Princesss Impromptu

This is what happens to Wesley when Erin has a crown in her church bag and Bryce isn't here to say no.

I really do have a problem with reverence.

See?  He likes it.

Cute

India thinks if she crosses her name out I won't know who wrote on Maya's arm.

 

Happy Halloween

 We simply DIED when Maya came out in this get-up.

Reminds me a little of post-Halloween last year.

Bed Time

Attempt #1: 10:15 pm

Say personal prayers with girls.  Fill sippy cups with ice and cold water.  Blow kisses.  Say good night.  Maya insists on sleeping in India's bed.  India acquiesces. Go wash dishes.

Attempt #2:  10:30 pm

India gets out of bed because Maya keeps unplugging the heater and everything else that plugs into the wall.  Maya comes into the kitchen and greets me, "Good Morning Mommy!"  Put girls in their separate beds.  Tell India that Mommy and Daddy need to spend time together so we can practice being in love.  Go downstairs to watch TV with Ammon.

Attempt #3:  10:50 pm

India comes downstairs.  "Mommy?  Maya pooped in my room, and Belle ate it, and now Maya is wiping herself off."  Head upstairs. India asks, "Did you have enough time to fall in love with Daddy tonight?"  Change Maya. Fabreeze the crap out of girls' room. Exile dog to kitchen.  Put girls in my bed.  Maya keeps sitting on India's head.  Ammon downstairs.  No one  is sleeping.

Attempt #4:  11:20 pm


Put Maya's zip-up jammies on backward.  Put Maya in bed to scream herself to sleep.  Snuggle with India.  Story about a gassy witch by India.  Maya still screaming.  Change Maya's jammies to frontward.  Ammon come in.  Kicks India out of our bed.

Attempt#5:  11:45 pm
Maya still screaming.  Ammon gets mad at her.  Intense crying for 24 seconds.  Silence.

Moral of the Story:  Ammon should put the girls to bed every night.

Reader's Digest Version of What I'm Feeling

These punks make me happy.

And so does this sweet monster (even with her I'm-so-busted face). 

There were a lot more tacks in the chair before I grabbed the camera.

Unsupervised

An entire roll of toilet paper.

Dogfood in the mopping solution.

Nakedness.

Came home from store and found Maya changing her very own poopy diaper.

Face painting with eyeshadow.

I thought whatever I was doing was more important.

How wrong was I?

I'm No Lewis & Clark

My family drove out to Utah to drop Marshall off at BYU.  And since my dad flew back to New Hampshire for work, the girls and I drove back east with the family!  Before we left our driveway, Mom asked if the girls needed  whatever anti-throw up medicine she had.  I said no because the girls didn't get carsick on our Iowa/Illinois road trip.  Well, guess what?  Murphy's Law won.  Maya threw up nine minutes into our drive.    And then David and Nathanael eventually threw up too. I was laughing so hard because it was so gross!

Overall, things went very well.  We all got sick of Maya yelling "Mom."  I may or may not have taken us on an hour slight detour to Michigan.  I thought it was weird that lake was getting closer and closer. 

It didn't take long for India to find the dress-ups at the Parker cousins' house.

 Garey siblings and Parker cousins playing ninja.  

We were playing Swedish Twister beforehand, which was SUPER fun.

I think it's funny that Jared is still wearing his Sunday socks.

 Maya

 Jared & Rachel.

My mom could probably drive to China in six days. 

She's got incredible endurance.  

However, the rest of us were in dire need of a rest stop.

 Jared came out about two weeks earlier than my family to go to EFY in Logan. 

 He probably is missing that cute girl Emily from EFY. Oh, young love.  

Well, it didn't take him too long to move on to someone (or something) else's arms.

 Best rest stop EVER! Maya was so happy with her pony ride.

 David  & Nathanael

 Fire in the hole!

 Maya still not relinquishing the pony.

Who's the boss?

 I've never seen anyone else look this cool in a Burger King crown.

photo by Elizabeth Garey

 Mookie taking advantage of yet another wonderful rest stop.

photo by Elizabeth Garey

Sweet India.
Can you see all the mosquito bites on her legs?
She went outside for five minutes in Maryland and came back with an additional twenty mosquito bites.
 I'm not even exaggerating this time.
photo by Elizabeth Garey

Freedom.
Finally playing and not posing for pictures anymore.
photo by Elizabeth Garey

No, we didn't run out of paper.

We got rained out of the Bountiful Summerfest the second day. Plus I wanted to save $2 because how hard could facepainting really be? Turns out you actually need real skills. But it was so much juvenile fun!

Brittany painted me some rockin' luscious lips. And I was going for a butterfly on India's face.

Brittany: I was much kinder to your lips than you were to mine.

Bryce sporting the carebear look.

India's masterpiece: Josie who still looks good covered with globs of paint.

Beautiful, mega-talented cousins Meka, Rachel, and Hannah performing songs they wrote at Summerfest.

Maya kept herself happy by dancing and blowing kisses to the cute boy performing with my cousins.

This is what real face painting looks like. India loved the pink cotton candy (yucky), playing at the park, tile painting, and not so much the cultural events.

Cupcakes, Mullet Proof, and Cheating

Cutest cupcake eater ever.

After everyone had gone to sleep, I cleaned the kitchen and found a hole in all (minus one) of the leftover cupcakes. I laughed. And then I frosted them anyway.

3 weeks later: Slight improvements, but still a mullet.

Can you believe I paid money for this? Good grief.

At least my hair is still growing.

We played India's new game Pretty Pretty Princess from Uncle Donald and Aunt Beverly for our Family Home Evening activity.

Now is it sad or funny that Ammon cheated to win?

Or wonderful that someone who hates games and would rather watch basketball will dress up in clip-on earrings for his wife and daughter?

Just Because He Loves Me

 I miss Ammon today.  I'm glad we are different from each other.  It keeps life interesting! 

Here's proof he loves me. 

1. Doesn't understand the non-logic of sleeping in between clean sheets, but he will put the top sheet upside down on our bed anyway. (Obviously both sides are clean . . .)
2. Attended Swan Lake with me. Strike to his manhood ego. But gold star - double brownie - husband points.
3. Hasn't been remotely upset or irritated or annoyed about me using his stuff (and by stuff I mean everything - you imagine it, I've used it) without asking (and I do it ALL the time).
4. Making all us girls laugh during family scripture study. (Examples: Maya kept licking Ammon, so he started licking her whole face, or the "real" dialogue between Lehi and Sariah).

Rewind: No More

Footage blurb after Maya had eaten the first three oreos in her life.

What an Andrew Jackson Can Get You

Here's an email from my mom.  Background: Bryce & Nathanael are my brothers. Nathanael (6)  shares a room and bed with David (8). Nathanael has been scheming ways to marry Josie since he was 3.

April 26, 2009

The funniest thing happened tonight.  Bryce and Josie came over and we did the Easter candy hunt with them (yes, 2 weeks late).   At bedtime, Nathanael said that he would sleep with Josie and Bryce could sleep with David.  Bryce said, "well it cost me $1800 for a wedding ring for Josie so I could sleep with her, so do you have $1800. . . (and then just to be nice). . . or do you have 1800 cents?"  Well, Nathanael ran to his room, grabbed his $20 bill (birthday money) and ran back out to Bryce and said "You owe me 2 dollars"    So, as I write this, Nathanael is sleeping INBETWEEN Bryce and Josie in Rachel's bed, with his tooth under his pillow.  Bryce will learn not to mess with Nathanael when it comes to numbers.

So Bryce, I hope you kept the money. Maybe you could buy Josie a bit of therapy, so she'll want to keep hanging out with our family.