From the Past: Monticello Fun

Originally from August 31, 2006

This is Dave (my third brother), on the 4-wheeler with the girls. His facial expression may signify that he is roughly careening down the street at 75 mph, but the speed limit was 5 (maybe 10, if he stretched it). This was the girls' favorite thing to do. If someone mentioned the word "four-wheeler", Mimi would say "No" (which of course means "yes") and run for the door to go for a ride. There was a money dig at the children's portion of the County Fair. Livi was not really interested, but Annie would move her own toes around in the sand until something was unearthed, and then she would have Olivia pick the money up. Can't you tell that Livi was just thrilled with the whole adventure? (Sarcasm intended.)
This other darling little girl is Elli, my cousin. (My mom's youngest brother's daughter. . . 's wife's sister's cousin on the other side. Just kidding.) She and Olivia played and played and played. They helped Dallin make this big box out of straws and connectors, and they were both desperate to get in the box, and then it was scary. Because everything is scary. Life, really, is quite terrifying, if you think about it.

Winner!

Thank you for your kind comments and enthusiasm for the banner.  There were a few snafus in the process of drawing a winner.  I used Random.org, a lovely service for any fast lottery.  First, it generated #3, which, unfortunately, was me.  Then it generated #9, which, also unfortunately, was Sara, who made so stinkin' many of these banner kits for Enrichment that she would probably cry if she saw another one.  Third time, however, was the charm, and Leisy, at #8, was our winner.  (Which was pretty rewarding since her comment was so dang enthusiastic.)  I'm going to try to get this in the mail tonight, Leisy, so I'll email you to get your address.

Cricut Banner

I scored BIG on Black Friday with a $75 Cricut from JoAnn.  It was part of Sara's and my Great Annual Flannel Expedition.  We restocked our stashes, of course, and the plan was to purchase a Cricut at the store, but John found a coupon for free shipping online, and purchased my Cricut at 2:30 a.m.  Bless that man!

And I've been loving the dang paper cutting machine ever since.  My favorite purpose may just be the cutting of freezer paper for freezer paper stencils (so easy, so fast, so AWESOME!), but these little banners come just a smidge second.

I got this idea from Sara, who re-envisioned a Halloween banner she made with Amy Hughes (of Southern Utah University fame).  Sara, of course, in her super-crafty way, put together 56 kits for an enrichment night.  I have made only one.

You just cut the shapes and letters, glue the individual designs together with a glue stick, tie each set of two letters together with a longer ribbon, and embellish by tying shorter ribbons and pieces of tulle on to the junction.

Super cute!

Now, because of my obsession with the Cricut, I've also put together another Christmas banner kit (circles, letters, tulle and ribbons).  Anyone who comments (just wish me Merry Christmas--such a fun phrase to say) can win it and make their own little string of festivity.  Because our time before Christmas is short, I want to mail this on Saturday afternoon.  Comment fast!

Decorating for Christmas

We got our decorations for Christmas out on Saturday after Thanksgiving.  My plan was to clean the house really good Monday morning and then decorate for family night, but the girls we so enthused about decorating that they decided we could all work together to clean on Saturday morning and decorate Saturday afternoon.  And they both worked their little boonies off to make it happen.

Our tree is a delightful gift from "Sister Keeran", and we love its slender slimness.  Easy to store, easy for me to put up and light by myself, and not too terribly heavy when the smallest Wellsbaby tips it onto herself.  The tree and tree ornaments are the best part of decorating and Olivia and Naomi both took it very seriously.

Bella just mostly loved the empty boxes (and not-quite-empty boxes).

Seriously, people, how many times a day is it reasonable to say "We don't eat Baby Jesus."  I think I max out at 35.

What Happened Wednesday Morning

After Olivia left on the bus, I helped Annabel finish her breakfast, washed off her booster tray, and swept her up the stairs to have her bath.  I removed her pajamas quickly, just by holding her in my right hand over the hamper and stripping her with my left, almost in autopilot.  We went to the bathroom.  I perched on the edge of the tub with Bella perched on the edge of my lap.  Once the bathwater was flowing at the perfect temperature, I stopped my flurry of activity long enough to acknowledge some sensory information that my nose had been trying to get through to my brain.  There was an awful stench.  I looked down to see poop--make that POOP--cascading out of Bella's diaper, onto my lap, up my arm, on my shirt, and dripping on the floor.  (Make no mistake.  I had already changed her once this morning, as soon as she got out of bed.)  I yelled for Naomi's help, gasping for some wipes.  Mimi came running in and ran out again as fast as possible.  She whimpered something about it being "too gwoss", but I just told her to please get me the wipes.
Then I heard some retching and poor Mimi peeked around the corner, green-faced, to tell me she had puked all over the stairs.  (She has been known to toss her cookies after looking at her own poop in the toilet.  I should have known she was unreliable in this situation.)  I decided I was on my own.  I stripped Bella the rest of the way down, making a brave but futile effort to clean up the eruption with the wipes I retrieved from my bedroom.  I decided a shower was the only way to handle the situation.  I tried to hold her in the spray without getting myself wet, but ended up in the shower as well, scrubbing us both completely down with some serious antibacterial soap.
I got Bella out of my shower and soaking in her tub (why waste that perfect bathwater?) before I turned my attention to the stairs.  Yuck.  I hate cleaning up vomit.
Being a mom is such a dirty job.  I think I'm going to talk to my business partner about me getting a raise.

From the Past: I didn't see the Mayflower. . .

Originally from April 25, 2006.

. . . but a group of colonists has come. . .


. . . and seems to have settled at my feet.

The girls decided this morning that they both had to be as near me as possible, so this was their solution. (Obviously, I was not consulted, or I would have come up with something a little less on the . . . um. . . obnoxiously close side.) I discovered that you can actually do dishes with more than 40 pounds sitting on your feet. Lovely.

Oh, I'm so thankful.

For a month now, Mimi has been telling her friends, teachers, neighbors, even total strangers that her cousins were coming for Thanksgiving.  At first, I tried to correct her, saying, "Our friends, Mimi.  Our friends, Libby and Jenna."
But she would correct me, saying "My cousins, Mom.  My cousins, Libby and Jenna."
And it's okay because they feel like cousins.  Sara is my war buddy.  Our friendship was forged in the trenches of teaching junior high.  Even after each of us have moved three times, we've always ended up less than 4 hours apart.  And, in lieu of a Thanksgiving with blood relatives, the Soelbergs are the best possible option.  I have Sara.  Livi has Libby (and believe me, that simple "b" or "v" consonant sound was a constant source of confusion when the girls were teeny.  We still refer to Libby as "Lippy", just for the sake of clarity.)

Mimi has Jenna.

And poor, poor Joe.  He's got John, but the hospital never sleeps (and John occasionally has to), even over Thanksgiving, so his socializing was pretty limited.
We partied hard, until the girls crashed exhausted into bed (and crashed OUT of bed onto the hard wooden floor in the middle of the night.)

 

We ate delicious food, even if I dried out our turkey and made not-so-delicious new-recipe Broccoli Gratin.  Sara's contributions more than made up for it.

And even if the girls couldn't wait for the delicious food and sat down to a snack of Pringles with 45 minutes to go.

And even if my little baby Bella is a serious snack-snatcher.

We took pie to share the resident festivities at the Bradys, and played Beatles Rock Band until we were so sweaty we felt like we'd actually been to a concert.  (Sidenote:  Do you know you can still score 9% playing Rock Band even if you are the bass and you are following the drum part?  Amazing, eh?)
And Sara and I, we decided to make Christmas stockings, which are going to be absolutely darling, thanks to Sara's artistic abilities and my nonstop trolling of craft blogs for ideas.  (Look at us.  Even our sewing machines are exactly the same.)