Giving it another try

Okay, we all remember the first dress fiasco, right? Right. Well, I thought I'd better try again. I think this one turned out much better.

Isn't that lace trim adorable? Yes, I sewed that on all my byself. Thankyouverymuch.


And check out those cute lace straps. Yes, my skills, too. Note that flawless smocking. Yeah, not me. Thanks to Wal-Mart (of course) for pre-smocking for me.


Here's the chicas enjoying the new dress. Gretta wore it all day. She didn't even want to take it off for jammies, and she always wants her jammies on. I guess I have a winner. Now if it would just get warm enough to wear something with no sleeves.



And a closeup of Gretta eating a pencil. Hey, at least she wasn't naked with a diaper on her head as she was yesterday.

Now Emma and Maggie want matching dresses, so I guess I have to indulge them. Really, that dress only took me about 15 minutes to make. My next project will be a pillowcase dress. They are so dang cute, and easy. Wish me luck!

Wisconsin South

We headed out of town on Saturday night. High hopes of unwinterizing the trailer and enjoying the fun that would ensue. We arrived at our campground in West Bend, Wisconsin at a decent hour, and continued on with the trip's excitement. Shopping at the local Wal-Mart (of course, what else would you expect from me), dinner at the local Mexican restaurant, and a jaunt to the one and only gas station that will fill LP tanks. Off we go, back to the trailer to put on our jammies and enjoy a movie and some popcorn.

I should mention here that it's cold, very cold, up here in Wisconsin. The wind is blowing hard, and that makes it feel even colder.

After our return to the trailer, we try to turn on the heat, and nothing happens. Trusty Sugar Daddy starts fiddling around with the switches and gadgets, and who am I kidding, I have no idea what he's really doing. He pops his head in the door and says he's off to the hardware store to find a coupler for the propane hose. Mmmkay. Whatever that is. But I stay put, entertaining the kids with a Yellowstone Matching Game, and my Redbook and US Weekly. Again, what else would you expect from me?

And hour later, he returns, no luck. Only now he is sporting a nifty space heater. I know what that means. Needless to say, we spent a rather chilly night in the trailer, and decided we better not stay another night. So Sunday morning, we loaded back up, and headed home. We did get to stop by and see some friends that live in West Bend. That was a fun detour. But we discovered a nice little campground, right on the lake, with a playground, and a slide, and lots of hiking trails. So that was definitely worth the drive.


All it takes is some sticks, and a tree, and the kids are entertained for hours.


Gretta enjoying Bebe's megafur. That poor dog, she needs a haircut soooo bad.


Emma and Bebe at the lake across the road from the trailer. As you can see from the sign in the background, the lake is a little high. The office lady said they got 4 inches of rain in just over an hour the night before we arrived. That would explain the flooding.


Maggie mid-song with her flute. She was very into her song. But what else would you expect form Maggie?

So that's it. Not too exciting. Sorry. Stay tuned for some cute craft pictures later in the week!

Vacay

Don't mind me. I'm still on vacation.

Sugar Daddy has the day off, which translates into running errands, and going to lunch, and doing all the stuff we don't normally have time to do. Usually when he has a day off, we head out of town. And we actually did, but it's tough to stay the night in Wisconsin when the temperatures hit the 20's and you have no heat. That's right, no heat. So we came back a day early. It's okay, though. I enjoy having a day at home with my sweetie.

I'll return tomorrow with pictures and stories from our "trip".

Enjoy your day. I know I will.


*and on a side note, head over to Jill's blog, and wish her well. Her little one is in the hospital with pneumonia, so I'm sure she would appreciate your kind thoughts.

Friday Fun

Would you rather do an Earthy, hiking in the woods kind of vacation, or a Tropical lay on the beach kind of vacation?

I'll start.

Tropical. Sand, beach, ocean, breeze, tan, flip flops, pina colada. Perfect.

Now you.

Rainy Days and Thursdays

Yeah, I let my kid run around in her diaper in da rain.

You gotta problem with dat?

I thought not.

Mind ya bidness, and watch da movie.

Nothing like it

Ah, yes, an early morning visit from one of the "saved".

Yes, the Jay-Dubs have made the rounds.

I got my daily dose of Bible bashing. What a good way to start off the day.

After explaining that I am in fact, a Mormon, and I believe in the Bible, as well as it's companion book, the Book Of Mormon, I was then asked how I knew it to be true.

I just do.

And then I was told that our church "Now allows girls to be missionaries, too". Wow, who knew?

I can appreciate their hard work and bravery for going door to door and sharing a message, but I'm good in the religion department, thanks for asking.

Is it me?

Sugar Daddy, bless his heart, jetted off to the White Sox-Yankee's game without me. This leaves me in a pickle. Kids. All day, all night. Alone. What to do, what to do?

A movie! Of course. What a _____ idea!

Good? Nope.
Fun? Nope.
Silly? Kinda.
CRAZY? ABSOLUTELY!

Gretta does NOT like to hold still. EVER. But I thought surely "Horton Hears A Who" would keep her attention at least a little. And it did, for approximately 15 seconds. After that, I was standing with her on the sidelines. Lucky for us, there was only a Grandma and her 2 Granddaughters in the audience, so hopefully they understood.

In the meantime, I was caught wondering, "Am I the first person in the world to think this movie is weird?"

I have heard from so many people how cute it is, and don't get me wrong, the animation and the voices are awesome, but the whole "believing in things unseen" was a little, i dunno, preachy to me. I mean, I have faith, of course I do, but I also wondered about past movies that have been ridiculed for their religious undertones. Golden Compass, anyone? Now if that one was so criticized for being of an Atheist view, why was this not singled out for being of a Christian view?

I don't expect you to answer that, but I know some of you are substantially more well versed in pop culture and the ramifications of said undertones.

Okay, also, Dr. Seuss has always kinda given me the creeps. I remember even as a kid, thinking "Why are those staircases just hanging in midair?" And thinking the roundness of the buildings, or sharpness of the flowers seemed alien-like.

And yet I paid good money to see this movie. The kids loved it, of course, as kids would love pretty much anything with an elephant and monkeys, but I was disappointed. Too bad. I had high hopes.

Yo Momma

I heart our Earth. Really, I do. I can't imagine what aliens must deal with on those other planets. We have it pretty easy here, for the most part. And in honor of Earth Day, I give you ways I help our Mother Earth have an easier time dealing with all us humans dissing her.

I recycle. This is one of a set of two matching trash cans. But one is designated Recycle Only, unless you're my mom, then you can throw whatever you want in there, because you're here, and I don't care if you mess up my recycling mojo, as long as you're here.


I heart rainbows. Very nice of Mother Earth and Mother Nature to collaborate on this effort to give us a short glimpse of beauty.


And I have reusable grocery bags. And I use them. I was tempted to take them to the mall with me on Saturday to forgo the department store plastics, but I forgot. What can I say? I'm lucky I make it there with all the children, let alone reusables. But it's the thought that counts, right?

Anyway, thanks again, Mother Earth. Keep up the good work.

My new puppy

Isn't it adorable? It's 15 months old, and still not house trained, but we love it anyway.

Its favorite toys are binkies, dog food, and of course, anything that is outside. It is especially fond of the geese that have taken up residence on our neighbors roof top.

It does tricks, some of which include clapping, waving, washing hands and hair, making monkey and duck sounds, and the latest is folding arms and kneeling down for prayers. What a good little puppy.

It loves to play in the bathtub with Emma and Maggie, and loves to run around naked.

Sometimes it squeals like a Pterodactyl, and nearly makes my ear drums bleed, but for the most part it is a welcome addition to our family.

Friday Fun

I was awakened this morning by Gretta crying in her crib. It was 4:18AM. After a diaper change, a cup of milkie, and some motherly cuddles, I layed her back in her crib and headed to bed myself. 4:35AM. It was then I thought I felt Sean shaking his leg on the bed. And it was then that I heard our bookcase creak very loudly as it settled. Off to dreamland I went. It wasn't until I watched the news this morning that I realized it was an EARTHQUAKE I was feeling! Wow, who knew? Interesting.

So on to todays fun. I'm bored. And I'm curious. About you, my loyal reader(s). Help me out here by playing along.

What is one food item you absolutely will not eat?

-Rule #1- you must have tasted this at least once, and
-Rule #2- it must be an actual food item.

Easy. I'll start.

Tomatoes. Raw. Gross.

Morning Kids

It's not a surprise to most people when I tell them I'm not a morning person. I never have been. I think Olivia, Maggie and I all suffer from the same sleeping-in disease. Emma and Gretta and Nunn all have that early riser, get-up-to-milk-the-cows-and-slop-the-pigs thing going on. But this morning, the light was perfect, the air was cool, but comfortable, and it smelled like wet moss. So I just couldn't resist letting the kids run outside to play in their jammies as Emma walked off to the bus stop. It's supposed to rain here later today, a major bummer considering how wonderful it has been, so that gave me more incentive to let the kiddies play. The neighbor even brought her kids over for a bit to let them play too! It's nice living in a circle, people seem much more relaxed about letting the kids run and play. I know I am.


Gretta is quite pleased with herself, as you can see by her clapping hands. Just disregard the ever present binkie.


Maggie is pointing out the seasons first potato bugs. Little tiny things that don't yet know how to roll up. She was sure to let them make it across the sidewalk and into the dirt, so they could be with their moms.


And Gretta playing with the wheels on the scooter. I'm telling ya, this kid would play outside All.The.Time if I would let her. A sharp contrast to Maggie, who once she realized there were gnats flying around, was in the house swifter than a mouse on crack!

It was a nice way to start off the morning. Now, I'm off to the craft store. I know, you'd think it would be for something fun, right? Nope. I have to make a poster for our Ward Preparedness Night. How am I supposed to make that look like fun? Sean had the idea of making the poster look like building on fire. That would get people's attention, at least! We'll see. I'll do some looking on the net and see what's been done before.

Dare I dream?

It seems as though Spring has sprung. If even temporarily, it's a sweet reprieve from the Arctic blast of a Winter we've had. The grass is green(ish), and for the moment it is free of the mushy swampiness that has been impeding our traipsing across it for the last week or so.
And from the looks of Gretta's eyes, the sun is apparently shining.


The girlies took part in a game, if short, of airplane. Playing Princesses was next, and that was much more fun.


Maggie has found a "perfect hiding spot, Mom," in our outside TV nook. It would be perfect, you know if it wasn't completely open to the rest of the yard!


And of course, this gave Emma swift permission to hop atop the nook and strike a pose.

Even Bebe had a little fun in the sun today. She was missing for approximately 2 hours. Considering she's in heat, and has been feverishly humping anything that will remain stationary for more than a few seconds, I'm a little concerned we may be having some puppies here in the next 64 days or so. My neighbor 4 houses down brought her back, saying Bebe had been sitting on her back porch waiting to go inside. Apparently their house looks a lot like mine. Or Bebe is kinda dumb. I'm sticking with the latter.

But not all was lost, even if we do end up with some little Shiht's, because my neighbor excitedly invited us to attend the first annual neighborhood "Flamingo Friday". Which I think is code for "letting the kids play in the house of the week's backyard, while the parents drink themselves silly". I don't know about you, but I'm SO THERE!

I'm only gonna say this once

Thank you, Uncle Sam.

'Nuff said.

A few seconds will make your day

This has got to be the funniest kid vid I've seen in a long time.

Enjoy.



Wasn't that worth it? May he make your day merry and bright.

Priceless

Money spent on useless, non-list items at Wal-Mart: $50



Gas money to get to and from Wal-Mart: $8.00



Having groceries delivered to my door for a $10 fee, not taking 2 or 3 kids to Wal-Mart, not driving to Wal-Mart, and not spending money on useless crap while at Wal-Mart:

PRICELESS!

Thankyou, Peapod.com, thank you.

Oh.My.Gosh

These have got to be the funnest, cutest, most whimsical crafts I've ever made. Okay, I haven't made that many crafts, so there isn't much competition, but I'm sure these will be at the top of the list for quite a while. Look at the cute PopTarts. They were a little tricky to get sewn on, but with my mad sewing skills, I had them done in 15 minutes flat. Okay, that's a lie. More like 2 hours. But still, so worth it. You can see the cookie that Emma sewed. It's the one with the sprinkle face. Maggie helped too, but the chocolate cookies she did are awaiting the purchase of some brown thread before they can be finished.



And a close up of the handiwork. I also whipped up a cute bag with a cute button closure to keep all the goodies in. I think these will be excellent sacrament meeting attention keepers. Nice and quiet, until the fighting starts anyway.

I have to give a special thanks to DesignMom for finding and posting these for us Molly's to copy.

As Promised

Okay, enough anticipation. You can relax, I'm back.

We decided to spend conference weekend in Downtown Chicago with the girls. We rode the train from our stop to Union Station. It was quite an adventure.


The girlies on the train. Maggie was pretty excited about it. And she said she wasn't scared at all.


We stayed at Embassy Suites on Columbus, near Navy Pier. The rooms are nice, and the pool is inside, so the kids were happy. Gretta woke up Saturday morning and couldn't get enough of the tall buildings outside our window. She stood there and yelled at them for a good 30 minutes.


Gretta and the girls looking at the city streets below.


Saturday morning we walked to Millennium Park to see the Bean. We also stopped and got ice cream and donuts to appease the kids on the long, long walk. Afterwards, we hopped in a taxi, which was very cool according to Maggie, and headed to the Shedd Aquarium. We spent all day there. It was exciting to see all the sea life. The girls, and Sugar Daddy and I, especially liked the dolphin show.


Contrary to this photo, the dolphins don't actually fly. They are neat to see up close, though.


This is the Watertower in Downtown. This was on our long, long walk back to the hotel.

Sunday we spent at Navy Pier and the Children's museum. I think it was more fun for Sugar Daddy to play with all the stuff than it was even for the kids. But with the nice weather, there were a ton of people out in force. Joggers, cyclists, dog walkers, families, it was nice to see there is human life in Chicago after such a cold winter.


And finally, Saturday night we went to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner. Maggie was terrified of the animals. I mean terrified. She was screaming bloody murder. But we dragged her in there and made her have fun, whether she wanted to or not. I wonder where she gets that from?

It was a pretty fun weekend. A lot of walking. A lot. But the girls were troopers, and handled it all very well. Now I need to catch up on laundry and dishes and such.

Keli can't come to the blog right now

Please leave a message, or come back tomorrow for a wacky weekend update.


Beep.

Lucky Charms

I think this is my second post using the title of a cereal, but what the hay. Let's get to the good stuff.

Sugar Daddy and myself at the game. Notice his new hat. Yes, they make one in his size.


The old skool scoreboard. This think is awesome. I had no idea that there were people in there updating all the stats and such. This is baseball purism. I also found out there is no "bull pen", which is strange I guess, and that if you sit in the bleachers below this sign, you shouldn't take kids or those sensitive to the party crowd. 'Nuff said.


And we were there to see the Cubbies break the sweep against the Brewers. I guess we really are their lucky charms. Hence the title, get it?


And the perennial sign shot. I wish I could take credit for this shot, but I think the fact that I already told you they beat the Brewers, and this sign clearly says Pirates, you would catch me in a lie. So I give credit to this guy. You don't need to click the link because I don't know him, but I don't want to steal his work. You know, the whole copyright thing, yadda yadda yadda.

I have to give a special shout out to ESPLeeAnn for her immense knowledge of both the sport and the field. It's always good to have a true fan along for the ride.

So there you have it. The blog fodder I promised. I hope you weren't disappointed. Later.

Excuse my lack of creativity

I got nothin. Nothin, I say.

But luckily, I have potential blog fodder for tomorrow.

You see, it's nice to have friends in high, and low(?), places.

We got free tickets to a Cubs game. Yippee.

They play basketball, right Meg? All I know is we have free tickets, and a free parking pass, which alone saves us, are you ready, $65! $65 to park at Wrigley field! I.HAD.NO.IDEA!!!

Wait, if it's basketball, why do they play on a field? Hmm. I guess I'll find out.

So tune in tomorrow for a hopefully entertaining story about my inaugural basketball game in the Windy City.

Later.

Somebody stop it!

Did anybody watch DWTS last night? I'm all about abbreviating it, too. The title, that is, not my watching it. Although after last nights "performance" by Kylie "tranny" Minogue, I'll certainly be more careful about what goes into my brain. It made me speechless. And that's a hard thing to do with me.


via Dotspotter

Shouldn't somebody have been there to tell her that she looked like a fat tranny? I wonder if her drag nickname would be "All Beef Patty"? That would be mine if I was ever a drag queen, so don't get any ideas about stealing that. I mean seriously, what was with that wig? I understand she has battled breast cancer in the past, but that was what, like 2 or 3 years ago, and her hair has grown out since. So why on earth would she do that to herself? And why oh why would a prestigious institution such as DWTS let such a mediocre performer on stage, especially when she is clearly in the midst of some sort of breakdown? I had higher hopes for DWTS, and for the caliber of performer they could muster up, but it seems as though that train has left the station, and no credible, actual performer would be caught dead doing that show. And after last night, that was the exclamation point on that scenario.

Ah, 'nuff said.

Carry on.

Anyone have an ark?

It's raining here. A lot. A really lot. Like, as in if it ever rained this much in Utah, the weather persons would have nothing to talk about because the drought would be over. Honestly, I don't remember ever seeing rain like this. Ever. It comes down in sheets. For hours. Yesterday I had to use my windshield wipers on the highest setting. I don't think I've ever had to do that.

And now we hear that the Des Plaines River, (it's pronounced just like it's written, no fancy French accents here in the Midwest), is at flood stage. Goody. Luckily for me, we live a few miles from the actual river, but a lot of our Ward lives out that way, so not so lucky for them. I think the rain is supposed to let up today, so hopefully the river will subside a smidge.


*photo courtesy of Red Cross
*Oh, yeah, and we're pregnant