Marsher those Malos!

Jane wrote in class this week:

"I like to go camping because you get to cook marshermalos."

Michelle Jane Monroe

Welcome to the World, Harley Attwood!

I have to admit I forgot all the details of exact time, but she was (I believe) 7 lbs, 6 oz, and she has amazingly long fingers. She sleeps so peacefully and was an absolute doll the whole time we were there, except when Sean announced he was going to hold her - she put up quite a racket then! hee hee

Mother and baby are out of the hospital and are recovering as well as can be expected. :)

Jane is 8!!

My dear Jane turns 8 today. I have very mixed emotions about this. It seems that every time my children have birthdays I take a closer look at them and see little adults growing up. I'm excited for her achievements and growth, but I'm scared to lose her and realize that sooner than I'm ready for it she'll leave home and have a life of her own.

Jane is such an over-achiever. She loves all sports, all activities, and is ready to try anything, especially if someone says she "can't" do it. Sean and I have a little joke we play on her - if there is something she doesn't want to do we'll just say, "Oh, maybe she isn't old enough/big enough yet. She'll probably have to wait a year or two before she can do it," and then she'll get all defiant and go out and do it. We just laugh because it's like all she needed was the challenge.

She loves science and math, reading and writing. She loves to put on "plays" with her siblings and has the best laugh. We love the light and love she brings into our home.

Lately Jane has taken up swimming and has become VERY good at it. Often her class will have races from one end of the pool to the other and just to make things "fair" for the other kids the teacher will give Jane's foot a tug or the other kids a little push so that she doesn't get too far ahead of everyone else.

As parents we couldn't be happer with the choices she makes, especially the one she made recently to be baptized. We are so excited for this next step in her life. She'll be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on December 5, 2009, 4pm at the Bloomfield Building.

Thank you, my dear Jane, for coming to our home, for being an excellent daughter, a fabulous sister to your siblings, and a beautiful daughter of God. We all love you so much!

Yes, our fruit is sanitary.

If the kids eat all their dinner they are welcome to a small treat, and they get to choose. Usually it is a piece of candy, a bowl of ice cream, or an otter-pop.

Tonight Alex asks me, "Mom, can I have a Fruit Next to the Foot?"

An Empty Beach

James and I took a trip to the beach with some great friends of ours - Shauna Douglass and her two youngest, Ben and Emma - a few weeks ago. I'm a beach skeptic, but I'm trying to branch out to new things, so when she asked if I'd like to go, I took her up on it.

We ended up on a deserted beach for almost 2 hours. It was so fun to see an empty beach, nothing but waves, sea shells, dolphins, birds, and boats. I don't think I've ever been in a more peaceful beach setting.

We picked a nice spot and started with lunch. Emma and Ben were gracious enough to share their Ritz with James, and being polite, he didn't refuse. He even tasted both, but decided that neither tasted very good.

After lunch we searched up and down the waterline for creative looking shells. JAmes wasn't excited to be on sand, but after a while he got the hang of it. It was hot, though, so we had to make sure we drank a lot of fresh water.

(and yes, he's wearing stripes with plaid! Haha, we SOOO weren't prepared!)

All in all we were very pleased with our beach experience. I am no longer a skeptic, but I've decided in order to enjoy it you have to be or go with an expert.

Costco

I don't know what's the matter with me - for some reason I choose to take all the kids to Costco on Wednesdays after school instead of taking just James with me while the older kids are in school.

But it's fun.

We sample all the samples without buying any of them.

We danced in the aisle to the sample music.

We went down the toy aisle and the kids tried so hard to remember how much money they had at home. I heard a lot of, "Mom! Can you buy this and I'll pay you back?"

We went in both "cold" sections so James could do his "cold" dance while we said, "Brrrrr!" all the way around.

We looked at all the books, movies and music.

And because they went with me they easily convinced me we needed poppyseed muffins and fruit by the foot.

On the way in and out we drove the cart over the yellow bumps ("speed bumps where I come from are yella!") - James was buckled in and the rest of the kids were hanging on the side - and we all said, "ah-h-h-h-h-h" as we bounced along.

Thanks, kids, for having such fun with me.

Projects

I had decided about a month ago to try a new project each month. This project could be crafty, developing a talent, a new recipe...anything that is new to me.

This month I've done several crafts (none of which has been a new recipe! haha) and here are the results:

I got this idea from a friend of mine. She did the same type of thing for me when I was pregnant with James, but of course it was all decorated boyish for him. I made this for my sister-in-law, Kim. She's pregnant with her third, and it's finally a girl! We're all so excited for her!

Front

Back

This next project I had seen on a blog. Inside the frame is chickenwire over fabric. It is supposed to be for hair accessories, but it could be used to hang pictures, Christmas cards, etc. The flower on the frame is a hair flower. I made about 3 dozen of those as well. I had so much fun with this project that I made several frames and just wish I knew who else to make them for....I'd had several very nice frames donated from friends who are moving/cleaning out their homes. Just let me know the style of frame/fabric you want and I'll make it for you! :)

This idea was stolen from my son's preschool class last year. One of the parent projects consisted of a pumpkin looking like these:


It's a toilet paper roll wrapped up with Halloween fabric. The stem is cut/crinkled up grocery bag. The tag says, "Boo to you from our Crew."

I've had so much fun creating all of these crafts. I can't wait to get started on my crafts for next month.

And, yes, I'll be including recipes as well. I have to: I signed myself up to make chili for our ward's chili cookoff. We'll see how that goes. :)

Becky the Artist

Last Friday Becky went to her first art class at the new studio. This studio, Inspyr Arts in Long Beach, was recommended to us by a co-worker of Sean's. She gave such a high review we thought for sure we'd have to try it out.
So on Friday, at a little past 5pm, we walked through the door to find Vicky, the teacher, and 5 other students already into their projects. Becky found an empty horse (artist's workbench), took a seat, and waited patiently for Vicky to come over.
Vicky started by showing Becky a few simple techniques, then let her pick out a picture to immitate. Becky chose a butterfly picture and got started.

I was really impressed at how Vicky could oversee all students and at the same time give each one individual attention.

Becky absolutely loved her class and can't wait to go back next Friday.

Just call us Inspyr Arts' new Friday night regulars.

Because Sometimes Sundays Spill onto Mondays...

(If you haven't yet, read my previous post)

This picture has nothing to do with the post, but I thought I'd throw a picture of James in anyway. It's very typical of James - everything he touches becomes a baseball.

I was feeling a little better this morning (my aches went away sometime last night) and, though I wasn't up to my usual morning walk, I thought I could handle a trip to the grocery store for some fresh fruits and veggies, cereal, soups and more meds.

I filled my cart and thought to myself, "I've gotten everything I thought I needed, but I should probably go down this one last aisle, just in case I'd forgotten something.

I should have left when I thought I had everything.

Just as we were exiting the aisle, on our way to checkout, James reached into the back of the cart, grabbed the top of the egg carton, and pulled. ALL of the 18 eggs spilled out of the carton and into the cart and onto the floor. The next 5 minutes were spent trying to locate all 18 eggs. The last one was found at the bottom of the cart under a whole bunch of stuff. Only one actually made it to the floor, by way of my pants. It was so ironic I felt like crying.

I informed a passing clerk of the mishap, and she told me, "No problem. We'll get this cleaned up. Go back to the dairy section, turn this carton in to the dairy guy and get yourself a new carton of eggs before you check out."

Yeah right. Like I was going to go all the way to the back of the store to get a new carton. Who knows what James would do next? I thought for sure that at less than $.08 an egg I could handle three cracked eggs.

So I left.

And that is how Sunday spilled onto Monday.

Sunday Mornings

So this morning I was up and out of bed at 8am with a determination to get everyone and everything ready for church before 11:15 so we could get there in time for the kids' primary program, despite feeling like going back to sleep and letting my body get over its cold.

After...

* a batch of burnt cookies - I had remembered this morning that I'd forgotten to get a treat for the "contest winners" in my class. I had all the names of the presidents of the Church on the chalkboard and they were supposed to put them in order. Two of the 8 kids in my class got them all in order correctly and I was supposed to bring their treats...last week! I couldn't forget again this week, so I hurriedly pulled out the tub of premade cookie dough (thanks, Pillsbury!) and threw in a batch...which was left in the oven a little too long and got partially burned on the bottom.

* discovering my mascara was broken - The cookies were left in there a tad too long because when the timer was going off I was in the middle of pulling out the mascara wand, only to find out that the "scraper" thingy (what IS that called?!) had come off and my mascara was a complete glob of black sticky mess. I have to admit I thought for a brief moment about scraping off the black mess and trying to use the wand anyway, and when I realized that wouldn't really work, I even more briefly thought about going mascaraless (PLEASE! I may feel like death, but I really shouldn't look it!), but then I remembered I'd heard the timer go off and ran to get the cookies out. When I came back into the bathroom I scoured my boxes of bathroom supplies hoping I'd have an extra emergency-mascara, and I did!! It was old, and a bit thin, but at least I looked like I had eyelashes!

* two girls with a burn each - I'd received a HUGE box of clothes for James from my awesome sis-in-law a week ago, but I'd never ironed the clothes. At 11:10 I was getting James ready and noticed that the shirts in his closet were all wrinkled, so I pulled out the iron and quickly ironed his shirt, but since it isn't safe to leave a hot iron out for babies to knock over, I placed it on the bathroom shelf (not the counter) for it to cool. I guess I needed to mention to my girls that irons, even if not plugged in, can still be hot, and as they reached past the iron for something they each got a burn on the arm. I was inspecting Becky's burn when Jane came in and said almost the exact same thing: "Mom! The iron is hot and I burned my arm!"

* a bloody nose - my kids love to jump onto the couch so they can fight over the "best" seat (which changes daily). Sean had put on a church movie for the kids to keep them quiet while I tried to get myself ready (he was leaving for a meeting and thought I could use the help of the tube). The next thing I hear is screaming, which got louder as the hurtee and hurter came closer to my room. Jane was crying so much I asked Becky what had happened, to find out that as they both jumped onto the couch for the movie Becky's foot hit Jane in the nose, which resulted in a bloody nose. Not being able to think clearly with my head infected with cold bugs, I couldn't remember which to do: lean her head back or forward. I settled with a "keep your head straight" and had her hold a tissue to her nose.

* 4 attempts at french braiding - Jane's hair is completely straight. Good luck to anyone trying to get it to move in a different direction without the end result being a bunch of bald spots. You'd think, with hair as thick as hers, there wouldn't EVER be bald spots, but bald spots there were and I finally gave up. She left the house with two ponytails instead.

* a cut finger - somehow Alex cut his finger while trying to open his yogurt.

* a mess of yogurt - When James is done eating it's his favorite thing to play with the remainder of his food items. He'll scrape as much out of that yogurt container as he can to eat, and the rest is dug out with his hand to "paint" on the table. Since we've had ant troubles, I couldn't just leave it there to clean up later. Of course, a toddler can't have anything on his hands without getting it in his hair! So during sacrament today I was carefully pulling his hair apart from the yogurt sticky mess and getting it out as best I could.

* a marked up toddler - two days ago James drew on one side of himself with a blue permanent marker. Today, being Sunday, he thought it best to match the other side with black.

* an empty stomach - really, after all that, who has time to eat?

...we finally got into the car at 11:23am. I don't know how it happened - it must be a modern miracle - that we got to church 3 miles away (me seated on the pew with James and the kids on the stand at their assigned places) before the opening song was sung. I truly believe the Lord stopped time for me.

The primary program went off without a hitch and the kids were, of course, kids! And they were great. We laughed and smiled as they said their parts and sang with gusto. The best part was Alex playing with his seat, swinging his arms around, making his hand talk like a duck, and making funny faces.

After Sacrament Sean taught my class so I could come home and rest. He truly does take such great care of me. I love that man!

Pumpkin Patch

On Tuesday Grandma and Grandpa Monroe took the kids to a local pumpkin patch. This was no ordinary pumpkin patch, though. It was fully equiped with rides, activities, and livestock. The kids all had a blast, and Alex and James even wore their costumes (Batman and Dodger, respectively).

They rode on rides (after the train James decided he's more of an observer)...

...played games...

...traveled by pony...



...spun like crazy...


...zoomed down a giant slide...



...fed and pet the livestock...




...posed for pictures...




...and picked out pumpkins (I'll post pictures of them later). After a filling meal at McD's the kids came home to share their spoils. Our porch is now littered with pumpkins of every shape and size.

Thanks, Grandpa and Grandma, for giving them such fun memories! And thanks for giving me the pictures. :)

Yes, I really do exist!

I noticed just now that all of the recent posts I've made don't include pictures of myself, so, to let my kids know I really do exist, here you go:



This picture, of course, is a self-portrait, so it's a bit blurry. It was taken the day Sean drove to Utah for his Grandmother's funeral. I always like to get a picture of the two of us together whenever we're going to be apart for a while.

Ode to Our Stolen Camera

Last year, when we were having troubles with our problem-car (as in: it wouldn't lock), our camera was stolen out of our car, along with our handy-dandy, nifty-difty diaper bag. Last week a friend of mine showed me her birthday present: a nice Sony SLR camera. She let me use it to take pictures of the kids goofing off in our front room and I started REALLY missing our camera again. These are the pictures I took with her camera:






Oh, nice camera, we miss you! (Though, I suppose it is nice that with my regular camera you can't see the bits of cracker stuck to James' face.)

**DISCLAIMER: I'm not a professional photographer and these pictures probably don't do the camera the justice it deserves. :) **