Note to Self:

1. Stop at grocery store to buy milk, deodorant, and band-aids

2. Go to gym to burn off all the calories from the desserts I keep making solely for the purpose of taking pictures for the recipe blog.

3. Hide the tutus

4. Buy Ellie a whole new wardrobe in monochromatic shades, so I won't have to be quite so flabbergasted when she takes off her coat while on a field trip downtown:

On the bright side: Ellie was happy as a clam for dressing herself and there were a lot of amused people at the American History Museum on Friday!

I ♥ {Silly} Faces

The king of silly!

My cousin Aaron is the king of silly. He refuses to pose nicely for pictures, therefore every photo I have of him looks an awful lot like this. :)

Check out I ♥ Faces for more silly photos or to enter your own!

Dear Mom,

I'm fine. The kids are fine.

More blog posts coming soon. Thanks for checking in.

Love,
L

PS Should I be flattered that my parents call me up worried when I haven't posted anything for a couple of days? Or concerned that they didn't call sooner?

Day 38--Breakfast with Their Teachers

Today was the kids' favorite primary activity of the year---"Breakfast with Your Teacher". They got to stay in their pajamas (or change into them as the case may have it with a couple of my kids) and eat pancakes and bacon cooked by the Bishopric. They sit with their Primary classes and each teacher brings a special topping for the pancakes. Afterwards they play Bingo and eat more sweets. The kids look forward to it all year and the one time they had to move it to March for scheduling purposes, my kids about staged their own riot!

As for me, I liked the quick trip to the grocery store totally kid free!

Day 37--Morning Snuggles

My kids wake up slowly each morning. They usually stumble out of bed and need 10-15 minutes to just "chill" before they get moving for the day. Ellie and Adam's favorite way to chill is on someone's lap. Usually the job falls to me, since I'm in less of a rush than Glen, but every once in a while when Daddy's running ahead of schedule the kids get the special treat of snuggling with Daddy! I love this one of Glen and his arms totally full.

Day 36--My Little "Helper"

I'd been hurrying all night making treats for book group, a teacher's meeting tomorrow, and for a plate of goodies for a friend. Ellie had on her apron and was happily "helping" all night! I snapped this picture on my way out the door to book group and am glad I didn't miss it.

Six Reasons Why You Shouldn't Send Your Wife to the REI Attic Sale For You...

What is the REI attic sale?
Basically a big sale they have a couple of times a year for members only to purchase merchandise that has been returned. Savings of 70-80% are normal. People start lining up outside the store at 7:30 to get tickets to come back when the store opens. The store opens at 10:00am and chaos ensues when everyone stuffs themselves into a small back room and starts shoving around for the best deals. Glen was too busy to go, so I got the job.

Here are six reasons why that may not have been the best idea:

6. Rushing a woman while she shops is just asking for disaster. Hence the cool biking shorts that Glen asked me to get. They were perfect...except for the fact that they would fall off of Santa Claus.

5. Shoving and grabbing things out of people's hands isn't as natural for women as it is for men.

4. Tight quarters + Outdoorsy men= PU [don't worry Alex and Kim--your husbands were the exceptions!]

3. Women like me aren't as adept at determining what a good deal actually is on things like tents and hiking backpacks. 40 bucks for a tent is 40 bucks too much if you ask me.

2. I guess there must be something really sexy about a 35-year-old mother of 5 shopping at an outdoors sale, since I was hit on no less than 6 times.

1. A room with a whole shoe section marked down 75% is an easy place for a woman to get distracted.

(Brand new Keen shoes for only $15...oh yeah! I have no regrets about that one.)

Day 35--A Day Without Cooking!

It's not very often that I give into the call of the Golden Arches...especially at dinner time, but tonight I had a good excuse. It was the school fundraising night at Mickey D's, so I got to be lazy for a good cause.

I Believe in Arranged Marriages

You may think that my kids are a little young for me to be thinking too much about marriage yet, but I do. Pondering over possible matches for them has become a regular past-time for me since Spencer was a toddler.

At first, I was a little worried that my kids wouldn't really want their Mom choosing their spouses for them, but I just read an article that arranged marriages are making a comeback, so I'm sure they won't mind a bit.

Thus far, most of our matchmaking has been pretty one-sided, but we've got a couple of them all set to go...

Cami's future husband moved away a couple of years ago, but since his parents are in full support of their union we figure we'll just wait until they're back from their missions, reintroduce them, and ZAMMO! Cami and JT together forever. They'll thank us later for our foresight.

With Adam, we just had to wait for the right girl to come along. She's everything we could ever want in a daughter-in-law. She's cute, friendly, smart, righteous, comes from a great family, and gets along well with all my kids. Here's a cute picture of the happy couple.

Adam and Eve
Wedding date: June 21, 2027

Yep. She's a keeper all right!

Day 34--Little Stowaway

Look what we found! Spencer had a little stowaway with him on his way out the door. Good thing we caught them or Spencer would have kept right on walking. ;)

And just in case anyone's wondering, yes, Spencer does wear shorts and t-shirts 355 days of the year.

Day 33--Worth the Trouble?

With a kitchen that looked like Emma's shirt here....
I wasn't sure the hours of trouble would be worth it.

But when I saw the looks of delight and surprise on their classmates faces...
I've decided that the groundhogs just might live to see another year.

Not me! I Would Never Make Groundhogs to Order.

Not me. I totally did NOT cringe in horror when Cami counted up that I would have to make EIGHT dozen Groundhog's Day cupcakes this year for the kids to take to their classes.
And I certainly did not even think of complaining when I was informed that I would have to make a separate batch of peanut free cupcakes for Emma's class. And then another separate batch of egg free, peanut free cupcakes for Adam's class. I was totally cool with it. I like culinary challenges.

You know I would never even think of getting grumpy at the kids for coating every surface of my kitchen in frosting. I rather like the "SCRMMPU" sound it makes when I walk across a sticky floor.

Certainly I did not end up with a sugar induced headache after breaking my fast with licks of icing. That's just gross. I would never do that.

Then when the kids excitedly started talking about next year's batch, I absolutely did not roll my eyes and shudder at the thought.

Not me. I love Groundhog's Day!

I Heart Faces- My Blue Eyed Girl

This week's theme is "The Eyes Have It".

We had been playing outside in the snow for so long and Ellie was getting so tired. That look she gave me when I pointed the camera her way was just classic...especially since her normal demeanor is so giggly and cheerful.


Be sure to check out the I Heart Faces website to check out this week's entries and to enter your own.

Day 32--Groundhog Factory

Our house has transformed into a veritable groundhog production line. We're all overdosed on sugar, our kitchen has frosting caked onto every surface, and we've still got cupcakes to frost. How do I get myself into these messes?