Elizabeth is 4!

I can't believe my baby is 4!
She got her first bike and is so adorable on it. Elizabeth is truly the icing on our cake and our family's crown jewel.

Hungry Girl

Wanna know what little girls do when they get hungry and mommy is in the shower? They help themselves to the brick of cheese. Yummy! Haha

Fire and Cleaning

 

Joseph likes to burn boxes and paper. It helps with our garbage and it is fun for him...being a boy and all. Yesterday, Travis came home while Joseph was burning. Travis was in a good mood and felt a bit silly, so, he started making little balls of gasoline soaked paper towels and they put an old ottoman (that's been getting grosser by the day on the deck, waiting for a trip to the dump) all on Joseph's little fire. Needless to say, they had a roaring bonfire going and a total blast with their dad. **please ignore the disgusting mess that is our yard. It's cold and wet out there and so I refuse to go out and clean it up. It will be beautiful again in the spring.

 

On to other things....CLEANING! I hate that dirty word. *snort* Seriously. I'm lazy. My husband and kids are lazy. It's the truth. We would all rather do more fun things than clean. Problem is...if we don't clean, well, then...we have many more problems. So, it being the new year and all, I'm working on goals of keeping a cleaner home. Here are a couple of thoughts and ideas that have been on my mind....

We lose socks...all...the...time! If I don't get around to folding and putting clothes away immediately, then we really lose socks. It drives me crazy! So, we went and bought a couple packs of new socks to add to our stock and I came up with this idea. The sock box. Whenever anyone takes off a pair of socks, instead of tossing them on the floor to get kicked around and lost, or into the big laundry hamper where they get lost among everything else...we now put our socks in the sock box. It's in the middle of the hallway by the bathroom/bedrooms. I know...people do this all the time. There are lingerie bags and special sock laundry bags etc. But, if I don't make a big deal out of it and make it special, the family ignores me and my attempts to separate socks from the other clothes. So far this is working out great! Once the box is full, I wash ONLY the box of socks, dry them and immediately fold and put away just the socks! I feel accomplished and the kids and hubby love actually being able to open their sock drawers and find...gasp...socks!

 

Okay...on to the next thing....Mr. Clean with Gain. I abso-freakin-lutely love this stuff! It works almost as well as the Mr. Clean magic eraser! Plus, it comes in a purple bottle! And smells like lavender! (sorta) I use this stuff to clean everything...every...thing! Until.........

I discovered this! OMGosh! What the heck is in this stuff? (I'll tell ya...HCL...hello!) First of all, it smells really good and clean. I have never used this stuff until just recently. I used to just throw one of those tablets in the tank and scrub the toilet every once in a while. This stuff gets all the nasty crap off the toilet bowl that I thought would never come off. (we're talking crap that CLR can't even get off) So, I was scrubbing the toilet today and some of it leaked onto the floor. We have awful floors in the bathroom. (joys of renting) I can not get the little dot indents clean, even with a brush. BUT...in the spot where the Lysol toilet bowl cleaner leaked...hello! It was clean!!! So, I now admit...I squirted the entire bathroom floor with the stuff, got out my little scrub brush and a roll of paper towels and went to work. That floor looks better than when we moved in (after the professional cleaners did it)! I then went over the whole floor once with a little layer of Mr. Clean. *sigh* I don't care if you think I'm weird...I think I totally rock! So what if I scrubbed my floor with toilet bowl cleaner. I'm gonna do it to my kitchen floor next. Awesome!

I Heart My Kids

 I was blow drying my hair and Connor came in and wanted to help. After a very thorough blow dry, he insisted on a picture to capture the final results. I think he did well.

 And of course, Little Miss Yizdet couldn't be left out.

 

I'm finding myself getting depressed more and more often when I realize how fast my kids are growing up! I literally get teary eyed every Tuesday night when I drop Joseph off at young mens. I'm sure that a lot of this would be remedied if I didn't have them home with me 24/7...but in a few short years, they won't be home with me at all. So, I try and enjoy them while I have them. I am so blessed! And for someone that was told I wouldn't have my own kids...I'm extra extra blessed!

Brave and a Smoothie

Our new addiction for our tablets, Nook, and Nook hd+ is the Temple Run Brave. It's hard!...but fun! We really heart Brave! But, wanna know a funny side effect to playing this game? Well, if you are like me and refuse to give up until you get a certain goal accomplished...which means playing all evening long...well...you can get motion sickness! Seriously! It took me a couple of nights of intense playing, followed by serious nausea before I figured it out. Kinda funny!

And, in the effort to get my entire family to eat healthier, I started making smoothies. Tonight it was a banana smoothie. We've also done one with banana, blueberries, strawberries, yogurt, and orange juice. My kids are actually getting their fruits in! Wahoo!

January

Holy smokes...January is already almost over! I'd like to say we have been extremely busy, but we haven't really. Just normal busy. Elizabeth got sick yet again. This time she never stopped eating, though.  She missed her first birthday party invite and two weeks of church. She seems to be improving today...here's to hoping that she gets better quickly.

Here are a few things that we have been doing this month so far...

It's been cold...like 30degrees...which isn't really all that cold to most people we know. This is Elizabeth dressed to play in the hail. She lasted about 5 minutes and the hail lasted about 10. 

We went down to Silverdale on one of Travis's days off. We had a Target gift card and a Subway gift card and a JCPenney's gift card, so we went to Target, the mall, and Subway. All were a very special treat!

I've started doing more formal preschool work with Elizabeth now that she is almost 4. (4!!) She loves it! 

Spencer and Elizabeth and I spent the day together, just the three of us. We went book and dolly shopping, ate corndogs at Walmart and in the evening, we went to Ihop. It was a wonderful day to be together and do some bonding. And while we were doing this...... 

Travis, Joseph and Connor were at Monster Jam in Tacoma! We got them tickets as a Christmas present. (Spencer would much rather go book shopping with me than go to Monster Jam) Joseph got to live a life long dream of attending a Pit Party and see Grave Digger up close and personal. They got to meet Charlie Pauken and got his autograph. It was an awesome day for them. (they took over a thousand pictures, and maybe some day I will get onto the computer and post them...but his is good enough for now)

 

I'm sure we have done more than this, but I'm drawing a blank. Lame, I know. Plus, I'm in a rush....gotta take Joseph to Young Men's. They are spending the next three weeks getting ready for the Klondike Derby over-nighter. So far we've bought him a mummy sleeping bag and a pad, a compass and a new flashlight. The list is way longer...but it's a good start!

 

Until next time....(or more likely...until Lizbet's birthday!)