education policies, insurance and how I know it is a rip off, my views on social programs and the welfare system, and so on (the list could go on and on and on). But no one really cares about all that and I think I would create a lot of enemies in the process. So instead of boring you with my endless opinions (and they really are endless) I will continue to write about the hum-drum day to day events; it is, after all, why the grandparents read...

The last few weeks have been full and very tiring. As I sit here and write Davie is screaming because his one true love (ME) isn't holding him; he does that a lot lately. Gracie is rinsing off her princess shoes in the bathroom sink because a dragon attacked her on the way to the chicken coop and now she has mud on her shoes (her story, not mine). And Adam is secretly scrounging for food because he is "starving," but not starving enough the eat the grapes and oranges I have left on counter for them to snack on (no doubt I will find him with chocolate around his mouth).

So back to the last few weeks...about three weeks ago I contracted pink eye in both of my eyes. This was probably the worse case of pink eye I have ever seen; it took about ten days before I was able to put my contacts in again - I woke up each morning for about five days with my eyes completely glued shut. It was pretty miserable. By some miracle (and a lot of hand washing and laundry) none of my kids or Scott got it. But just as that was winding down David was starting to have something go on with him. He was getting fevers and throwing up all the time. I chalked it up to a bad cold or teething (although since then I have read that teething does not cause a fever). His fevers persisted and started to get high, like 102 and 103 degrees. Finally on Thursday, after this had been taking place for about ten days I decided that we have good health insurance and I should use it; so I took him in (despite the fact that I had just been in the week before for Adam who has some strange skin condition on the back of his leg). I figured the doc would tell me that he is fine and send me home. Boy, was I wrong. She began running all sorts of tests trying to eliminate different possibilities. Strep...negative. Urine infection...negative. Flu...negative. So we were instructed to go to the lab and have blood work done. I didn't think this was a big deal until I got there and realized they take blood from an 8 month old the same way they take it from an adult - from the vein in his little arm. Oh man that the was the saddest thing ever. Well, long story short (too late)...we have been going from doctors to labs everyday (except Sunday) since Thursday. Today is the first day I haven't had to go somewhere. They had to get blood from him three times (so NOT fun), he had to get two honey-consistency antibiotic shots and now he is on a regular medication. But he hasn't had a fever in three days and his blood looks really good. In the end my doctor figured he has some bacterial infection; she doesn't know what, but it looks like it is clearing up. Now he is just so used to being held all the time that he will hardly let me out of his sight.

So there is my last few weeks. My house looks like hurricane Katrina came through, my surprise, overnight, birthday trip to Park City was ruined by lab work and doctors appointments, and my actual birthday was ruined by our choir director who thought it would be a good idea to meet one hour before Stake Conference to run through a couple of simple songs (no french toast for me). Although on the up side, my birthday ended up being a lot fun with some really good food, Davie is feeling better, Gracie continues to make me laugh everyday, the chickens (that we are babysitting for Renee for a few months) bring much delight to the kids, Lily is excelling at school, and Adam is...well, still Adam. Plus I have very kind friends, neighbors, and sisters who have helped me tremendously over the last few weeks during the many many trips I have made to all the different medical facilities that I have had to visit. So life isn't so bad and even if is seems that it is; it is definitely looking up.

holidays

Lily is OBSESSED with holidays, and especially her birthday (seriously she takes it to a whole new level). Tonight she said the funniest thing...here goes:

Lily: Mom and Dad, there is this funny holiday right before my birthday called Passover (her birthday is March 31st).

Emily: Oh, that isn't a funny holiday, it is a Jewish holiday.

She wasn't listening at all because she just jumped right in and said this:

Lily: There is also some other holiday called (looking at the calendar) "Daylight Savings Starts." What is that?

It isn't nearly as funny typed out, but boy were we laughing at the time. So everyone prepare for the new holiday of Daylight Savings Starts...

and life continues...

Being mom is tiring (and hard, and frustrating, and depressing, and just hard again) at times, so I guess it is pretty good that I take cute pictures of my kids so that I can have that little pick-me-up I need every now and then...

And despite the down times I occasionally have, I sure am grateful to be doing this whole "mom" business.

Adam is snacking on some peanut butter. He tried to tell a joke yesterday that wasn't funny really, but it made me laugh nonetheless. Here goes: "What happened when the alien crossed the road? It got hit by a car!" Not really funny, but oh, how I was laughing at the time...

Doesn't this look cozy....Mr. Peeps apparently likes to sleep on a slanted roof. What a strange cat!

She wore this Cinderella dress ALL day, even when she went out to ride her bike...

back up and running....sort of

Our computer is still slower than tar, so we are thinking we just need a new (used) one. In the meantime I have some totally awesome pictures (maybe a bit of an overstatement) and the lowdown on Peeps.

Isabel brought Grace a life-size Strawberry Shortcake balloon for her birthday. So fun!!! Gracie wore her Jasmine pants all day...she doesn't even know who Jasmine is.

Baby Lucy (Renee's baby)

Such the cutest boy!

Happy Birthday to my Gracie, who still insists on being two.

Adam wanted to take a picture...maybe we need to have a lesson on lighting.

Clearly someone is a rough sleeper.

You know, if you are ever feeling down a good snuggle with a life-size balloon will always do the trick!

Seriously, how darling is that face!!!!

It is a blessed day when they start holding their own bottle.

A few weeks ago Peeps shows up with some patches of hair missing; we figured he had been maimed in a fight (he thinks he is a lot bigger than he really is). Well the patches of missing fur turned into his whole back side with little blood spots. He was constantly grooming himself to the point where he had no fur left. Worried that maybe he had some disease or fleas we wouldn't let him in the house until we found out what was going on. He did NOT like that. He is totally spoiled. Well, last week I had to take him to the Humane Society for his rabies booster and I had the vet there look at him. He said that there was excessive grooming going on because Peeps is stressed. He advised that we take him to a full-service clinic and have him looked at. He would probably need a cone and some kitty Prozac. What!? Should I find a therapist as well? I mean, I would hate to have a depressed kitty. Seriously. I am not the kind of person who will medicate my depressed cat. I was sort of wondering if I could just slip him some Whiskey in his water dish. That ought to mellow him out, right! So I got home and called a clinic by my house. They set me up for an appointment for today. Scott was luckily off work and kindly took him in. It turns out Peeps is not depressed or stressed (who could be depressed living with me!), he has a rash. So the vet gave him a shot and said it should be cleared up in two weeks. What a relief! I guess I can bypass the liquor store....

it's not my fault...i promise!

We have had the lovely MISfortune of owning an old PC for these many years. I just love frugality and I love that my husband is the main instigator of it, but I have decided that owning an old PC for frugality's sake is just dumb - I waste a lot of time waiting. Let me explain...

I haven't blogged for a while not because I have nothing to say; on the contrary I have a lot to blog about. Gracie had her third birthday, Davie cut his first tooth, Peeps (I hope) is dying, and we are actually having a sunny day. I haven't blogged because we have spent the last week and a half completely cleaning all the JUNK off our computer. We have a backup computer, so we have been taking all the important files off this computer and saving them on that one so that we could completely erase everything from this one and start over. Why would we do this you ask (good question). Because our computer is so bogged down with viruses (despite the fact that we have anti-virus software; what a scam) and is so old that it was running at a snail's pace - we may as well have had dial-up. Actually I think dial-up would have been faster. Well, Scott figured that it would be a good idea to try and salvage this computer before we bought another one (which, I should inform you would be another old, used one - thank you frugality. Scott I love you and I know that that statement will inevitably start a fight - sorry). The idea of trying to save this one is a nice thought, but boy has it been a PAIN IN THE NECK!!!!!! So all my files are still on the other computer and I have just started to move them over - did I mention what a pain this has been. I hate PC's and I can't justify spending the money for a Mac.

Anyway, so there is my very long explanation as to why I haven't blogged in a long time. As soon I get back up and running, I promise I will post something - maybe some pictures of Gracie Lou! That always cheers me up!

P.S. I know it was mean to say that I hope Peep's is dying; but oh man, that is the most high-maintenance cat I have ever met and now he has some strange disease and his hair is falling out - I am taking him to the vet tomorrow and I am hoping they tell me he has some terminal illness. Isn't that terrible of me...I actually do like animals, I have just decided I like them at the zoo or someone else's house.

i know, i know....

I am always posting Adam's funny remarks, but I just can't help myself. My life is just that boring that I get my kicks from a 5-year old. Here is the latest and it is a doozy:

Adam: Mom, go faster (we were in the car)

Emily: I can't, I will crash into the car in front of us.

Adam: Then you would be dead?

Emily: Well, I guess that could happen.

Adam: Mom that would be bad...(I am thinking how sweet that is) because then Dad would get really mad at me because he would think I made you dead! (What!? So much for how sweet that is)

Emily: How about that would be bad because then who would be your mom!

Adam: Oh, Rachel would be my mom (she is the 16 year old babysitter and I am pretty sure she isn't Scott's type).

Thanks Adam; it is nice to know that I could be easily replaced and the only reason you don't want me to die is because Dad might blame you...I thought we bonded!

grace hill fashion inc.

Ahhh, my Grace certainly has an eye for an outfit. Check out these little morsels. I fully expect her to open her own fashion line someday; after all her name just sounds so design-y....

{Snow hat, purple heart shirt, light cotton pants with navy blue and pink stripe skorts on top, Adam's socks upside down (notice the gray sticking out of her shoes) and her sparkly shoes (on the wrong feet).}

{Hot pink shirt with purple hoodie, Adam's clip-on tie (she has really taken a shining to that tie), blue ruffle skirt, jeans (which you can't see).}

AND yes, she did actually go places in these outfits. I have quit fighting her when it comes to what she wears. Her cute blue eyes will always make her look adorable no matter what she wears (I do actually put my foot down on Sundays; but typically she will wear whatever I want on Sundays because it is a dress).

ghost rider and a little girl for sale...

Adam is on a roll today...he has been saying the funniest things all morning.

Adam: Mom, that car in front of us is probably a ghost car.
Emily: Oh really?
Adam: Yeah, I bet a ghost is driving it...


Emily (under my breath): Darn that Gracie...look at this mess.
Adam: I think we need to sell her away; maybe the Browns will buy her.


Adam: Mom, when will Davie have some teeth?
Emily: Anytime now.
Adam: Right now?
Emily: Maybe....
Adam: No, no, don't say 'maybe', say 'we'll see' (in Adam's mind maybe means "no" and we'll see means "yes")

finally

I have been working on the finishing touches of the girls' room now for months, and although I not yet done, I have finally finished Gracie's G's. I feel a little bad because I think they turned out way cuter than Lily's L's (which I did a long time ago and my personal style has changed a bit). I may end up re-doing some of the L's (I am such a perfectionist darn it). All in all, their room is turning out to be so cute! Now I just need to finish the curtain for their closet (no doors to pull off - hooray) and find a pretty and artsy black and white shot of them to blow up and hang over the dresser (Heather, where are you when I need you?).

As a sidenote, Scott says I am totally obsessed with monograms - I think I may actually agree with him. Oh well...

fort scott

Scott built a pretty cool snow fort/igloo on Friday with the kids.