Smiles

Katelyn has a strong dislike for taking pictures. Here you see some examples of classic Katelyn pictures. It is rare indeed to get a shot of her looking at the camera and smiling.

Dallin on the other hand seems to like having his picture taken he just needs a little encouragement to smile so we are always prompting "say cheese!" and that's what he does.

so last night I was in charge of Family night and I decided to have a lesson on smiling... I'm serious. This has become one of my major contentions with the kids and it shouldn't be but I really would like to have more than two cute pictures of the million and one pictures I take. so we talked about smiling and how it makes people feel good when we smile at them and then we played a game of hide and seek, the kids could hide anywhere in the house and when they were found the got their picture taken in their hiding spot and then ran to a new hiding spot. it was great! The kids had fun and we got to practice taking nice pictures.

Katelyn's philosophy on Ouchies

Yesterday Katelyn tripped and fell on the cement and scraped up her ankle pretty bad. today while we were driving she said,
"I can't wait to see Emily and tell her all about my new ouchy."
Then she stated in a very matter of fact voice,
"Mommy, when you get ouchies you have to show them to your friends and tell your friends all about it, because that's what friends do."

Grant must have quite the grip.

the other day while we were driving to pick up Cameron at the airport, Grant was reaching to hold Dallin's hand, Dallin seemed to be completely oblivious to it so I said, "Dallin I think Grant wants to hold your hand" he replied, "but Mommy I can't hold his hand because if I hold baby Grant's hand my fingers will fall off!"

A Dallin Moment

last week while I was bathing the kids, Dallin was singing at the top of his lungs, enjoying the sound of his voice echoing around the bathroom when he stopped all of a sudden and said "mommy, we better be quiet or the Holy Ghost will get us."

birthday

my birthday was relatively quiet this year, the kids had doctor appointments and we saw an armadillo at the park. we think it must have some sort of disorder because it wasn't remotely scared of us, and believe me three kids can do wonders in terrorizing any crawling creature. personally this was my first armadillo encounter, I've driving by a few who didn't quite make it across the road and seen a few in zoos but this was my first "out in the Wild" exprience. It was pretty cool and would have been much more enjoyable if Grant had been content to watch from a distance, but he really wanted to pet it.

the rest of the day went went well, The kids were excited to help me open presents, (new shoes) and the best part was the carrot cake.

your eyes are not deceiving you, this is indeed the carrot cake birthday cake Cameron and the kids made for me, I would like to say it was mostly the kids who created the frosting design but most of the credit goes to Cameron. the kids did let loose with the sprinkles. isn't it fun!

the biggest reason I am posting this is because my sister requested a picture with my growing hair. pretty impressive huh?

I had my first appointment with the radiologist. everything went well, I had been warned beforehand that she was "scary" so expecting the worse she seemed fine to me. she explained a bunch of things that I had heard before, so nothing new, they highly recommend radiation because of the size of the tumor and my age, I will have radiation everyday for 5 weeks, I can't lose or gain weight during that time, (so sad, I really was planning to put on a few pounds this month.... oh wait maybe that was last month... ) it will feel like a sunburn, you know, the usual stuff I had never heard of before I started this whole process. it should be great times. can't wait to start.

Cameron has his Tampa interview tomorrow, they invited us to go to a dinner with the residents tonight, Amy Sharp came over to watch the kids, she is amazing! but the boys were both screaming as we were walking out the door. unfortunately as we were going down the steps I realized I forgot my hat, but I couldn't go back and get it because I couldn't make it harder then it already was for Amy or the boys, so I went without. my hair is starting to grow back but it's certainly not at the stage where I'm comfortable going to an interview dinner without something on. oh well, it went fine, and I think it was more disturbing for me then anyone else in the room. I think most people can tell I wouldn't choose to have this crazy short hair but you never know...

Rambling

it's 9:30pm and I should be going to bed but I wanted to feel like I accomplished something, plus Cameron is out of town and I took a nap today so I don't think I could fall asleep right away and I don't want to lay in bed wide awake listening to every creek in the apartment and every noisy neighbor outside. so here I am rambling.

I went to the gym for the first time since the beginning of November, it felt good to go back, I just wish my kids would cooperate with me. sometimes actually getting out of the house is a chore but if I don't then by lunch time the kids and I are stir crazy but then it's too late because after lunch is naps and that's not a good time to leave the house. I so was determined to get out but it was a struggle. lets just say I finally made it to the car with both Grant and Dallin in my arms screaming, them, not me, though I was close.

I have been a beast the last few days. It seems like the slightest things irritates me. I think it's because life has been a bit crazy with the holidays and now that we are home we've been up late and so we are all grumpy. well mostly the girls, the boys have been great except for this morning. When Katelyn gets upset with me she tightens her fists, pushes her arms down stomps her foot and says is a growling voice "augh! I'm not happy with you" I'm not sure what to do with her lately, she is not very nice. Last night one of her best friends Emily invited us to the circus and Katelyn refused to sit by her. which of course hurt Emily's feelings. so I took Katelyn aside and explained that this was a special night for Emily, it was her birthday and she got to invite one friend to the circus and she choose Katelyn, so She needs to be extra super nice and help Emily have a special day." after our little talk she looked up at me and said, "but mom I can't sit by Emily, I have to go to the bathroom." I don't think she is trying to be a mean person. She did similar things with her cousin Lauren while we were visiting Miami. I'm not sure what to do about it.

Dallin is being very sweet on the other hand. His only flaw is that he wants to be held all the time. he is by far our cuddliest. He is such a good boy, he plays well with Katelyn and he plays well with Grant. He has a slight obsession with eye color, he is constantly telling us, "ta-lyn has blue eyes just like baby rant has blue eyes too. I want to have blue eyes too, Brown eyes are yucky!' I'm not sure where he got that idea. so now every time he talks about eyes I tell he that brown eyes are beautiful. I think he is starting to believe me a little, but today while we were at the YMCA, he was looking at himself in the mirror and said, "mommy I think my eyes are green now, look mommy my eyes are a little green like yours are!"

Grant is getting big, we are working on weening him from the bottle, he only has it at night and when I'm desperate in public, which is not very often. I didn't give him one tonight and he went to bed really easy, but then 3 minutes after I shut the door he started crying, I think as he was laying their falling asleep he must have been reviewing the day and realized that I skipped a step in his bed time routine. He is a sweet baby who is quickly losing his babyness.

I am excited for Cameron to come home tomorrow after Church. unfortunately he is likely driving to Gainsville that night because he has interviews there Monday and Tuesday. and then he has one out in CA and then i think he is done, I should be starting radiation by that time. fun times!

well I've rambled enough, I need to get some sleep so I can stop being such a grouch.

Guess who got a new Camera for Christmas....

That's right. Cameron is amazing! All I wanted for Christmas was a SLR digital camera, I have an SLR film camera I got when I took a photography class 4 years ago but that was pre-kids and now film just doesn't cut it. unfortunately the digital cameras are expensive, but the kids are getting bigger and I would love to capture some cute pictures of them while they are still young and adorable.

Somehow Cameron pulled it off and he did it with out me suspecting a thing... sort of.

A month ago after being on the computer for a while Cameron got up at announced, "I have gotten your Christmas and birthday presents for the next few years" that made me suspicious until I was searching for something under the bed a few days before Christmas, honest I wasn't looking for hidden presents. While not being able to find what I was looking for I did run across a box for a GPS, another of my top Christmas wish list items. This was mostly for Cameron's sanity, because I get lost every time I blink, and unfortunately I have to blink. and he has gotten too many desperate calls for help and directions while I am on the road.

so then I figured that the GPS must have been the expensive gift Cameron had referred to. Despite my slight disappointment I realized that a GPS is probably a better gift anyway because we will be moving somewhere this summer and it will come in handy.

well come Christmas morning I got both. Cameron had Ordered the GPS months ago and had been using it to go to his interviews, sneaky... I just figured he was amazing with directions from the Internet. He even let my sister use it while she drove to Naples to drop my kids off. they were both very sneaky.

SO now I am a proud owner of a SLR camera and a GPS. Thank you Cam!

Arriving Home