"Amber don't do that."

We are sitting in church during Sacrament Meeting, I have Amber on my lap facing me and facing all the people behind us. I am trying to remind her it is quiet time, and we need to be thinking about Jesus. She then puts her fingers in the corners of her mouth and makes her "scary" face.

"Amber don't do that," I whispered to her. "We need to think about Jesus."
She asks, "mom does that scare you?"
I tell her, "Yes. It is too scary for me."
She then does it again, and I tell her "NO."
She then says, "Am I freaking out all the people?" (or "Is it going to FREAK out all the people?")
I am trying not to laugh and tell her "yeah, you better not do that anymore."
She then makes a smaller "scary" face and says, "does this scare you?"
I tell her, "no."
She then said, "It won't freak the people either."

This is a sample of Amber's "scary face" (minus the chocolate).

This is another "scary face."

This is her small "scary face" that doesn't freak the people out.

Sometimes it is hard for me to focus at church when Amber is sitting on my lap, or any where near me at that. She hasn't quite mastered the "quiet time" during church.

"We were crying"

The girls got home from their last day of school and told me, "Lauren, me, and Emily were all crying on the bus today." At first I thought she said they were fighting. With how rough this morning went, I could believe it. Then I realized she said "crying." Lindsey told me almost everyone was crying on the bus. Most of the kids on the bus will be going to the new school next year, so I am sure it was hard for many of them to leave some of their friends that will stay at the old school. Emily will stay at the old school because of the A.L.L. program. Lauren was still a little weepy eyed when she came in the door. Poor girls!

Last day of School

Today is the last day of the school year for my little ones. (I guess it is really my big girls, since I refer to Amber and Samantha as my little ones.) I am somewhat happy about it and somewhat sad. I am happy that I don't have to wake up sleepy kids at 6:30 in the morning when they have stayed up almost every night of the week until at least 10pm no matter how early we put them to bed. Bedtime around here for school kids is about 7:30 but it seems like the last two or three weeks they are all up and crawling around, rearranging their rooms, or needing drinks or bathroom breaks until at least 9:30 or 10. It makes for very unpleasant mornings of trying to get them to move out of bed and be out the door by 7:30 to catch the bus.

This morning was Emily's grumpy morning, but they have all had it many times. It is worse when there is more than one that is being grumpy. It starts with someone looking at someone, and then I hear yelling, "Stop that!" usually followed by the persons name that is bothering the grumpy one. Then a little time passes (a matter of seconds) and then it is yelled again, "Stop it!" again perhaps with the person's name yelled as well. This morning it was crying, and "You only care about them, you don't even care about me." Then I heard "no one even likes me!" It doesn't seem to matter what you do, often the one that is being yelled at is just sitting there eating breakfast not bothering the grumpy one. It doesn't seem to matter, they still get yelled at. I have sat and watched this many mornings, they just yell for really NO reason at all. I try to interfere and protect the innocent one that is getting yelled at for staring, eating noisy, looking at them, holding their head wrong, swinging their feet, being too close, talking, or any small thing that seems to be a made up reason. All my efforts are usually failures in protecting the innocent, the grumpy one normally wins by making me grumpy too.

I feel bad for those that have to be around the grumpy one, because no matter what you do you get yelled at. I don't know what the solution to the problem is other than more sleep. I try to kind of isolate the grumpy girl but it doesn't always work. One of the other girls end up needing to go near to use the bathroom or find shoes or something. Amber even said, "Emily is frustrated," as Emily was screaming, crying, and stomping on the stairs.

I am sad to see the end of the school year in that the kids will not be seeing some of their friends and having those fun school projects and school work. I have plans to do a schedule this summer for the kids which would involve fun stuff, school stuff, and house work that will hopefully help the boredom of the summer and help me out too. I am so good at planning things out, and coming up with ideas, I lack the follow through to keep the program in motion. Hopefully with some poster boards posting schedules and the kids help we can keep up with a schedule that would allow help with school work, a reading program, and some fun family time as well. I don't want the kids watching TV all summer long. I am sure once we have a yard that will help, since then we can set up our trampoline and hopefully get a playground sometime this summer.

Today being the last day of school, the kids go to school at 8 and get out at 9:30, seems kind of silly huh! Oh well, I guess what ever works. The kids don't have anything at school, and they even told them NOT to bring any backpacks today. I am glad the school year is over in a way, and then in other ways, I am going to miss the time I have to get things done without having to entertain and wait on 3 other kids.

I am looking forward to a great summer!! (and hopefully less grumpy girls in the morning)

Another Birthday for Lindsey and Lauren

The girls got oatmeal for breakfast and a toaster strudel, since I couldn't put a candle in the oatmeal. Lindsey and Lauren got a candle to blow out their first birthday wish at about 6:30 this morning. They were pretty happy about it, Emily was pretty sour about it, as she continued to be all day long about their birthday. She got breakfast in bed and 3 candles if I remember right.

Poor Samantha had a pretty hard day, we were on the go most the morning, I forgot to get shortening last night, and then Lindsey and Lauren left their birthday treats to share with their class, so I had to run to the school to drop those off. I didn't remember that I forgot the shortening until I got back from the school. So back in the car went Samantha and Amber.

Amber was happy once we got home since she wasn't stuck in a car seat anymore. She was trying her best to get up the stairs.

Then I put her into her high chair and gave her some snacks. Next thing I knew, she was fast asleep... poor thing!

Lauren wanted to have a "barbie" type cake, and Lindsey wanted a chocolate cake with 4 layers and pudding in the middle. I was like, WHAT? She then told me she wanted chocolate frosting and lots of chocolate on the top. I tried my best. Lauren's barbie turned out okay, I even made her little shirt a little more modest, giving her sleeves and a higher neckline. :)

Once I looked at the pictures, I was really bummed I didn't get a picture of Lindsey with her cake or anything, just the back of her head blowing out the candles. BUMMER! I don't know how that happened. I guess we were so rushed. I did manage to get vanilla homemade pudding (thanks Jamie for the recipe) in the cake layers, I didn't taste any of the cake, but Robert said it was good. I even made my own chocolate frosting for the first time. The frosting was really rich, but good Robert told me. Lindsey got the top two layers of the cake, which was a mini cupcake and then a jumbo cupcake. Both of them were slathered in frosting... it was for sure what she requested. She didn't even hardly eat any of it. She asked me why it had so much frosting, then she said, "oh yeah, because I said I wanted all lots of frosting on top."

I didn't even wrap presents, it seems like life has been a whirl wind for us lately. Instead of them opening up presents, we gave them little clues or riddles of what they got. Emily got them Bendaroo's (as seen on TV, the ones every kid wants!). Emily's clue was "it is colorful and stringy." They also got kites, that really work maybe too good since all of them are now tangled up with their own strings and two of them broke their strings, and one got away about 3 times. I think the kites got some attention and we got about 7 extra kids coming over to fly them and watch. Some of those kids had something to do with the one that got away so many times.

The girls also got a cotton candy machine and a snow cone machine. They are excited about those and are already making plans of making stuff to sell tomorrow after school. I think they will have fun with it. We have a ice maker in our freezer, so they snow cone machine should be fun and mostly inexpensive.

We were out flying kites for quite awhile, then we came in and I was upstairs doing something and came down stairs to this next picture.... Amber never misses anything.

She sat their who knows how long before I discovered her up there. We have tons of cake left, although I am not interested in it at all now. Not to mention all the tops and bottoms of cakes that I sliced off to make the cakes stand up correctly. I also had too much batter and ended up making some extra cupcakes. Anyone want some cake?? We have lots!

After I got Amber off the table, I was getting a wash cloth to clean her up. She had a finger full of pink frosting, then went to Samantha and was feeding it to her. Samantha didn't seem to mind. It was pretty cute, I wish I would have gotten a picture. Amber gave Samantha a lick, then Amber took a lick, then she gave one to Samantha again. Amber would giggle, take another lick and then share with Samantha again. It was so cute! I should have gotten it on video.

Well that is pretty much it for our birthday here... We decided, or should I say I have decided not to do a party for them other than our traditional family party which we had tonight. I can't believe my little twins are 7 years old. Next year they will be 8, and we will be doing the whole baptism thing. Where does time go?

What's going on at 12 months....Samantha

Samantha had her 12 month check up today... all is good. She is 29in (48%tile) and 22 lbs 5 oz (71%tile) and her head is 46cm/18in (70%tile). She got a few shots today, poor baby. She also got checked for iron. All was good. They poked her for her iron at the beginning of the appointment and then at the end when she got the shots, she just started crying once I put her up on the table... she knew what was coming. Poor thing!

She is such a happy baby. She has quite the attachment to tags or labels on things, clothes, blankets, stuffed animals. Anything with a tag she grabs it and loves on it and sucks her thumb with her other hand. Below is a picture of her with 2 tags, one in each hand, one from the blanket and one from the lion pillow. She is so funny with tags. I was telling Emily I might have to sew a few tags on some of her blankets that don't have tags on them (homemade ones) so she will cuddle with them more.

She waves bye and hi, and she also will say "hello" it sounds more like "eyo" and she says "hi" too. She will also say "tickle tickle" and "nana" for mama and "dada" too. She is such a cutie.

She likes to just jabber and talk to herself or her food. She seems to eat just about anything. She does get tired of some things and then just throw them over her high chair onto the floor. She loves to eat mostly though.

She is down to 1 bottle a day now, and by Friday we will be bottle free! YEEHAW! She has switched, or we have switched her over to a spill proof cup. (Amber calls them "sissy cups") She does still have her thumb, and I am not ready to take that away yet. I love to watch her suck her thumb, I think it is so cute. I will wait until the dentist tells me to take it away... (or maybe my sister Tracy who is in the dental field and always has dental advice to give).



Samantha isn't walking yet, but she is crawling all over the place. We got a new gate for the stairs that opens so you don't have to take it down to get through the gate. It opens and closes and we didn't even have to screw it into the wall which has kept me from getting this kind of gate way back when Emily was a baby. I guess I didn't realize there was this kind or maybe this is new? Who knows. One day Samantha did manage to get the gate open and she was so proud of herself. She looked so cute opening up the gate, then crawling through to go upstairs. I adjusted the gate, and now she can't open it anymore.

I love her smile. She still seems like such a baby to me, as far as looks, but maybe it is more me just not wanting her to grow up. I can't believe she is one already. My baby is one. WOW! It doesn't seem like it can really be that way. She loves peek-a-boo. We also will play, "where's Samantha" which is the same thing. I then say, "there she is" when she peeks out of hiding. She has mastered finding things... I will take away something she has that she isn't suppose to have and kind of tuck it away and she will look and look for it where she saw it go. It is hard to take things away from her unless we take it and put it somewhere else.

Poor Samantha will have a hard time growing up with Amber. They are good friends and they share sometimes and sometimes Amber is just so mean to her. Yesterday, Samantha was crawling on the floor. Amber got on her back and grabbed her shirt and said, "go, go" and was riding her like a horse. I could not believe it. Poor Samantha was just crying trying to crawl with Amber sitting on her back.

This morning Emily was wanting me to fix a skirt for her that needed a patch. It seems like they always need it RIGHT NOW, and it is in the morning before school. I was feeding Samantha getting her ready for her doctor appointment this morning at 8:30 which meant we needed to leave a little before 8. I told Emily I would fix her skirt if she would do what I was doing, feeding Samantha. I am not sure that she really helped me out. I also realized that Lindsey has fed her more, since Lindsey said, "Emily you need to scrape her face with her spoon so she doesn't look like she has a beard."

I am sure I am forgetting something, I don't have time to write much more. Dinner needs to be cooked, and the dishes need to be cleaned, and there is a dirty mess on the table. (Literally, Emily and a friend planted some seeds in cups today.) Yeah, life is always colorful and busy here.

If I think of something else that Samantha is doing I will post it or add it I guess. Samantha got a little poly plastic pool for her birthday, so once we get a place to put it instead of in the dirt or on a sloping cement driveway, then I will fill it up for her and Amber to swim. Samantha LOVES the water. I can't wait until she can swim in it, I think she will LOVE it! Ta-ta for now!

Lindsey's kite and Amber

Back in March, Lindsey lost a tooth. She got a few dollars, went to the dollar store and got a kite. It isn't much of a surprise that her kite never was a flyer, it just went in circles and flew upside down and ripped. I tried to tape it back together, but there was something about her kite that just wasn't right to make it fly. She wanted a picture before we threw her kite away. I am glad that she agreed with me to throw it away, at first she wanted to keep it as a decoration.

Oh and before we even flew her kite, the string was all tangled beyond fixing so I bought new kite string that cost more than her kite. Her kite was a 2 pack kite at the dollar store, the other one was a unicorn and she gave it to Emily for her birthday which I thought was really nice, she bought something for Emily with her own money. Pretty thoughtful that Lindsey is.

Amber is going through the ditches in our yard, she doesn't really care, anything to be in the yard or the dirt or just outside. Notice the blue mark on her face, that is the last of her "whiskers" from when she was being a kitty earlier in the day.

It is hard to see but she was picking rocks up, she has on in her hand.

Today I took the little girls with me when we were out look for some birthday presents for the twins. We passed a big belly dump truck and trailer... I pointed it out to Amber and said look at that big truck. She was looking at it. Then I asked, what do you think he has in his truck? She then said, "Popcorn! He is going to put them in our yard and then I will say, What a mess! It will be too much for us to eat and it will be just a mess." Silly girl!

Then we were going into a store and I said something about Amber being a "little chickie" and she quickly corrected me, "no mom, I am a little kitty, not a chickie! Meow! See." What a crazy girl she is. I love to shop with her for those reasons but she has other reasons that I don't like to shop with her. Today she kept screaming really loud and then saying, "was that really loud?" Then she would scream again and say, "you try it mom." So if you are in a store and hear a child screaming, with no crying or other symptoms of sadness or anger, it is probably Amber.

Amber learns to share

Amber normally is pretty good at sharing, if you talk to her about it. Sometimes though there is nothing you can do to have her understand to share something, or that she can't take something that belongs to someone else. I have on many occasions fought with Amber on giving Samantha her blanket back or a toy that Samantha is playing with. We are working on telling her if she takes something from Samantha you have to replace it with something else. You take her ball, you give her a car... or something like that. Amber I think is doing better. She even was sharing a sucker. I know that is really something because she LOVES suckers!

This is one of my new favorites of Amber... she looks so grown up to me. I guess she is growing up... (sigh)


See her share! What a good girl.

And GATO seems to like it just fine. I guess he likes suckers just as much as Amber does.

Happy Birthday Samantha

Today is Samantha birthday! She didn't really know what was all going on, or even really care what it was for. By next year, she will be into the wrapped gifts and the cake candles. (This year we didn't even wrap anything, how sad huh!)

Here Samantha is checking out the fire on her cake. She was trying to grab it.

She wasn't really sure what to do with the cake at first. We kept giving her the ASL sign for eat. She once tried to put her face down by the cake edge and eat it like a cookie, but she took a different approach at it.

She later was even trying to eat the plate. What a mess!

All clean after a nice bath. What a happy little girl she is. What a cute smile!

The day started pretty chaotic and very eventful, but then I was thinking back a year ago, and that is how that day was too. Robert got home the night before and we were laying in bed talking over the days plans and then "snap" I think my water just broke. Next we were trying to find someone to watch kids while we went to the hospital, waiting for the okay to continue laboring, hoping not to do a c-section... so why would this day be any different. It kind of started out the same, and ended the same.... A nice reward at the end of the day. Little Samantha Kay!

It could be worse...

It all started at about 10 minutes to 6 AM this morning when I was wanting to be fast asleep, well I was fast asleep until Lauren brought Amber in our room. You see, I have been staying up too late this whole week, at least until like 11:30pm, and I can do that for a few nights a week, but then I either need a nap at sometime or to get to bed earlier. Last night I was so tired and sore I thought maybe if I took a bath I would feel better. I fell asleep in the tub, which isn't ever good sleep in my opinion, and then finally crawled into bed about 1 AM.

Back to my story... Amber and Lauren come in at about 5:50 AM and I know we don't have to be up until 6:30 so I turn on the TV in hopes that they will be entertained by that and I can go back to sleep for another 30 minutes. I guess it could have been worse, they could have come in at 4:50 AM.

The girls are slow moving, Lindsey and Lauren have a program today and are looking for the right clothes and the right hair do's, meanwhile Emily is having a HUGE meltdown over finding socks and complaining..."You always help them, you never help me..." which on most days I would argue with her and remind her that I don't do that and it only seems like it right now because I am busy with them, but I would get to her in a minute... but this morning, I was out of energy, patience, and lacked anything else so instead I said nothing and kept trying to add braids and ponies to hair and change earrings for Lindsey. Of course then the kids missed the bus, and I took them to school. It could have been worse, they could have refused to go into school by themselves making me go in there with Amber and Samantha (carrying both of them).

I figured since I was already taking kids to school, I might as well go shop for Samantha's birthday. We go to Walmart, look for a few things and then I look around at random things. We checked out the plants and flowers, since I have forgotten what those are since our yard is just dirt and lots of rocks right now. We check out which somehow I always manage to find the SLOWEST check out, and we are there forever. I asked for help with one of those poly plastic wading pools. I normally would have tried to do it all by myself, but I asked for help today realizing that would probably be the best thing. The guy helping me tries to put it in the car, bending it all up. I told him if he bends it, it will crack and make a hole (I did that one time trying to get one in our little Honda Civic, not a good choice.) I moved car seats, and the 2 strollers in the back, fold down the seat, fits just fine now. Amber got some goldfish crackers, she is eating them in the car while I am trying to buckle everyone in. Samantha wants some too, and Amber is telling her no, and hitting her on the leg and laughing. Samantha is really tired, I give her a blanket that has a "tag" on it, which is her favorite thing now. I buckle Amber up, pinching her thigh in the buckle... OUCH! Now Amber keeps taking her blanket away from Samantha. I try to work something out, nothing seems to be working, both are crying... I decide to just get home. It could be worse, Amber could still be hitting Samantha all the way home and I wouldn't be able to do much about it.

We get home, I put Samantha to bed. I luckily baked Samantha's birthday cake last night. I start cleaning up the kitchen so I can frost the cake. I hear Amber is crunching on something on the floor. I look and see her fish crackers on the floor while she is stepping on them. I get Amber to stop and then try to ignore the crumbs on the floor until I can finish the cake. I start the frosting... and then I can't take it. I sweep the floor, and then I am able to go back to the frosting. As I am gathering all my frosting things, I realize the only shortening I have has crumbs of some sort in it... I normally like to use all butter for my frosting but when it is hot, the frosting doesn't stay firm. Think about how shortening it when you leave it out on the counter, and then how butter is when you leave it out... that is how my frosting is. I am not going back to get more shortening and decide to just use butter, which I like better anyway. I get a call from the school it is Lindsey, her boot broke and she needs new shoes. I search for some shoes. I remember the big slipper type socks that she had on with colorful stripes that wouldn't look so great with her pretty church dress and grab some socks too. I look at the clock, it is 11:25, Samantha has been sleeping for about 40 minutes. I go wake her up, put her in the car seat and put her and Amber in the car. I pull out of the garage, click my garage opener, and NOTHING. It won't shut, it starts to and then goes back up. I contemplate leaving it open, but I decide I can't with all the things in the garage, and not knowing so much about this area and what not, I get out of the car and try to the control on the wall. It does the same thing. I finally go and pull on the red handle which manually shuts the garage. I open the other garage door, then close it with the remote on the outside of the door, since I don't have a control for that side. It could be worse, I could have been stuck in the garage with the door not opening.

I get to the school. Give Lindsey her shoes, help her with the switch. I talk to her for a few minutes and we go back home to finish frosting. I think it could be worse, this could have also been the day that Lauren's teacher called telling me that Lauren needed some different shorts since hers were too short.I get home and realize the keys I grabbed for the car doesn't have my house key on it... as I am walking around hoping to find an open door, which I didn't think I left one open, I remember the little keypad that opens the garage. I try to remember what the code was... and I scored and got in the garage where I could then have access to the house. I put Samantha back to bed. Amber is trying to help me with the frosting. She is helping me put in the powder sugar. That is all good. I get that all mixed in good, and then start to add the milk, slowly pouring so I only get the small of milk I am needing to fill my little tablespoon. Amber tries to help me and lifts the milk higher to make more come out. Now my frosting is super runny. I decide I now need to double the butter and powder sugar. Nothing like a little more work. I get the frosting fixed. I separate it to make my colors I want. Amber is licking the frosting and trying to stir with her slobbery spoon. I finally get her to get down and wait for me to give her more. I get my colors all in bags and then look at the clock and see that it is now 12:43 PM and the girls have their program at 1 PM. I leave my frosting, make Samantha a quick sippy of milk to take along and grab the camera and video recorder. I then remember my video camera is full, so I find the SD card from my cell phone in hopes that it will work. SCORE, works great. I wake up Samantha again.... (what a birthday for her getting woke up all the time). The same drill, car seats, and we are at the school. I was thinking that we were a little early like 7 minutes so we would get a nice seat maybe... but then I remembered there are like 220 1st grade kids... which means that many parents and grandparents there to watch them. I struggle to find a parking spot, I finally take one a block away. I grab the girls, carrying Samantha in her car seat carrier still, and Amber on my other hip and we hoof it up the hill to the school. We get to the doors closest to the gym, and they are LOCKED! I should have known better. We start to back track to get to the main doors when someone must have seen us and opened the door. THANK YOU!! My arms are aching, I am sweating, my calves are burning (the long hot bath last night made my heals split again so it hurts to walk flat footed so I have been walking on my toes all day, which now are KILLING!) We find no seats, we are standing in the back, I try to get my camera out and realize there is no point. There are too many people standing in front of me that I can't get a good shot anyway. Robert shows up and we watch the program together, standing... Amber keeps wanting me to hold her and Robert tells her to go to him because I am tired. Amber tells him, "No, Mommy isn't tired, you are Daddy. I need to hold Mommy." That same conversation is said over and over as Amber keeps asking me to hold her as we are standing there for their 50 minute program. It could have been worse, Amber could have been crying or complaining more and Samantha could have wanted to get out of her car seat and be held as well. Instead Samantha sat there and drank her milk in her sippy cup and then sucked her thumb.

We get back home, I finish the cake, and make the ice cream cone cupcakes. The girls and a friend help decorate the cupcake cones, and all is good. I hope that my mishaps are over and that I can have a better day.

Birthday Blues

Most birthdays I am excited to do a little party (and sometimes I have done too big of one and been in over my head) for my girls. We have done a cowgirl party, mad hatter tea party (with red punch), several princess parties, a blues clues party, Hawaiian party, Barbie, a dress up party, and I am sure I am forgetting a few. Since we have been in this house, I just can't get myself excited about doing a party. Maybe because our house is still very unorganized, I can't find the things I want or need. We don't have a yard, and as of right now our yard is all torn up in big ditches ready for sprinklers. I would then be forced to do everything inside.

It is that time of year again which makes it really hard, the end of school year and also Lindsey and Lauren's birthday. I feel really bad because last year we were going to do a party for the girls, we even sent out invitations. I was due on June 10 or 11 and the party was for the 23 or 24th of May. Lindsey and Lauren's birthday was on the 28th, so it seemed to work out okay. I knew that if I did a party I would have to do it earlier so we wouldn't interfere with the new baby. I had planned the party 3 weeks before my due date, so I didn't think it would be a problem. Then of course, a day before the party, we went to the hospital and had Samantha. Robert told me not to plan the party, but I kept thinking if I didn't do it before the baby, then it just wouldn't happen. That one didn't work out.

If I remember correctly, we did do a party, it was just later... or I meant to anyway. It seems like those first few months are just blurs sometimes, I can't even remember what the theme was? Oh, I remember now, it was a flower party. Okay, yes it is coming back to me a little bit. Or was that the year before? I can't remember... how sad is that!

Thinking about last years birthday and lack of focus on them, because of the baby that was born 6 days before they were 6 years old, their birthday was kind of overlooked. My parents were here so we did a family party which was the first time they have been here for their birthday because my mom works for the school in Washington and they aren't out yet. Not to mention, you just can't make it for EVERYTHING, so you kind of have to pick and choose. (I wish it wasn't that way.)

Lindsey and Lauren are talking about a "party" and I am not all that excited about it. I keep thinking of things we can do to not have the party here so that we don't have kids crawling in the dirt. Another thing is that we don't have numbers of their friends so once school is out, it will be harder to invite those outside of church and kids on the street. I considered a park, but I then have to figure out what to do with the little girls during that time. I thought of Chuck E. Cheeses, but again, it is what do you do with the little ones. I don't know... I am stuck.

Anytime we talk about a party for the twins then Emily chimes in, "You said we would do a party and if they have a party you owe me one!" I am not sure really what happened in March, she just didn't get a party, nothing was totally planned out. We talked about a few different weekends, but nothing was finalized. I told Emily she has BY FAR had more parties then Lindsey and Lauren have. She had her first one at 3, and Lindsey and Lauren had their first one at 5. Emily has had a party most every year.

I am just stuck. I thought about doing something bigger for the girls, where they could just invite ONE friend each and go bowling, or to a movie, or Liberty Land, or something like that... but I am not really sure. I thought about doing a party at Liberty Land for Lindsey and Lauren, but then I worry about keeping track of extra kids. I feel like I NEED to do a party for them but I am just lacking something.

I was talking to Robert about it last night and he was firm about no party here at the house. Which I agree, no yard makes it hard and I don't want kids to go out and be climbing through the trenches. It seems like there are always a few that go do something other than the party things. Before we had our nice big back yard with the playground so usually it was were the stragglers went.

Lindsey and Lauren's birthday is the 28th, Lindsey has already invited people to the park by the school on the 27th for her party... I still don't know what I am going to do. I hope something comes to mind soon. Maybe I should just set the date and make myself ready for it.

Oops, Amber just poured a whole box of cereal on Samantha's high chair tray.... which Samantha isn't complaining, but I better go tend to that and worry about birthday dilemma's later. Oh nice, Amber is helping her eat the cereal too.

"What's that smell?"

I remember like it was yesterday, Emily at about 3 years old going on and on in the car or in the store or at home about the little girls (Lindsey and Lauren) smelling bad. She would say, "Oh, mom, what is the stinky smell?.. Something really stinks, what is it?... I can smell something.. something sticks so bad!" She would just go on and on about it. Normally it was when the little girls had a stinky diaper and normally they seemed to always do it about the same time. One would go and the other one would go with in the next 15 minutes it seemed. Emily would crack me up when she would say this.

I always try to down play smells along with personal appearance ("Mom-look at her feet, they are so big, they don't even fit her shoes... oh and look at her legs mom, do you see her legs?") the girls seem to always notice. I guess I am a lot like my mom that way. I am always saying things to down play it or change the subject. Trying not to bring attention to things like that which might be embarrassing to others. With that being said, I don't know why my girls have not caught on to that idea, or why they can't just ignore things like that.

Amber lately has turned into Emily at age 3 when she would smell a smell and have to know what it was, she doesn't seem to be as upset about it like Emily was, but more curious where it is coming from and what it is. She will ask me what that stinky smell is. This morning Amber starts in with "what is that smell? Can you smell that mom, something smells stinky. Phew," as she waves her hand in front of her nose, "something is really stinky!" I asked her if she was stinky, she told me no. I figured it must be Samantha. I grab Samantha, she is in need of a diaper change, but nothing really smelly in the diaper area. I change her diaper. Amber by now has moved on to other things, so she is only commenting about the stinky smell a bit here and a bit there, she is no longer obsessed with asking me "what is that smell" and asking me what sticks constantly. I grab Amber, lay her down to change her diaper, and sure enough I found the smell. As I opened Amber's diaper she said, "I found it!" I am trying to figure out what she is talking about. I asked her what she found. "I found that stinky smell, it was me. I was a stinky smell. I didn't know that I was that stinky smell. Thanks for getting rid of that stinky smell."

There's never a dull day around here with Amber, well with any of the girls really.

USPS complaint

My girls frequently receive letters from my parents. Both my mom and my dad will write to the girls and then send them the letter in the mail in separate envelopes so that all the girls have their own "mail" to open instead of having just one piece that has everyone's in it.

This last time my parents did this, my dad decided to send Emily some rocks. Emily LOVES rocks, we have them all over the house, in my sink, on the floor, on the counter tops... in her room in drawers and on her night stand and on her head board. They are everywhere! Robert often will step on one or trip over one and say, "Those stupid rocks! They need to go outside!"

So the mail comes, Lindsey has a letter, Lauren has one, Amber has one but none for Emily. I tell Emily that I am sure hers is coming soon and just to wait a day. (This has happened before with Lindsey's and normally it just arrives a day late.) I talk to my parents, and find out about the rocks they sent. I don't tell Emily about the rocks and we wait a few days waiting for the rocks that Emily will totally love.

They mail it on May 5th, it was priority so it should have been 2 to 3 days max. When I would talk to my parents and tell them it hadn't gotten there, I just kept thinking it will be here tomorrow. I wait the whole week with nothing. I think Emily might have even forgotten about her letter that never came.

And then today, 11 days after it had been mailed, we receive the package. EMPTY!

The box is wrapped in plastic with a "We are sorry that you didn't get the contents of your package" type of letter printed on the plastic package now wrapped around the box. It has a stamp that says "received unsealed and no contents in Salt Lake City" on the front of the box. It is obvious that there has been some sort of water damage to it, which would have made it open and dumping out the rocks.

Emily did receive the letters, which I was going to take a picture of, but she has put them away in her stash of stuff already, but they are all hard and crusty and water damaged as well. I did manage to open them and she was able to read them. Unfortunately, no rocks came though. My parents spent nearly $5 on a box of rocks that never completely arrive. Poor Emily! And then I keep wondering, WHO has her rocks now? Unbelievable!!

Amber's snack time

Ooops, I forgot to put these on here backwards...

So this is Amber posing for pictures, she does this anytime I have the camera, taking pictures of someone or something, she wants the spot light, and over looking my photos, she is in the spot light.

Here she is in the dance moves, as she dances and poses. Crazy girl.

But before all the dancing, this is what she was doing.... drinking water and eating goldfish.

It did start out as a bowl of goldfish crackers and a cup of water.... but for some reason she wanted to simplify things, and combine them. Saving time maybe.

Yep, nothing like chewing your water before you drink it. GROSS! Where do they come up with this. I am thinking maybe nursery. Before she put them all in her water, she was dipping them in the water. I have seen that done in several nursery classes over the years.

At least she did eat and drink it all. My other kids do things like that and then just play and waste it.

"Mom she's on my head!"

Amber is sitting watching TV as I am cleaning up the kitchen and the table. She keeps giggling and saying, "She's on my head." and then she would get up and walk around and look around the room real quietly. "Mom, she's on my head!" I am trying to figure out what she is talking about, I look at the TV and there is nothing on that makes sense to what she is saying. Then Amber says, "she's over there, isn't she so cute!"

I look, and there is a fly flying around the family room. Amber is watching it and as it slows down to land on the couch. Amber then says again, "Isn't she so cute, Mom." Then she starts talking to the fly, "Hi there, you were on my head. You can get back on my head if you want. You are so cute and and such a nice bug."

This sort of thing goes on for a little while. Then Amber sees another "bug" outside. She comes to me and says, "We have to let it in! Okay - I am going now to let it in." Luckily she can't get the exterior doors open, but I am sure that is only a matter of time.

I love Amber's personality! She is so fun! (busy but fun) You can see her posing and wanting her pictures taken below. Notice her chap stick, and the sunglasses that once she puts them on, she doesn't take off for most of the day.

Sorry about the food here in her mouth, but this is so far my best picture that shows Samantha squishing up her nose when she laughs. I love it, but it isn't a good angle to really see it good. It seems like Samantha will smile that way, and then I grab the camera and she relaxes her nose as soon as I take the picture.

Pirate Day

Today is the girls' Pirate Day for their "May Days." The girls missed the bus because of slow movers, and Emily said, "I wish there wasn't May Days!" As if that would have made a difference.

Lindsey cracks me up when we are taking pictures. She is always making some weird face or looking goofy! I use to tell her to stop, but now I just know that is Lindsey. I am sure someday she will ask why I let her do that. It just shows who Lindsey is, and I love it!

I thought they needed some gold, after all... they are pirates! When my family came to visit, my brother and his wife brought some gold chocolate coins. Can you believe we still had a few left? This is all that is left though, there was a pretty big bag of them. I think the girls forgot about them. I found a cellophane bag and cut it in half, taped up the open end on one of them and tied them to their belts.

We even gave the girls a tattoo. Lindsey's is cross bones from Emily and then I did a heart on Lauren's arm.

I am sure they are the best pirates at school today!!

This morning....

The kids were running late as they have been running all week. I look at the clock, it is time for them to be at the bus stop and not just leaving the house. I again tell them they need to go now. Emily asks, "can you drive us?" I look at the clock again, and decide to drive them to the bus stop instead of driving them to school.

As we get to the first stop sign, I am looking at the clock and tell them, "It is 7:30, you have missed the bus. Normally the bus comes at 7:28 on this clock."

Lindsey looks at the clock and says, "Mom, your clock is wrong, it is 2 days slow!"

I was like, what? "Two days slow huh? You are crazy Lindsey!" I say as I am laughing at her.

Emily says, "Lindsey you have been watching too much Alice in Wonderland!"

May Days - Crazy Hair Day

The girls' first grade classes are doing "May Days" for this last month of school. They have things like Paper Airplane day, Game day, Backwards day, Hawaiian day, Western day, Cowboy day, Water day, clean up day, and so on. Today is Crazy Hair day for Lindsey and Lauren is having Pizza day since her class won the cookie dough sales so they got the pizza party.

Lindsey is telling me all about crazy hair day... "Miss Earle is even doing it, she is going to have crazy hair too! Mom can you put my hair in a pony here and then two buns here and then pig tails here?" I am trying to do other things all at the same time as most moms do in the morning before school, Samantha was hungry and wasn't gonna wait, Amber needed her diaper changed, because I was going to throw up by the smell of it if I didn't get it out of here.... so I am doing this all while try to get the girls to hurry and get on their way to the bus.

We finally come up with this, Lindsey wanted a flower in her hair. "Then put some roots over here can you do that?" Sure I guess I can maybe somehow right? Roots to a 6yr can be pretty creative.

Lindsey's looking in the mirror and she is loving it. I must admit, I was loving it! I thought she looked great.

Not only is her hair crazy but her clothes are borderline for Lindsey. She always has her "unique" sense of style. She is wearing a skirt that is a little too short so she put on some leggings, then she put on some cool argyle pink long socks, but pulled them UP over her pants. She also has plaid hot pink shoes on which I didn't capture. Yeah she is looking GOOD!

This was her hair on the first attempt to go to school. The kids missed the bus so them I made the "roots" and the other parts to her hair.

This was right as we were heading out to the bus. But they missed it and I drove them to school. While the other girls were getting out of the car Lindsey was just sitting in the car.... she was saying, "are you sure today is crazy hair day?" I really have no clue, the calendar I have is all messed up, the girls yesterday said it was Hawaiian day but then on the calendar said it was pizza day. It was Hawaiian day for Lauren but backwards day for Lindsey. So I wasn't really for sure. I then told Lindsey someone else had "green" hair so it must be. Lindsey then just sat in the car, "I don't want to go to school today, can you just take me home?" After I bribed her and tried to give her some confidence that it was going to be fine, she then tells me, "can you take the roots out of my hair, and this out of my hair, I don't want them anymore." I tell her she looks so great! I finally kind of push them down so they aren't sticking out so much and she s-l-o-w-l-y goes into the building. As I was driving off, I thought, I sure hope it really is crazy hair day!

I had to go to the store to get some socks for Emily and some more ink for my printer (there are some SUPER coupons on http://www.kraftfoods.com/ right now) to I could print them. We get to our NEW big Walmart. Amber and Samantha still have pajamas on, but I think, I will just be a minute. As I pull Samantha out, she is stinking... I changer her bum, but it is one of those all up her back... so she goes into Walmart naked. Of course I had NO extra clothes for her... I had a blanket but when I was headed out to the car I was trying to make my diaper bag smaller and I left it on the floor in the house, and I just cleaned the car out last night getting all those "extra" things out of the car, like blankets and jackets. How embarrassing, but I didn't want to go back through all the crazy construction to get clothes for Samantha to get some socks and a print cartridge. Samantha didn't really care.

So far I haven't received a call from a sad little girl saying she wanted to come home because it ISN'T crazy hair day, Samantha is clothed and napping, and I have printed my coupons, so I guess it all turned out okay.