Do I have a twin?

I'm the one on the left (below)

Okay, so I just spent all this time making sure the pictures were side by side, and although it looked like it should have worked, it didn't. Ruff!

But anyway, what d'ya think? Do we look alike or what????

Tagged

I was tagged by Kristi - my cousin's lovely wife, to write 5 things you may not know about me.

Sooo, I was thinking long and hard to get 5 really interesting things but it wasn't as easy as it sounded. I could think of much better things about other people, like my friend who was born with 6 fingers on each hand, or my dad who won two provincial championships in wrestling and went to the Canadian National Championships and Olympic trials. BUT, I will do my best.

1. I got married when I was 17 (although many of you already know this, it is a good one, so I thought it was worthy of a spot). (Hence today's picture.)

2. I hate raisins but *LOVE* Raisinets....I'm completely addicted. Yum!!

3. I got sent home from Youth Conference once (not for anything really bad...mainly a case of me and the YW president not getting along too well, and I wouldn't apologize).

4. My brother and I had a little club when we were young called 'Country Kids' and we had to do really cool things like jump off the roof by jumping to a branch and then to the ground and crossing fallen logs across ravines or else we were 'City Slickers'.

5. I used to want to be a barrel racer, and I was jealous of my older sisters who got to do that when we still lived in Canada.

There you go. I tag Andrea, Kerry, Heather, and anyone else who reads this.

Funny Jethro

Yesterday when we were at Target we bought Jethro some new underwear....Lightning McQueen and Mater underwear. Sooo, this morning, I was sitting here checking my e-mail and I look back to see..........Jethro checking himself out in the before-mentioned long mirror that is on the back of my door. He was looking at the Mater on the back of his underwear. Ha ha!!!!

Yahoo to be YOU!

I started this post and thought, "hmmm, no new pictures today" but then I remember I DID take a few!! (Because Jethro got a new shirt today...an excellent excuse to take pics.) So there it is.

Now, some inspirational quotes on being YOU!

Today you are you,
It is truer than true.
There is no one alive
who is you-er than you!

Shout aloud I am glad
To be what I am,
Thank goodness I'm not
a clam, or a ham, or a dusty old jar of gooseberry jam. --Dr. Seuss

And now, one that is just a little deeper:
"I have a conviction deep down in my heart that we are exactly what weshould be, each one of us, except as we may have altered that pattern bydeviating from the laws of God here in mortality. I have convinced myselfthat we all have those peculiar attributes, characteristics, and abilitieswhich are essential for us to possess in order that we may fulfil the fullpurpose of our creation here upon this earth. Once again, that allotmentwhich has come to us from God is a sacred allotment. It is something ofwhich we should be proud, each one of us in our own right, and not wish thatwe had somebody else's allotment. Our greatest success comes from beingourselves. I think that we can console ourselves best by believing thatwhatever is our allotment in life, whatever is our call in the priesthood,the Lord has been wise and just, and I might add, merciful, in giving to usthat which we need to accomplish the particular purpose of our call." (ElderHenry D. Moyle, Conference Report, October 1952)

So, we should all be happy to be US!! I am!

Today I went on a hot date with my hubby to Hour Time...I even bought a new outfit for the occasion. (Okay, actually it was the other way around...I bought a new shirt and thought we should go out so I could wear it.) Then we had fun shopping at Goodwill (a favorite thing to do). We took home a couple good finds, like a couple games for the kids and hoodies for me and a pair of pants for Brett.

Earlier, I ventured out into the freezing world to take Ethne to Target to get her 3-month pictures taken. (3 months already?!!!!!!) She did SOO great--smiled soooo big!!! Can't wait to get it back, only I was really ticked to find out that there was a better coupon online than the one I used. Ruff. Then we wandered around Target for quite a while, just because they were all being good and it was fun. (Hence, coming home with a new shirt for me and Jethro and a frame and a few other not-absolutely-necessaries.) Ah well, Brett's hard-earned money has to be used somehow! (Okay, okay! I'm just kidding. I do realize that that is NOT the right attitude. :) ) My mom bought me a full-length mirror when she came and visited, so it has been kinda fun seeing *all* of myself. :)

Have a day!

lotso' pictures

I have cute girls. It is still a little weird for it to be girl's' --plural.

I have absolutely nothing to say, so I will look somewhere else for inspiration so that you have a somewhat interesting blog to read (besides the pictures, which are, without a doubt, the cutest you've ever seen). ;)

Okay, here it is. An excerpt from Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Book of Etiquette.

From Chapter Forty-Two -- Gracious Living Without Servants

Maidless Entertaining:

It's a dull life without friends in one's home. (here here!) Therefore the woman who gives up servants, or who never has depended upon them, must strongly resist the idea that entertaining without at least day-help is impossible, or at least very difficult.

Most households have no outside hlep whatsoever. It is the rare thing to have a full-time houseworker (you're telling me!), rarer still to have anything approaching the full staff of even upper-middle-class living in the last century. But we can't all entertain away from our homes, and where the cost of outside entertaining is immaterial, it is still the warmer, friendlier thing to entertain in one's own home often, no matter how simple the hospitality must be.

If one must simplify one's living, it is important not to feel apologetic about it, or even try to explain it. Put away silver that is not regularly used....

So, the moral is, you can still invite people over even if you don't have fine china and your best silver. Good to know. More from Amy Vanderbilt later perhaps. Ta ta.

Short

What we do for fun on Sunday mornings. Or at least, until church changed to 9:00. It's a wee bit too much in the middle of the night for me, but it will be better when the sun starts getting up a bit earlier. Gotta sign out for now, my baby is screaming. But I just registered Jethro for soccer, so that's pretty cool.

Funny Picture

A perfect match:

And,

Ha ha ha!!!

Grain elevators and a C.N. joke

So, since some of you were wondering why I love grainaries I started looking for some pictures. Then I realized I meant grain elevators, not grainaries. I just love the feel of driving through a small town and looking up at the big grain elevators. It's just the aura--can't really explain it more than that. When I was a kid and we would drive up to Canada to visit relatives I remember that there were some very soon after we first crossed the border, and I think the excited, happy feeling of being in Canada stuck with them, perhaps?

Also, just as a side note, here is a cool photography link that I found while searching. Cool photography link. They were taken in Alberta, where I was born. :)

What else? Oh, I was thinking I should add a couple things to my list because I thought of them the other night after I posted:

-watching my husband play with kids

-smell of a roast when you walk in from church

-sleeping in

And I should add that it's not really dances that I love, but dancing. Cause sometimes it's just as fun dancing at home as at a dance. Anyway, that's all for now folks. I need to go be productive, and take a shower and all that fun stuff.

Okay, so when I was last visiting my family, my youngest brother Ethan was into telling me these Chuck Norris jokes he got from a website. He thought they were sooooo hilarious...he was laughing his head off. It was funny just watching him. Here are some:

Chuck Norris once got in a car accident and lost both his legs and STILL walked it off.

Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.

When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the Earth down.

Chuck Norris doesn’t wear a watch, HE decides what time it is.

Chuck Norris does not get frostbite. Chuck Norris bites frost.

Chuck Norris has two speeds. Walk, and Kill.

There are a bunch more...but after Ethan read this his big thing was to say "I'll decide." Like if my dad told him to go do something he'd say "I'll decide," (in a super-macho voice). It was pretty hilarious. Sometimes Brett and I will say it now too, like if I say Ethne needs her diaper changed, and Brett says "No, you" then I'll say "I'll decide!" Ha ha! Try it some time. You'll like it.

Saturday is a Special Day.

Another day, another forty pictures. :) But I'll just share a few. First, Ethne's "sweet" expressions.

And then, some of Hazel, although taking her picture is like pulling teeth (sheesh, it's as if she gets her picture taken a lot or something!)...even WITH bribing (hence the tic tac), but it was the first time I've ever braided her piggy tails and it was sooo cute! And sheesh...love her big sparkly eyes!

I had a nice day today. Slept in (yay for Brett and movies!), then when Ethne was sleeping I walked to Goodwill (one of my favorite stores) with J and H, and despite Hazel getting very tired and grouchy and tipping over our stroller once, I got a lot of good deals. Wippee!! (as Hazel would say). I got two cute shirts for Hazel (one is in the picture) and an adorable dress for her, a sweater for me, and this for Ethne for her birthday. It is even CUTER in real life. Seriously so adorable. And only......(drum roll) 16 dollars!!! Which I still thought was a little high, until I came home and looked it up online. Now I am way extra-super-duper pleased with the purchase. We'll see if it waits until her birthday or comes out sooner.

Then I went to and ran a few more errands and came home to grilled cheese sandwiches (hit the spot) and yummy almond joy cake that I made with the kids yesterday to celebrate all my family's birthdays in January (Dad, Mom, Andrea, Ethan, Wyatt---Happy Birthday!). It is sooooooooo scrumptious! I'll share the recipe if anyone is interested.

Hmmm, what should I leave you to ponder tonight? Well, once a while back I wrote a list of 50 things I love (it was fun, makes you think...you should all do it. really.), and even though anyone reading this knows me already, since it is a new blog, we can call this a get-to-know-you thingee. Hmm. Anyway. In no particular order:

1. campfires

2. grainaries

3. bargain shopping (thrift stores and garage sales)

4. Brett's colognes

5. faint sound of train whistles at night

6. vanilla chocolates (made by my mom, of course)

7. Hazel's bedhead and first hug in the morning

8. pictures

9. cookie dough

10.mountains

11.swimming in lakes

12. playing catch with a football

13. dances

14. Jethro saying "Mommy, did you know that I did wuv you?"

15. good back scratches

16. crepes with cream cheese and chokecherry syrup (and when my mom came to visit me a week ago she brought me a quart of syrup and we had these and I L*O*V*E*D them)

17. tiny baby sleeping in your arms

18. cuddling with Brett

19. fudge

20. a perfect hit in softball

21. bacon and tomato sandwiches (could have these every day in the summer!)

22. playing Rook with my family

23. the way Hazel bounces when she walks

24. Robin Hood (the old movie)

25. Pachelbel's Canon in D

26. corn on the cob and peas right out of the garden

27. cornfields or hayfields rippling in the wind

28. icecream

29. playing night games

30. wildflowers

31. scrapbooking

32. getting packages in the mail

33. purple grapes

34. horseback riding

35. being married to Brett

36. barns

37. laughing so hard my stomach hurts

38. pirates

39. Brett's hands

40. bright kitchens

41. dishwashers

42. reading good books

43. good hair days

44. compliments

45. my own little family

46. trees

47. rodeos

48. going on dates with Brett

49. smell of vanilla

50. cowboy hats

My handsome son.

What a SUPER-CUTE kid!! Sometimes I like to slick up his hair, put on one of his nice shirts and take his picture. Not that it's easy...it requires 3 parts bribery and 1 part threatening, but it's still doable. Who knows for how much longer? Anyway, had to show him off.

It's SUNNY today!!!!!!!! WOOHOO!! Makes me all happy inside.

Book Recommendations

*LOVED* this picture of Ethne I took today. She is so cute and getting so big! (Although she's just pretending that she knows how to sit up...she really doesn't.)


So, I tried this once before and it all got eaten somehow, so here is the sweetened condensed version. I didn't do anything on my list of things to do today because instead I read a book called "Fairest" by Gail Carson Levine, same author as "Ella Enchanted." It was a good, easy, feel-good fairy tale that I knew wouldn't take too long to read (although I still neglected my poor children for most of the day). Then I had to hurry and clean up and vacuum the floor really fast to create the illusion of a clean house before the Davis' got here to drop off Elise. Happy Anniversary to you guys!

The second book recommendation was recommended to me by my sister Andrea. It is called "Baby Danced the Polka," and it is a REALLY fun read-aloud for little kids. You have to get into it...so fun.

Anyway, that's about all I have for today, but for my closing thought (since I must leave you with something more humorous than my boring books) I will pass on a quote from my "Dad Book" (which is a book all about my dad including funny quotes, e-mails etc.).

In honor of the Davis' Anniversary, the theme will be Marriage.
This was an e-mail my dad sent to my sister:

The four most important things in a marriage are:
PASSION
love/companionship
real concern (greater than what you have for yourself)
PASSION

Love, the Philisophical Fat Geezer

And here's one more (another e-mail), just because I think it's funny:

Yo! It is a nebulous sort of morning on which I pen my regards to your little eyes. Have joy in this current historic space of time. tata

Items of Interest

Some pictures of my cute little family from January.

I towed my three kids to the mall today and exchanged a skirt for a different size, and when I got home and looked at the receipt again, I decided I should've just returned it. My mom bought it for me, but gift or not, it's just too expensive for one item that will probably get puked on or stained or something, because that's what seems to happen to your most expensive clothes. Plus (and this is probably the clincher) Brett doesn't really like it, although my mom had some rather....interesting...ideas of how to get him to like it more. ;)
It makes me glad I don't live in France, where the stores are very customer-unfriendly. At least that's what I learned in my humanities class in college--the teacher (who had lived there) said that pretty much if you buy it, you bought it. No returns, exchanges, refunds, etc. What would I do?!

Now for the items of interest:
1. My mom recently visited me and we got on the subject of falling asleep and she was saying how it always takes her forever to relax and stop thinking and jerking. So I was telling her about the Bradley method (I'm pretty sure that's the one) of birthing where you consciously make every part of you relax, yada yada, and she said that that makes her more worked up because she'll be thinking 'foot, relax, relax.....are you relaxed?' etc. It was pretty funny. So, the point of all this is she said that the one thing that she has found to work is to smile. Funny, eh? We thought maybe smiling makes the body think it is happy, thus making it relax more. Very intriguing.

2. Isn't it interesting how much better a little empathy can make you feel? I was at playgroup today, and I complained about how Ethne has been staying up really late every night for the last while and it's been making me feel like pulling my hair out, and someone else said that her daughter was up part of the night the other night, probably teething, and it made her want to strangle her, or herself. After she said that I felt much comforted.

3.We went to the library today and I picked up a book from the free pile called "World's Great Love Letters." I just read a few on the way home, but there are some great ones from Henry VIII to his second wife, Anne Boleyn. He later had her beheaded. Hmmm. Isn't there a line in Romeo and Juliet that says in effect, Love moderately because really passionate love is quickly consumed? Ah, here it is, I found it: "Therefore love moderately: long love doth so; Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow." - William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet -Friar Laurence
I guess Henry VIII should've listened to Friar Laurence. (I only thought of this because I recently watched the movie---I'm not a Shakespeare authority.)

4. The collage was made with an awesome FREE photo editing thingee called Picasa. You can download it at picasa.google.com

Clever Something #1

So, here it is.
Today we finally got snow and Jethro was SOOO excited. He could barely eat breakfast because he was so scared that the snow would melt before he could get out there and play in it. We did, however, make it out before it melted and Jethro and Hazel had a great time. They stayed out longer than I wanted to. :) Jethro did stay out much longer than me. Just goes to show...many times kids are buffer than adults.

You'll notice Jethro's pink snowpants...it's what we found at a garage sale this summer, but he'll be quick to tell you "they're not girly." Ha ha.

I did Hazel's hair today in a pony tail and she said, "I wook wike Taywee," which, being interpreted, means, "I look like Kayli." Funny! Funny that she realized that she was sporting my favorite 'do, and funny that she said Kayli instead of Mommy.
Something you might find interesting:
The highest officially recorded number of children born to one mother is 69, to the first wife of Feodor Vassilyev (1707-1782) of Shuya, Russia. Between 1725 and 1765, in a total of 27 confinements, she gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets, and four sets of quadruplets. 67 of them survived infancy.
Wow.

P.S. Nowadays when I tell Hazel something that's exciting to her, she'll say "WIPPEE!!" which means "Yippee!" of course. So funny.