There's Good News. . .And Bad News

When I woke up Christmas morning, I was a little sad by what I found in my stocking. I had a little Dr. Pepper and a small box of chocolates. Oh dear. Garry's Dad and Step-mom were going to be here in a few hours and I had daydreamed of my time alone while G took the girls to the airport -- I was going to eat myself into a chocolate coma with the chocolate I would find in my stocking. But there was no chocolate!

But, no worries. There was the biggest box of chocolates I have ever seen under the tree.

Yum. I still have not made much of a dent in them, but it's been lovely to have so much chocolate around, especially since G also bought me a huge bag of Peppermint Patties. Yum.

So today when I went to my doctor's visit, they very kindly told me that there was good news. . .and. . .well, not really bad news, but still. Through this pregnancy I have gained 12 pounds. But over half of that has been this month alone. Woops! What can you do, it's the holidays!

Last Minute!

It wouldn't be Christmas without a little last-minute Christmas stress/craft project. This year I made rag bags for the girls and for my niece. This is their rag side. But you can turn them inside out and they have a quilted side.

I put a coloring book and crayons in each one. It was a little stressful, but hopefully a nice home for their coloring books.

I Had A Great Title For This Blog. . .But G Made Me Change It.

Last week the FBI Salt Lake City office held a family Christmas party. It was a really nice set-up. The kids had four craft tables -- they stitched together paper sack stockings, they did a train scene out of stickers, they made little frames and they had a table where you could make necklaces. Here we are putting together necklaces made out of bells and beads. They also had a whole table of cookies and drinks. Molly liked her cookie so much she went back for the frosting on another one.

And Santa came and passed out gifts for all of the kids. Parents had a price limit and were able to bring in gifts the day before so Santa could pass out individual toys to all of the kids, and they were all under $10 and so it was not like one kid got a scooter and another kid got a coloring book. It was really well planned.

The girls got Disney plush dolls. Molly got Tinkerbell. Macey got Tangled. Emma got Sleeping Beauty.

Of course Molly would not go near Santa -- so here we are! Close enough to get a present but not too close.

Here are the girls with their dolls!

All Aboard The North Pole Express!!!

Alexandria, Virginia had a Santa Train, and I never was able to get tickets. So it was with great relief that I found out that every year the Heber Creeper becomes the North Pole Express! All aboard! We got there really early and made sure that we were first in line fo our train car. It was FREEZING but it was worth it because we were able to get all of our seats together.

Oh my goodness, it was fun! They passed out cookies, hot chocolate, sang carols, Mrs. Claus passed out Santa's favorite cookie recipe and then Santa came aboard. He gave all of the kids a little toy top and took pictures with all of the kids.

Our seats faced each other and so the girls sat together and Garry and I shared a bench. They are so cheesy -- look at those fake smiles! But, they had a great time!

Party party party!

Macey had a party at her Pre-K last Thursday. Doesn't she look adorable? I bought these little miniature stockings for her to take to the party with a little treat inside. She had a good time and came home with some yummy treats!

Can A Pair Of Pants Ruin A Whole Day?

Yesterday was horrible, and I think I can blame it on my pants. I'm in an awkward part of the pregnancy -- too big for my regular clothes and not big enough to fill up the dreaded panel. But, I tried a pair of panel pants anyway because I liked the color.

It was awful! I pinned them and they were still too big. I felt like I just sloshed through my day, hiking up my pants every few feet like an old man on a golf course. It did not help that I was at WalMart with two weepy kids (curse you, pillowpets!) and then at IKEA with the same two kids desperately trying to help me at the self-check-out.

So when I got home I declared ENOUGH and changed into an old pair of stretchy pajama bottoms. But, I wanted to clean up before my parents arrived and bent down to pick some things up and

RRRRRIIIIIPPPPPPPP!

Now if that sound doesn't make you feel worse, nothing else will. Everytime I picked something up

RRRRIIIIPPPPPPPP!

By the end of the afternoon, my pants were pretty much shredded. And so was my self-esteem.

Getting My Frump On

My cousin wanted me to post a picture of my pregnant-self, so here it is. I look tired. I feel tired. I do not look really six months pregnant. Just kind of frumpy.

I'm still carrying pretty small. The Relief Society President asked me on Saturday if I was keeping my pregnancy "quiet" for right now. I laughed and said that six months was a little long to keep it "quiet" and she was surprised that I was that far along.

I promise there's a baby in all that frump!

Perform, Perform,Perform

Emma & Macey had five performances all within just a few days (and sometimes hours) of each other. Emma performed first at The Legacy House, a retirement home right behind the Jordan River Temple. A few days later she performed at a South Jordan event called "Breakfast With Santa" at the Community Recreation Center. Here she is at the microphone. She had a little part where she said, "She puckered up and kissed him good then hugged him good and tight. I nearly fainted dead away to witness such a sight." She was not scared at all and did a great job.

Macey performed twice at the Christmas Boutique. She had short tap number to "Jingle, Jingle, Jingle".

Such a cutie. To get this smile from her for the camera I had her say "My sister has stinky pants." That always brings a real smile to her face.

Finally Emma had a final performance at the South Jordan Community Center.

She really enjoys singing and performing, and she did a great job!

They Enjoy An "In"

Who knew that Great Grandpa and Great Grandma knew Santa?? Well, they do, and he came to visit them at their retirement community last week. Emma, Macey and Molly were lucky enough to steal some time with The Big Guy. I love this picture because when Macey gave Santa a piece of paper people laughed and thought that she had given him her list. Obviously they do not know my Macey because she worked all afternoon on a picture for Santa and wanted to give it to him. I love this kid.

Look how cute she is!! This year Emma asked Santa for a car. A pink one with flowers on the lights.

Naturally Molly would not get anywhere near Santa. So Garry held her for a group shot with Santa and his Grandma.

Merry Moose!

A visit from Grammy especially means one thing to the girls -- a visit to Build-A-Bear! On Black Friday we went to Build-A-Bear at the Gateway Mall in Salt Lake City. The girls all got to pick out the Merry Moose but Macey fell in love with the kitty and begged and begged Grammy for that one. She's a little spoiled!

What Would Help. . .

Today I was suckered into visiting Old Navy because they were advertising a "buy one, get one" sale. Oh, could anything be better?!?

I walked in and found something that I liked. And something that would work with my growing tummy. It took awhile to find these things, and I have to say that Macey and Molly were darn patient considering that this was the fourth stop of the morning and it was only 10:30 am.

But then a crazy thing happened at the check-out counter. The girl said that "clearance items" were not included in the "buy one, get one free" special. Which makes no sense to me. Instead of taking two, regular price things, I was taking one regular price and one clearance. The way I was looking at it, I was saving THEM a bundle.

So after the time it took to give Old Navy my email address, tell them I did not want a credit card, and then discuss the clearance debacle, Molly had managed to knock down not one but two of their manequins.

I know it was my fault; I know I should have been watching her closer. But with Molly there's no "watching". There is merely "trying to contain the tornado that she is". And I know I failed.

But still, dearest Old Navy, what would really help in the future is if you would not ask for my email, not try to sell me a credit card, and appreciate the fact that I was saving the store $$ by including a clearance item in the "buy one, get one" special, see me coming with my cart and my young kids and just check me out and get me out of the door.

Thanks much.

Who? Who? Who? Who?

One of Molly's favorite songs (don't ask why, she's also a Lady Gaga fan, I'm also confused about that one) is "Who Let The Dogs Out". She likes to say "who?who?who?who?"

We'll sing it in the car with her but add different verses. Who let the pirates out? "Argh!argh!argh!argh!"

Or, who let the cats out, "meow!meow!meow!meow!"

We've also come up with verses for all of the kids. Molly's is: Who let the Molly out? "Waa!waa!waa!waa!" (She cries a lot).

We were coming up with a verse for Miss Macey, and she came up with her own.

Who let the Macey's out? "Mama!mama!mama!mama!" I had to laugh. It's so true -- she has a lot of middle child in her and her favorite word seems to be "MAMA!" in her most whiny voice. At least she recognizes it. That's the first step to recovery. . .

A Rookie Mistake

This year was a big year for the Cunninghams as Garry put lights on the house for Christmas. Okay, it does not look like the Griswold home, but he did suffer a Griswold moment. After putting up 150 lights, we went to plug them in and, well, some of them worked. And a big old strand didn't ;) He trusted Lowe's quality and forgot to try them out before he put them up on the roof. Ah, well, rookie mistake.

Stop Speculating!

On Thursday we had an ultrasound. I've had one at 10 weeks and 14 weeks and was disappointed that this one at 22 weeks (let's just round up to 23, shall we?) was on the same bad equipment. Sigh.

But, I loved the nurse who did the ultrasound. She really took her time and showed us everything. Well, almost everything. We told her that we did not want to know the gender and she told us when to look away in case we saw. . .something.

At the end of the ultrasound she gave us a CD of all the pictures that she took. The equipment is old and not very good, so we really did not get anything that good. Disappointing after some cool 3D pictures we got of Molly. But, the nurse suggested that we not look at the CD because especially in one spot we might see something that would ruin our big surprise.

Which makes me think that it's a boy. I mean, boys are obvious, right? And girls are a lot harder. So it seems we would be more likely to 'accidentally' discover that it is a boy versus a girl. Right?

This is the conversation I had for a long time with my sister Celeste. And then I realized that I need to stop trying to find out. There's a reason why we want to be surprised, and so I just need to let it be.

My Fashion Expert

Once upon a time, I cared about clothes. And I think that I will again. But most of the time right now, not so much. Especially when almost everything does not fit anymore.

Take Monday, for example. I woke up to more snow and was a little worried. Garry was at work and Macey had to be to Pre-K in a few hours and that meant I would have to shovel a little bit (Garry did a lot before he went to work at 0-too-early but the snowplows had created a drift right at the end of my driveway). And, oh ya, I'm pregnant. . .

And I'm pregnant with bad feet. No, really, I have bad feet. I have had a toe that has been infected since August and literally bleeds or oozes all day. So I usually wear comfy socks until I absolutely have to put a real shoe on.

And that's what I did on this morning! I wore comfy socks and just slipped on some crocs to go conquer the snow. I came inside and Macey looked at my feet.

"Mama," she said, "Why are you wearing crocs? Why are you wearing socks with crocs?" Okay, she had a point -- it was pretty hideous -- but should I have to take this abuse from a four-year-old?

It's c-c-c-c

On Monday we bundled the family up and set off to find a Christmas tree. It was cold! It was around 20 degrees and dark and cold, but we were determined to find a great tree!

By the time we reached the tree lot Emma & Macey were asleep, lulled by the warm vehicle and the moving car. But Molly was wide awake and ready to go! One thing about Molly, she HATES being left behind. She has a gigantic abandonment complex all wrapped up in her little body. So I stayed with the big girls and Garry took Molly to look at the options.

Poor little thing. About five minutes later Garry brought her back to the Jeep. I jumped out to get her in the warm Jeep and all she could say was, "Mama, it c-c-c-c. . ." She couldn't even form the word cold, she was so cold!

We didn't find a tree there, but we did find one down the street. Wahoo!

But. . .But. . .

Yesterday while Macey was at dance class I took the other two to Target down the hill. While we were shopping, I saw IT. The Rapunzel Doll Vanity Emma had been asking for for weeks. The last time we saw it, it sold out fast, and even now there were only five left. But Emma was with me. . .what to do?

I used my cell phone to call my sister really fast and when she answered I just muttered "Say yes." And then in a loud voice I told her that the vanity her youngest was looking for was finally in stock and did she want me to buy one? You know, for her youngest?

Oh, it was the meanest thing. Emma had big tears in her eyes when I put it in the cart and she reminded me that SHE wanted it and SHE had been asking for it for a long time.

"Oh, you want this, too?" I answered. "Well, we'll have to ask your Dad."

Hopefully Emma will forgive me after Christmas. . .

Celebrating Molly, Molly Joy Joy!

This year Molly's birthday fell on a Sunday (bummer). We decided to celebrate on Wednesday, and she had a busy, great day! We went with Grammy to see the movie Tangled. I really, really liked it, and she enjoyed eating popcorn.

A few hours later we had a lot of family members over for dinner and cake & ice cream. Molly likes four things: Team Umizoomi, Dora, Elmo & Woody from Toy Story. Garry took her to Harmon's Grocery store and showed her an Elmo cake, a Toy Story cake and a Dora cake. She picked out the Elmo cake but it only came with Elmo & Grover in an airplace, so we spruced it up with some Dora & Diego toys we had downstairs.
She did a great job of blowing (spitting) out her candle!

Wednesday night I gave her a new blanket for her toddler bed. Time to say goodbye to the crib!

Here comes the toddler bed! She took a few days to warm up to it. The first two nights she slept in my room -- she just was not a fan of the toddler bed. Here is the blanket that I sewed for her.

Happy Birthday, Molly! Good golly, Miss Molly, I sure do love you!

Feeling Crafty

My sister-in-law had a baby a few weeks ago and so I made a baby blanket for her. It turned out a little. . .vibrant.

Ready To Go!

Every Sunday the girls take their scriptures to church. They cannot read them, but they're supposed to get in the habit now.

Molly hates being left out and I laughed when I realized that she went upstairs and got her toy laptop. She's ready to go, too!

This SHOULD Bother Me. . .

Thursdays are a little busy.

I send Emma to school and a few hours later wait for her to come home.

Right when she gets home, I gather everyone into the van and we're off to take Macey to Pre-K.

I take the other two girls home, give MoJo her nap and read with Emma and let her pick another activity when we're done.

We pick up Macey, come home, and shortly after take Emma to gymnastics.

We come home. . .and then go and get her.

We eat really fast and then we take Emma to Sunshine Generation.

It's a lot of back and forth in the van, and I should hate it. It should bother me. But, I noticed yesterday that I love picking up my little girls. I like having them all gathered in.

And here starts my nesting period. . .

Girls Are. . .Different

Have you seen the new Nissan commercial called "Kidzilla"? It shows a little boy 'playing' with his car in a bunch of boy ways. Stomping, slamming, flushing, sliming, burying. . .it gets messy.

Poor Macey. She is ALL GIRL. No, really, ALL GIRL. She watched that commercial yesterday and looked at me in horror. "What is he DOING?" she asked.

Boys. Such a foreign thing in our pink house.

Did I Do THAT?

Yesterday was a crazy day. I woke up and found out that a work product was due in a few hours for a client that I did a small research project for. I had to finish the research, get ahold of a printer and presentation folder, clean the house for the visiting teachers, and, oh ya, Macey had Show and Tell at school.

It was the letter "K". She had to bring something that started with the letter K. I was desperate and quickly found the movie King Kong for her to take. I told her that it was about a bad monkey. And hey, two K's. Extra credit, right?

It was not until after Garry dropped her off at preschool that I got really worried. Holy hannah, did I just send my daughter to Show and Tell with a Rated R movie? In Maryland, it would have been fine. Not so fine in Utah.

When she got home, I quickly checked her backpack and looked at the movie. Phew! Rated PG-13. Still not the best, but it could have been worse!

Where's The Remote? Where's The Remote?

My latest guilty pleasure is a show called "Haunted". Surprisingly, it is about haunted houses, and, truly surprising, it is on the Animal Planet channel. Not sure why, but it is.

I like it because it is creepy but not terrifying. I like creepy. I do not like scary. I do not like terrifying So, it works.

The other night the girls came into my room and asked if they could fall asleep watching tv with me. Since Emma is not in school, I said fine. But I warned them that I was watching a big-kid show and if it got too scary then they needed to tell me or go to their room.

Macey quickly fell asleep and I assumed that Emma was, as well, before I drifted off myself. This particular show was regarding a house built on top of sacred Indian ground. The house was known to be haunted and occupants only lasted about 18 months. The owners would hear scary noises and voices telling them to leave and their animals, well, the animals. . .

I quickly woke up when I heard Emma's scared little voice saying, "Mama, two animals have died. What is happening?"

Argh! Poor Emma! Where's the remote? Where's the remote?

Daily Snow

We seem to get snow daily lately, but none of it is really sticking. Molly is still fascinated by it, though!

GASP!

Yesterday I was cleaning the kitchen and Emma was in the family room, playing with some toys. I had the news on as that part of the day is the time I can turn off Dora and Diego and actually find out what is happening in the world.

After a few news stories, they did a special on childhood obesity. They talked about how some Mom's give their kids fast food at least once a week (guilty!) and then cut to one 'expert' who said that the government needed to get involved.

As an example, they talked about how San Francisco has banned Happy Meals or any other unhealthy "toy" meals for kids.

I did not realize that Emma was listening until I heard this abrupt GASP! from the family room.

I guess we won't be heading out to San Francisco anytime soon. . .

Oh yeah, there were pumpkins. . .

Is November too late for a posting on pumpkins? If so, I am sorry, but here we go anyway!

We found a little pumpkin farm about 1/2 mile from our house. It's small, but big enough for what we needed. The girls took their wheelbarrows and got their pumpkins! Then we took a hayride around the farm. (This picture shows us leaving the parking lot -- not very farmy here).

Then I took the girls through the corn maze. Corn maize?

And the girls had a great time playing on the equipment.

When Garry got home from Washington, D.C., we carved into our pumpkins. Garry looked at all three that we would have to dive into and determined that we had too many kids. Just wait until next year!

Garry carved up Macey and Emma's pumpkins. The girls were very specific about what they wanted their pumpkins to look like and chose all of the facial features. I did Molly's.

All done!

Passing It Along

She looks too beautiful to be a little terror, but alas. . .

This week I talked to a dear friend about her kids that were waking up way too early. She must have passed her curse on through the phone line because Molly has woken up twice this week before 5:30. Ugh.

The good news is that she happily watches tv, and so I am able to turn on whatever show she demands and lay back down.

Emma is off track from school for a month (we're on the year-round program) and we have Daylights Savings coming up. . .here's to a little more sleep in the weeks to come!

Another One Bites The (Fairy) Dust

Emma lost another tooth!

Thank goodness she has lost both while Garry has been in town because looking at wiggly, wobbly teeth makes me a little sick. Ugh.

She woke up to a silver dollar the next morning. At first she thought it was a quarter, and she was a good sport about the price going down, but Garry explained to her that it was actually a whole dollar!

Wear Them Out!!

Usually it seems like you spend a lot of time or money (or both) on a Halloween costume that the kids wear once and then you promptly put away. But not this year. We were so busy!
First, Macey was able to go to a birthday party and dress up. She had a great time and afterward we went to a party at The District (a large shopping area close to our home). The girls painted pumpkins and went trick-or-treating to the stores. Macey declared it to be the best day of her whole entire life!

Emma was also able to have a class party! That's her on the front row -- my little witch!

Molly was just the cutest Elmo! She was so good about leaving her hat on and at one stop even did a little Elmo dance.

One night my sister and I took the kids to search for The Great Pumpkin! The kids were able to get their faces painted, do a cake walk, do a ring-toss, and fished for prizes. The actual search did not go well for the little kids. The big kids were fast and furious in picking up candy. But, now that we know how the "search" works, we'll be ready for next year!

The girls were able to go trick-or-treating at Daybreak (the community around Emma and Macey's dance studio) and then trunk-or-treating at our church.

Holy cow! We were busy!