Good Mom? Or Bad?

I've been feeling rather productive as of late. We made it to the grocery store this morning (yes ALL of us made it), which was a much needed excursion on multiple levels. Finally back at the house with the groceries put all away, I realized that the kitchen was clean enough to make some cookies. So we did. The kids all thoroughly enjoyed helping put all the ingredients in, and putting the M&M's on each one. Of course, they also thoroughly enjoyed "tasting" the dough and candies, as well as trying the finished product. Unfortunately, the cookie-making extravaganza turned out to be what their lunch consisted of. Along with a couple of glasses of milk. If I were a better, more health-nut of a mom, I probably would have insisted on some fruit and sandwiches before any cookie tasting of any kind. Oh well... maybe next time. At least they were all happy, right? Plus, it's not that common an occurrence to make cookies for lunch anyway. Here's me with the finished product. I thought I'd throw myself in there so those of you who haven't seen me in a little while will realize that I'm not really a weird-looking, balloon-faced mess ALL the time. See? I CAN look normal! Plus, I cut bangs recently and I'm still deciding whether or not they fit. What do you think?

Here's a second look to show the bangs more. Do I remind you of anyone? Just curious to know...

After our Cookie Extravaganza Lunch, the kids burned off some of their sugar energy playing "Voltron: Defenders of the Universe" in the kitchen and living room. Lucas was Zarkon. Sarah switched off between being the Black Lion and Keith, and Alex was Sven, and spent most of his time "dead" on the floor.




Lucas really enjoyed being the "bad guy," but wasn't always thrilled when the "good guys" fought back. Oh the challenges of learning how to play...

Ashleigh's Impressions

I don't get nearly as much traffic on that site as I do here. And I don't usually solicit it. But I've posted a situation I would like some advice on from all you creative friends of mine. Please check it out if you have a minute or two and let me know what you think. And then after that, feel free to return often ;). Thanks. The link is to the right, or you can just go here:
http://ashleigh-impressions.blogspot.com/

Sandbox, Anyone?

So do you think my kids need a sandbox?


The sad part of this is threefold. This box of dish detergent was almost completely full. I bought it maybe a week ago. And since my highly efficient dishwasher only uses about a tablespoon of soap per load, not much of it had been used yet. Also, this particular detergent works great, and I love it, but it's expensive. It comes in at about $6 a box. ($6 that is now all over my floor full of dust, crumbs and other common kitchen floor components). Probably the most frustrating part of this, though, is that it's not the first time this exact thing has happened... Live and learn, right? Right...

This kind of thing is what happens when I'm a little "slow" in the morning after staying up WAY too late the night before. It happens a bit more often than it probably should. I find it's the only time I can get things done more productively and truly uninterrupted. What in the world was I doing until 2am, you say?

I was folding 3 loads of mainly kids' finally clean laundry.


Making strawberry-banana muffins and strawberry-banana jam with the already overripe bananas that had been sitting on my counter for the past few days.


I also washed and put away two loads of dishes, wiped out the incredibly dirty, dinky countertop microwave that's taking the place of the new one we got until we get it hung on the wall, rearranging and re-organizing my food storage room since I have been just setting grocery bags full of food down there instead of putting them away (It's too cold in there right now!), and catching up on a few shows online in the process. However, here's this morning's version of me having had too little sleep, and too much to do last night.
Live and learn... I've got the living part (and repeating mistakes part) down. When do I start the learning??

Catch Up Time!

***WARNING*** This post is LONG. But it's cute. So read it anyway!

We've been really active and productive over the last month, despite what my blog reflects. This first picture is just a little tidbit of fun from a few weeks ago. Sarah has a music mini-class in her preschool class every Thursday. This month, they've apparently been working on playing "Musical Chairs." Sarah found her little CD player and stack of primary songs in her room. She brought it downstairs, proudly put it on and started rearranging kitchen chairs. Pretty soon, she was playing Musical Chairs with her brothers and sister! I had to step in as Music Monitor so she didn't have to stop the music every time. This was the best picture I got out of the bunch. They wouldn't stay still long enough. But it was cute. Made me smile.


Sarah's preschool class got to go to the Treehouse Museum in Ogden last Friday. It was fun, but I'm incredibly glad I was not crazy enough to take all those kids myself! Jeff left for an extended lunch break to join us. After all, at a museum for kids, adults get in free! Here are Alex and Lucas showing us their "I'm being patient, mom, I swear!" faces. This was the gathering time before they got to be turned loose in the museum to explore what they wanted. They were seriously itching to get going.


I don't remember where this idea came from, but usually when I take all the kids somewhere like this, I take their picture at the place before we get all started just in case they get separated from us and we need help looking for someone. Having a picture of what exactly they look like and what they're wearing really helps people try and find them (not that that's happened to me... but I heard it was a good idea). Here's all the little cuties I had with me that day:



This one is Sarah's friend, Katie. She lives down the street and goes to the same preschool as Sarah. They made instant friends when her family moved into the neighborhood right after we did. We like her and her cute family. So does Sarah.



Here's Audrey "walking the plank" on this cute wooden sailboat. She really did walk right off the edge!

Lucas really enjoyed the xylophones hung on the wall.

And yes... that was Jeff playing in the background! I had to make him give up his mallet so Alex could play, too. ;)

Audrey loves books and rocking chairs (she has two in her room), so it was no surprise to see her relaxing in this kid-sized rocker by the shelf full of books!

This was by far Sarah's favorite exhibit. Can you guess why? Hmmm... let me see...

Audrey didn't realize this window was for creating medieval puppet shows. She just thought it would be fun to climb through.

Alex and Lucas soon found the fun with Sarah at what became their favorite exhibit also.

Lucas and one of Sarah's friends' little sister, Kate (She's just younger than Lucas) put on their own puppet show. Only Lucas forgot his puppet, and they both forgot to stay behind the curtain!

Here's Audrey enjoying making and "eating" her Japanese dinner.


With an entire two floors and a treehouse to explore, you'd think they would find their own separate places to play...

My cute little Firefighters.

My other cute little Firefighters with some stowaways on the truck!



On another note, can you believe these pictures?? If you live in Utah right now and are looking outside today, I'd say you don't believe them. But yes! It was actually Spring-like for a few days. These car washing, pool swimming pictures come from the same day as the Treehouse museum. It was a fun-filled, busy, exhausting, but very nice day.

Smiles...

I've been feeling like doing just about anything but smiling the last couple of days. I decided to post these pictures to remind myself why all the stress is so worth it. Please pardon my lack of makeup, and the huge scratch in the middle of my forehead. That was courtesy of Lucas's toenail! (Gross, I know.)