HA! You thought I was DONE with tutu pictures...

Umm, yeah, so I pretty much didn't do a single productive thing today except take pictures.....but I got a LOT of cute ones! It was such perfect lighting outside today...bright but overcast, and I had bought some black fabric at Wal-Mart the other day, so I had to go and try it out. It was fun. Poor Hazel. She will smile for me for the first two pictures and then I have to beg, bribe, coax, threaten, and 'gently' compel her for the next 200. ;) Jethro does much better, although then most of his smiles look fake. But cute. Brett's home, so off to bed. G'night.

Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog

Okay, so my sister just sent me this and I had to share. A picture this awesome needs to be seen. It's my sister Amy and her little boy Chad. WOWZA.
P.S. I forgot to add that it was Halloween--they don't just dress this way everyday. ;)

Cabinet painting and pictures.

Okay, isn't she the cutest flower? Good thing I have Jethro to be my smile-getter. He's very good at it.
Well, the cabinet painting is going slower than expected. Isn't that always the way with home improvements? So, I'm pretty tired of it, but I think we're more than half way, I think. It takes a lot more coats of paint than you would think. (Okay, not a lot more, just maybe 1 or 2 more. But then, I guess had I thought about it, I would have thought it would take that many. I just never thought about it ahead of time.) So yeah, I will be very happy when it is done. BUT, a cool thing is, I bought a paintbrush at Lowe's and was an instant winner, and I checked my prize and it was a $10.00 off coupon. So, the next day when I bought another gallon of paint, it was less expensive. Yahoo.



I was taking some pictures today. I like this one because sometimes random people see me, in the store or something, and they say "You've got your hands full," with the meaningful look. And most the time they are saying it in a very nice way while opening the door for me or something, but every once in a very great while (when I'm on the defensive for some reason) I think "Do I look COMPLETELY incompetent?" So this picture makes me think, yes, I guess I do look like I have my hands full. And it's fun....kinda lets you feel the movement going on. At least I thought so.

Hazel put on Brett's hat and said, "I Daddy-Bett." And of course, then she says, "And Daddy, you Hazel-bean." Ha ha. She's too funny. Whenever we play that game (where she's mommy and I'm Hazel) I'm always impressed with how well she remembers. She never messes up and accidentally calls me Mommy. She likes to say "I lub [love] you, Hazel." And I say, "I love you too, Mommy."

Kids *DO* listen

There's some funny times when you are reminded that your kids actually DO listen.

After I did Hazel's hair this morning, she picked up the comb and started combing Strawberry Shortcake's hair.
Strawberry Shortcake: Ouch! ouch!
Hazel: Hold still!!!

I am in the process of painting my kitchen cupboards (and my SWEETIE SWEET visiting teacher came and helped today!!! otherwise it would not be getting done for another who knows how long) and I couldn't find the paintbrush forever.
Me: Man, Jethro, I can NOT find the paintbrush!
Jethro: You're just not looking hard enough.
(Hmm, that sounds very familiar as that's what I told him yesterday when he was looking for something.)
Incidentally, the paintbrush was on the kitchen counter right in front of my nose.

Hi

So, here are the last couple tutu pictures, and some new ones from today. I swear, I don't spend ALL day every day taking pictures.

So, I wanted to get a picture of Hazel with all her little toys that she plays with all the time, and so I told her to lay down, look at the camera, smile, etc. Well, she wouldn't have it, so I tried bribing, telling her she'd get a treat if she'd smile, but she still wouldn't, so I said, "okay, you're done," and turned off the camera. Well, a little while later she came up to me and said "I file now." I had no idea what she was talking about, but I finally figured it out. She was saying, "I'll smile now." Hee hee. She decided she did want that treat.

Hmmm, not much else today. I did laundry and cleaned the bathroom and vacuumed. The kids colored pictures to send to their uncle who is having sad times. It's cause of a girl. I feel so sad for him. He's a catch...she would be CRAZY not to snatch him up.

Have you guys noticed that Hazel is getting too big? Not so much a toddler anymore, but a little girl. Good thing I have another baby girl! (I had to post this one of Ethne because that's what she was doing the whole time--trying to eat the tutu! I would snatch it out of her mouth, and try to hurry and take a picture before she had time to grab it again.)

And, some food for thought for today:

A sociology textbook I once read says that "Just as a mirror reflects a reverse image, one's perception of oneself is never direct. Rather, we see ourselves reflected back in the reactions of others. According to Cooley, our ideas of our self come from 1-our imagining how we appear to other people, 2- how we think they judge our appearance, and 3- how we feel about all this. In other words, our sense of self is more like a process than a fixed object; it is always developing as we interact with others, whose opinions of us are ever-shifting. But we select which cues to follow and judge the relative importance of role partners. Then Mead said that particularly important to the formation of self are those specific persons whose approval and affection are especially desired. Parents at first,then peers, role models, and lovers, can all become significant others, with special power to shape one's perceptions. Even children can become significant others, as only they can validate an adults identity as a 'good parent.'"

Agree? Disagree?

Tutu and an auction

I made another tutu. I have another one to make, blue. Why three? Because Hazel has two girl cousins within a month of her, and Ethne has two girl cousins within about a month of her, and so at the reunion this summer, I will have so much fun taking pictures of the sets of three together in tutus. I told my sister Kami (who has a cute little dark haired half-latino baby named Elena) that there will be a pink one, a yellow one, and a blue one and she said "I call for the blue one." Of course that is silly because the other two babies, Ethne and Emeline (we did not plan on our "E" names--it was just a fun coincidence) have red hair, so of course they will not have the pink one. She thought that that was not fair, but really, Kami's vote doesn't count. HA HA JUST KIDDING KAMI I LOVE YOU AND YOU M*U*S*T* MOVE TO CHICAGO! By the way Kam, when are you getting your own blog, hmmm? Because your blog would be so very interesting. Who else would ever write about why all the species of frogs in the world are dying out, or why the girls in the Salem witch trials were really having seizures, or what you've been reading in the Old Testament, or how you fed your poor sweet little baby a string cheese.

We went to a ward party tonight--a service auction. It was sweet, I got two babysitting times and a photography coupon. Yahoo! Brett, of course, did not want me to get the photography session...the poor man hates getting pictures. I started bidding on somebody's offer of being a running buddy and he really wanted me to get that...was that some sort of hint? Ruff. Anyway, I auctioned off some of my flower barrettes, and I held up Ethne to show what it was and some people thought I was auctioning her off. Hey, not a bad idea..... ;) Just kidding, she is way too cute to give away. Well, I have to get to bed, so I will post a couple more pics tomorrow. Good night.

Happy day.

Okay, here's the green hoodie as promised. The photographer? .....Jethro!! He's getting great, isn't he? I feel a little vain posting a pic of myself, but then I have to document when I have good hair days to remind myself that I like it this short. (You're so vain, you probably think this blog is about you!)

That's about all I have to say for today, except that I love my job. I really enjoy days that are nice and laid-back. On beautiful days like today, you can just hang out at the park for however long you'd like. You can procrastinate doing the dishes for another day and nobody will yell at you. (Okay, fast forward to tomorrow when I cry and whine about what a mess my house is in and how inept I feel at being able to keep my house clean.) But for today, I'm just pretty content. I really like the pace of my life. (It must be the good-hair day ambiance making me feel so tranquil.) Also, another good perk about my job is I love all the people I hang out with every day!! No yucky co-workers to deal with. I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful fam!

And the WINNER is........

Kerry Black! So, there you go. All fair and square too...I put everybody's name in a bowl and had Hazel draw one out. I really wanted ALL of you to win...wanted to see a picture of each of your daughters in a cute barrette, but anyway. So Kerry, God doesn't hate you. (But you gotta stop writing about bad days, it's going to make me lose my faith that once you get a real house and a real job your troubles are over!) :) You get your pick of the ones pictured, or I can make you a different one with any of the colors shown, and I also have dark and med. purple, red, yellow, dark green. Let me know. And you can get it on a barrette or a headband thingee like the picture of Ethne. Oh, and e-mail me your address again, I know I had it once, but I can't find it. The colors are a bit dark in this pic (I should have fixed that... oh well) and the pink and blue one on the top right are with brown, not black. They're my favorite ones, along with the pink and orange on the bottom right. It's too dark too.

So, for anybody interested...they're super easy to make. I just bought the felt and embroidery floss to match, made a little flower stencil, traced it onto the felt, cut it out, stitched around the outside, and glue-gunned a bendy hair-clip to the back.


Ethne was blowing raspberries the other night and totally getting all this frothy spit and bubbles! It was sooo cute! She also had major bed-head (well, as major as you can get with her amount of hair). I had to take a picture. Cute baby.


I went to Old Navy today and bought a green (bright, as in John Deere) hoodie. I really like it. Makes me feel happy. Also makes me think of my sis-in-law Lindsay Ann, who's favorite color is John Deere green. Maybe I'll take a picture of myself in it tomorrow if I have a good hair day. G'night!

Chicago

So, Chicago was fun. We left on Friday night and drove to a hotel and then I went to the 8:00 session (which is 9:00 my time) and was proud of myself for being only SLIGHTLY terrified driving all by myself on the freeway. But it wasn't bad. (My sister Amy says it's like I'm from the stone age with how little freeway driving I've done...but it's not my fault. I got my license in North Dakota...nowhere to go, and if we did go anywhere my dad drove, then I went to USU and had no car until I met Brett and got married. Then wherever we went, Brett drove. He thinks it is unnatural when there is a man and a woman in a car and the woman drives.) I'm fairly sure it was the first time since we've been married that we didn't go together. Which would then mean that it was the first time I ever went on my own.

Then we stayed up even LATER watching stupid Stunt Junkies and Myth Busters. But, we have had no channels on our t.v. since we've been married, so we had to remind ourselves that we are SOOO glad. Commercials are retarded. Except for this one that we saw that we both thought was awesome because it soooo reminded us of Brett. There was this guy working on his car under the hood. And he gauged his hand a bit, and wiped the blood off and kept working. Then it said, "Oil and water don't mix, but blood and oil do. Valvoline." Completely pointless....but that's totally Brett. Every time he works on the car (and for those of you who may not know my husband this is at least one night a week if not more) he comes in and goes to wash his hands and says "Hmm....didn't know I was bleeding." I love Brett's hands. It's funny because when Kerry was talking on her blog about pet peeves I asked Brett what his pet peeves were, and he (holding Ethne at the moment) said when she scratches his arm with her fingernails. I totally had to laugh at him and mock him because this is the guy who, like I said, comes in bleeding all the time, not even concerned, and he just hates infant-fingernail scratches. hee hee.

ANYWAY...that was a LONG tangent. Back to the story. So the next morning, we dropped Brett off at the temple and I took the kids to a library with a GREAT kids place (we were going to go hang out at the beach at Lake Michigan but it was about 30 degrees...much too cold, even all bundled up). Then I got some new garments from the distribution center, and had to call my mom to ask her what size I am. It is embarrassing that I don't know my own size (the tag was too worn out to tell) but that my mom, who has nine children, was able to tell me. My mom better never die, cause I sure have to call her to ask her things a lot.

Then we drove past all the St. Patrick's Day parade crowds (I'm pretty sure I spotted Harrison Ford and then Tommy Lee Jones) and over the green river to the Shedd Aquarium. It was fun. Every time we drive to Chicago Brett swears up and down he will never go again. Hates the traffic and the not being able to get out of all the people and buildings. So I guess we will never live there. Fine with me. BUT....my sister Kami darn well better move there or I will cry my eyes out!!! (Her husband is a pilot and just got his first job and will perhaps be stationed at the Chicago O'Hare airport. That would be SOOOO *AWESOME* you have no idea.)

Well, gotta go. That's about it. But I did get my house semi-clean today. Yahoo.

Pictures

We went to Chicago this weekend, and saw the river dyed green (but only for a second while we crossed the bridge). I'll write more later, but for now I must be FOCUSED, DEDICATED....I must CLEAN THE HOUSE!!!

(This is how the barrette looks on a sweet baby...making kindof a grumpy face.)

The crafty bug bit me!

So, I was totally crafty these last two days!! I made the tutu after seeing a bunch of people making them. It was really easy...just tie strips of tulle to an elastic. I had to show you pictures, but I couldn't pick just one...so you get to see a bunch!! (Although I am pretty mad at Brett (not really) because when he was messing around with MY camera the other day he put it to low resolution and I didn't realize it until AFTER I took all these pics. Ruff!)

Also, as promised, some [more] pictures of Hazel in blue dress with matching barrette!

I just have to say that Ethne has gotten to the CUTEST stage. She is still so little, but much more alert and happy and smiley and squishy and huggable and cute. Oooh, I just can't get enough of her. The picture isn't the greatest, but it shows my favorite outfit of hers.

Have you ever noticed how housework gets in the way of doing fun things? Unless, that is, you choose not to DO housework, but then you have to live in a pigsty. Fortunately for me, I can pretend not to notice that for a quite a long time. Don't tell my mom!

Well, I walked by Gymboree in the mall the other day and I looked into it as I passed. That was a bad move, as I saw THE cutest little girls' brown cowboy hat with flowers on it with these cute outfits that matched. They were SOOO cute...to die for. I put the cowboy hat on Hazel and it was so cute. I think I've already mentioned that I'm a sucker for cute hats. I'm also a sucker for cowboy hats. (I SOOOO WISH my husband would get one for himself cause I think he looks SOOO hot in them, but alas, so far he has not yielded to my pleas.) Anyway, I showed fortitude and did not shell out a ton of money that I do not have for this. I shed a few tears though. Anyway, just thought I would share. Normally when I do not buy something I forget about it within minutes. This time, I must tell you all so as to hopefully get it out of my system.

Okay, here's the deal. Because I am for the moment so excited about making those cute little barrettes, I will throw one out there for the lucky winner. All you have to do is write a comment with a favorite quote about whatever you'd like by whomever, and I will pick a winner from a hat on Mon. or Tues. or Wed. and you will get a barrette in the mail! This means I get to satisfy a little curiosity about who's reading my blog (although I think I know most everybody, but I have been surprised before) and you get a chance for a goodie. I know not all of you have little girls, but most everybody knows a little girl, or you could wear it yourself!

Lookie, lookie!!

Look what I made!!!! It's a cute felt flower barrette!!! This is so unlike me, but I actually made this all by myself...no one was doing it so I joined in, there was no pattern (not that it's complicated or anything) but anywya, such an uncommon thing for me. I blame it on the crafty people who's blogs I've been reading (yeah, that would be you, Kristi L.!). So, I found this website that makes cute little barrettes like this, but they were selling them for about $8.00! WHAT?! That is FELT...hello...felt is el cheapo!!! (But actually then I found some similar ones on ebay that were not quite as expensive.) So, I actually thought to myself...it wouldn't be that hard to make...so I made one! And it was easy! And I actually had all the stuff to make it with already on hand. Woohoo. And yes, I actually put it in my daughter's hair at 10:00 at night while she was sleeping to model. ;) I'm sure you will see more pictures of it, as I made it blue to match a dress I bought for her.


In other news, our toilet is back in service!!! YAY! Thank you Kerry, for your sympathy. I appreciated it. I called my mom and told her about the toilet and she was sympathetic too, especially since when she came to visit me right after I had Hazel, we were without a toilet for a couple days too. (However, she is awesome and had no problem going in the bucket...she is buff from her strange time-warped childhood where they were about two generations behind times as far as modern conveniences go, and never had an indoor toilet until after she got married. Makes for some good stories, like when her sister deliberately left the (very big) seat up when she knew my mom was dying to go, so my mom almost fell in and scraped up her arms pretty good scrambling back up.) But, all's good for the moment. It just reminds me to be grateful every time I go on the toilet.

We've had some beautiful weather here that I LOVED, and the kids played out in the backyard a ton and took a bunch of wood from our pile, and made a curvy line with it through the middle of the yard. Weird, I know. I decided it is really fun to watch your kids through a window when they don't know you're watching. Then you can just see them being so carefree and natural. I mean, I know kids are pretty much naturally that way, but it's a bit different from when they know you're there. I can't explain it. But I enjoyed it. Jethro was spraying Hazel with a spray bottle, and she didn't scream to get attention, just danced away, and then they'd swing on the swings, or just wander around. So abandoned. Fun.

There was something else I was going to write about....hmmm. Can't remember, so I guess that's it for now. Have a night.

What a day.

So, this morning I woke up and there was a bunch of water on the kitchen floor, so I grilled Jethro about whether or not he spilled, and he said he didn't, and I told him to tell the truth, and he said he was. So, then I mopped it up, came back out later, and more water. Apparently, something was leaking. Jethro said "I told you I was telling the truth." Poor guy. So, I mopped up more water. Then, later in the day, I put some clothes in the washing machine and sat on the couch to nurse Ethne. I hear a funny bubbling noise, and then the terrible sound of water spilling out onto your floor. So I ran into the bathroom and soapy water was flowing out of the toilet. Oh no! It finally stopped, and I started mopping that up, along with the water in the kitchen (we're still not positive how it gets into the kitchen) and find that also water came up into the tub...with NASTY black stuff. EWWW.
So yeah, Brett came home and pulled off the toilet and played with the snake thing all evening and decided we're in big trouble because we're pulling up tree roots. That somehow does not give me a reassuring feeling about all this.
So, we went to Target to go to the bathroom (well, mainly just for me, Brett can go in the backyard), and we'll have to rent a roter-rooter tomorrow and try to purge our pipe.

On a different topic, once I read an article in a parenting-type magazine about things that people say their kids are never going to do that they end up doing after they have kids. Today I did one of those things. You see, I always thought people were babies when they got a band-aid for teeny scratches, or anything really that didn't require a band-aid. However, when Hazel gets hurt she always cries for a band-aid, so today, when she pinched her hand in the closet door and was crying and crying, I thought "Well, if a band-aid's going to make her feel better, why not?" Bad idea. So she of course, stops crying when I give her the band-aid, tells me thank-you, and that's that. Until Daddy decides the band-aid (that's she's played with and pulled on and off until it's no longer sticky) need to go in the garbage and takes it from her. Then she cries and cries more than she did when she actually gets hurt. So, there you go. The moral of this story is DON'T LET DADDY STEAL THE BAND-AID!!! j/k.

Nut cases

So we had a fun day yesterday even though it was Daylight Savings so it was very difficult for me to get out of bed in the morning. I didn't do my hair, just tried to make do with the leftovers from the day before, (yeah, maybe another thing that could go in my lazy book), but we all fell asleep later in the day except Jethro. Hazel fell asleep while Brett was reading them a story from the Friend. It was cute.

We took a walk to the park and played. It was so fun because it's been such a long time since we could do that. We carried Ethne in her little snuggli and she got her first swing on the swings!

Then after the kids were in bed I was laying on Brett on the couch while we were discussing what we're going to do this weekend, and I started laughing at something (I can not remember what) that wasn't that funny, but for some reason I could not stop laughing, and then I drooled a little bit on Brett and of course, he was violently protesting that, and then he said, "Hey! I just had deja vu! Have you spit on me before?!" Ha haa haa. Very funny. Then again, maybe you had to be there. Then again, maybe if you were there, you would have backed slowly out of the house until you could turn and run. ;)

Then, Brett started playing around with my hair making it look crazy and wild and then he would take a picture. It was lots of fun. And just because I'm sure you all will appreciate seeing one, I will post one. Please be aware what a sacrifice this is, for if you'll notice, I usually only post very nice pictures of myself, in black and white generally (which does a good job of hiding blemishes). So you should all be exceedingly grateful. Anyway. Have a great day!

Oh yeah, I forgot. I am so annoyed with my children. This happened with both Jethro and now Hazel. They were totally potty-trained doing great for long time...several months, and then they just get on a kick where it's as if they have no clue about going to the potty. It's been a good two weeks now where Hazel is just peeing her pants about twenty times a day!! Grrrr. Any ideas of what to do? I've tried getting her to keep her pants dry all day to earn a treat, but pretty much unless I take her, she wets her pants. Ruff.

Makes my heart swell

Meet Ethan

So, I don't have much to blog about today, it's sunny...yay!! So I will give you the next edition of meet my family. Today's feature is Ethan. The youngest (16), with all of the stereotypes that go along with being the youngest. :)

He the biggest social-animal of anyone I've met. He's always been that way, too...from the time he was little (about 3 or so) and would go around visiting the old-lady neighbors because he knew they would give him a treat. When he was in grade one everybody knew him in the whole school, including 6th-graders. He is what you would term "popular."

He's very funny...one time the ward Brett and I were in went to the Snake River by Jackson Hole to camp and raft the river, and Ethan came with us. The drive there was VERY entertaining. I don't think I've ever seen Brett be so crazy ever since. Ethan has that effect on people (when he wants to...of course much of the time he is a typical teenager). It was good times. Also, at Christmas time we were playing B.S. (the card game) and he was SOOO hilarious. He kept calling B.S. on people all the time, so he ended up with SOOO many cards in his hand...like a whole deck. And every time he had to take some, he would grab his chest and say "oh, my heart!!!" We laughed so hard at him that we were almost crying.

It was about that time when Ethan was getting stronger, so his favorite thing to do when we would go visit my parents for a weekend (ah, the days when we were close enough for weekend! sniff sniff) he would CONSTANTLY wrestle me and harass me and torture me. Luckily I had a husband who could whip his puny bottom, but whenever Brett wasn't around I was in trouble! He was in wrestling this year and did very well from all I hear.

Another funny thing is a video that I have of when our whole family was in Arizona for Kami's wedding, in *November*, and Ethan said he was going to jump into her pool (which is FREEZING). So, we all go out to watch him, but of course he's kindof chickening out and we're all harassing him (and he's in his underwear), and so finally he jumps in and screams like a girl, and gets out and jumps up and down from the cold, and then all the brother-in-laws push him back in. HA HA!

He'll make up funny expressions or slang and then they'll catch on and everybody in our family will be using them. They're pretty much completely random, like when his word was "fish." He called people Fish, used it as an expletive. Everything was fish. Very strange. "Dudie" was another one.

He has very great taste in music (meaning similar to mine). So that's cool because he made me a cd once and Brett and I listened to it all the time. His latest recommendation to me that I love is called "Face Down" by the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Acoustic Version (MUST be the acoustic version). (Brett thinks I have a thing for songs about domestic violence, but I really don't.)

K, one last funny story and then I'm done. When he was pretty young (maybe 6 or 7) he was play wrestling with someone(s) and he played dead. So, we were all watching while Derek and Wyatt kept trying all this stuff to get him to wake up. First they were just stretching his body, trying to tie him in knots, rolling him over and tumbling him off the couch, but there was no response whatsoever. So then they started doing meaner things, like giving him a wedgie, and giving him wet willies, and still no response. It was AMAZING what he was going through with totally no reaction! They put ice down his back and I think he finally "woke up" when they threatened to put hot sauce on his tongue. It was a good show.

Sorry, I never mean these to get as long as they do, but one thing leads to another... you know.