Happy Birthday Addy

Can you believe it?  My BABY is SEVEN years old!  This year her Birthday fell on Thanksgiving.  The Friday before her Birthday we went out to buy her present.  She has been planning this shopping trip since her last Birthday when we went to Build a Bear and Annie was born.  This year Snowflake joined our family.  It didn't take her any time at all to choose her animal this time around.  She had done her research and had Snowflake picked out, dressed and named in her head before we even stepped foot in the store.

 My sister Farrah and her family had just arrived from Dallas the night before, so Addy had quite the entourage with her. 

And my mom and Lauren gave her money for her Birthday to spend a Build a Bear so she was able to bring this big huge giant thing home with us.  She was one happy girl.

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving we had her Birthday party at Get Air.

Addycakes, I really can't believe you are seven years old!  The time has gone by way to fast.  You came into this life on your own terms and you have been living it that way ever since.  You are most certainly one of a kind.  I enjoyed making your Birthday video.  It was fun to go back and see all those "Monster Baby" pictures and remember how crazy you made life for us when you were little.  You have grown out of it a tad bit, but you are still a character!  I love you!  I hope you enjoy your video.  It has your favorite songs from your favorite band (no one judge me, she is my youngest and she has teenage siblings influencing her).  Here it goes:

Click here to see all my Birthday videos

Addy Turns Six

Yesterday my baby girl turned 6 years old!  She came into our lives as a sweet surprise and has kept on surprising us ever since.  She is the cutest, funniest, craziest, goofiest, sweetest 6 year old I know.

This video is how we announced our surprise to our family and friends:

I woke up with a purpose the morning of  November 28th, 2006.  My purpose was to get Zac and Em off to school, take Aubrey to preschool and then get all my Christmas shopping done.  Addy was due in 4 days and I wanted to have Christmas all ready before she got here.  I had made a plan of what stores I need to hit and in what order and I had a list for each store of what I needed to buy there.  I was so busy trying to get ready to go that I failed to notice that I was in labor.  By the time I realized it I didn't have much time to get to the hospital.  There were several times in the car that I really thought Steve was going to have to deliver this baby on the side of the road.  We didn't find out with any of our kids what they were going to be in advance.  We like the surprise.  We were so happy when she was born and we added another sweet girl to our family.  Click here to read my very first blog post ever which happens to be about her birth.

A few months after she was born, she made her first of what would become many, many visits to the hospital.  She had RSV and had to spend a few days in the hospital.  Six years later, whenever something happens to her she says things like this, "*sigh* I don't want to have to go to the hospital again!" 

Addy in her blessing dress

After numerous posts on my blog like this one where she got this thing stuck on her head, people began referring to her as "Monster Baby".  The nickname stuck for a few years.  I must say, she was the sweetest little monster baby ever.

Addy has a very special bond with these two ladies.  Her Auntie La La and Grandma.  They are two of her very most favorite people in the whole world.

Happy Birthday my CRAZY Addy Girl!

Monday Morning Musings - Dora, The Freakishly Hairy Explorer

Today might as well be Monday, right? Monday holidays nullify all the fun that goes along with Monday and push it all over to Tuesday. Poor Tuesday. When the whole Monday holiday thing happens, Tuesday gets pretty much overlooked. I don't think Monday is the same for me, as a stay at home mom, as it is for most people. Instead of dreading the Monday Morning Back to the Grindstone routine, I look forward to getting everyone and everything back on schedule.


Yesterday, for our holiday, we all went our separate ways around here. My brother Sam and his wife Teresa were in town over the weekend. Teresa and my sister Lauren took Emily and Aubrey to see Justin Bieber. In 3D, nonetheless. And may I say a sincere heartfelt thank you from both Steve and me, to Lauren and Teresa for sparing us from such an event. Sam and Zac headed for the slopes for a day of skiing and boarding. And Steve, Addy and I went to IKEA, along with the rest of the greater Salt Lake area. But now, everyone is doing their "Back to the Grindstone Thing" and I am the only one left in the house. Yay me!


On Sunday we had the opportunity to attend not one, but two Sacrament Meetings. The first one was our own. We were getting a new Bishopric and just could not miss out. When that meeting was over, we loaded up in the car and headed over to our friend Spencer's ward for his baby's blessing. It was really super fun trying to keep all the kids quiet and reverent for two back to back Sacrament Meetings. Half of the kids were just fine. The other half, my twins who are seven years apart, were having trouble getting along. Mostly because the older one kept doing things to try and get the younger one to scream. At one point the youngest actually did scream. Right out loud. In the middle of Sacrament Meeting #2. One of the many things her sister was doing to upset her that day? She had her Dora coloring book and was proceeding to color all the Doras so they would look like this:
(to make it even better, when we got home, she cut them out and taped them to her sisters bedroom door) Addy was pretty upset over hairy Dora, but what upset her the most and what she yelled out rather loudly in Sacrament Meeting #1 was this, "DORA DOESN'T HAVE GREEN EYES!" Really Addy? That's what you are upset the most about?


Speaking of the oldest twin of mine. Here is her post it note shrine she made in the kitchen. It had things on it like, "Mom, buy new cereal at the store", "Mom, I need money so I can shop online at Justice". I will say, I did buy new cereal at the store, but the Justice thing, yeah. I just threw that one in the trash. I love you Em!

This morning, as Aubrey was getting ready for school, she told me that queen ants really freak her out. The regular ones, not so much. But the queen ones, well, she went on for five minutes telling me why she found them so offensively freaky. I was just listening to her and when she was done I said, "Well, OK then." And she looked at me and said, "Uhh, this is the part where you say, 'yeah, the freak me out a little too', so that I don't feel so weird for being the only one freaked out by them." I said, "Sorry, Aubrey, you ARE the only one freaked out by them".

So, you know, Survivor started again last week. I remember the days when I was a lone viewer of Survivor in my home. Then just a few years ago, I got Steve hooked on it too. Now he is more excited than me when it come on. Last week, our power went out a few hours before the season premier came on. Steve called the power company to see when the power would be restored. They told him it would probably be around 9pm. Steve then said, "You do know the Season Premier of Survivor is tonight, don't you?" And the power company guy said, "Sorry to cause you any inconvenience Sir. We are working on it the best we can." Looks like I've created a monster. You will be glad to know that the power and DVR were up and running before Survivor came on. Whew! Disaster averted. And please, Survivor people, keep Boston Rob around a little longer than last time. I'm begging you.

Monster Baby Strikes Again

How can someone so downright cute, be so downright naughty? I ask myself that question every day. Last weekend, Addy got in my van and turned on all the lights and I didn't know it. It totally drained the battery. We have been trying to charge it but it is so dead it won't even take a charge. So I have been driving my dad's truck this week. My plan was to buy a new battery for my van today while I was out running errands. Well, I went out this morning to take Zac and a neighbor to summer band and my dad's truck wouldn't start. It appears that someone (ADDY!) turned the headlights on yesterday and left them on. So I set the keys to both my van and dad's truck down and am calling trying to work out rides to and from band. Then next thing I know Addy is bringing me the keys to my van, but not the truck. Yeah. We couldn't find those. She picked them up and did something with them. So I am freaking out trying to find the keys. We finally find them out in the middle of the street. Then I am moving the battery charger from my van over to the truck and when I am done I get Addy to bring her inside and she has been playing in paint that she found in the garage. She had paint all over her hands and arms and face and clothes. Today has started out so fun, can't wait to find out what the rest of the day brings!

Monster Baby Strikes Again

Oh Addy. My sweet little angel girl.

BAH HA H A HA HA HA!

Uh, yeah.

Wow Addy. You came into my life as a surprise, and you haven't stopped surprising me since. You are so lucky I love you as much as I do. And I do love you with all of my heart. I can't imagine my life without you. That being said.....

Just yesterday morning I was contemplating how much I could actually get done in a day if I didn't have to follow behind my little angel doing damage control. I think it would probably be a whole lot of a lot.

She can talk up a storm, this one. Our Home Teachers were over on Sunday and she would not stop talking to them the entire time they were here. I kept trying to get her to come sit by me and be quiet but she didn't even acknowledge my presence. At one point Emily said "Addy, if you can't sit down and be good we are going to have to tie you up with duct tape again". Then later she said, "Addy, I am going to have to put you in the playroom and lock the door". Ohhhh Emily. She is another one of my angels. OK, Steve did put tape around Addy's wrists once but he did it very lightly as a joke. Click here to watch the video. And for the record, we have no lock on the playroom door and I have never before locked my children in any room. I have locked them outside before, but that was when we were trying to sell our house and I was trying to clean it for a showing and the kids kept going in and out, in and out. Thanks for making us sound like child abusers Emily. But I digress...

The last 24 hours with Addy have been "especially" fun. I will work my way backward through the story. And I will leave out the more minor infractions for benefit of time.

THIS MORNING

Last night, Emily was working on a project for school which involved the use of black paint. I was not home when she was using it or I would have made sure it was put away, because I know how much trouble a three year old named Addison can get into with black paint. This morning, I was putting a load of laundry in the washing machine, after which I went to see where Addy was. She was at the desk with the black paint and it was all over her and her cute outfit and the desk. I cleaned her and the desk up, threw her clothes in the trash, and put her in time out. I didn't put the paint away at that time because we were on our way out the door to pick up my sister Lauren. And because I am stupid. I thought, I will get Lauren and come straight in and put the paint away, because remember I am smart enough that I would have put it away last night, had I been home. We picked up Lauren, came home, I went into my bedroom to put away my purse and keys and use the facilities. I then went straight in to put the paint away. But alas, I was too late. Once again, black paint everywhere. This time there wasn't so much on her clothes so they were able to be salvaged. I then promptly put the paint away. On the top shelf in the craft room. Where I hope it will be safe forever more.

LAST NIGHT

I was getting ready to go to a Relief Society dinner at the church. Steve was making dinner for the kids. Addy, unbeknownst to us, was painting her toenails (and 1/2 her feet on our bedroom floor. There was hot pink finger nail polish all over our beautiful concrete floor. See it really is beautiful:

So beautiful in fact, that Steve brings clients over all the time to gaze upon it's beauty. Hot pink puddles in the middle of it just won't do. Needless to say, Steve was pretty freaked out. And using fingernail polish remover on the floor was simply out of the question. So we got as much up as we could and then sweet Emily volunteered herself to sit for forever scrubbing with a toothbrush, until all traces of pink were gone. See, I told you Emily was an angel.

YESTERDAY MORNING

Yesterday morning. Yesterday morning, I was reminded just how much this little girl means to me. Yesterday morning, I was taking a shower and I thought she was tucked in safe on the couch watching Dora. "Just how stupid are you?" That is what you are thinking, I know it is. And the answer is: pretty darn stupid. I got out of the shower, got dressed and went out to check on her. I found her on the kitchen counter where she had climbed up to get into the top cabinet where I keep the medicine. Sitting next to her on the counter was an almost empty bottle of children's liquid Ibuprofen. An almost empty bottle. I just opened that bottle two days ago and I had given Aubrey two doses out of it. Next to the almost empty bottle was a small puddle that Addison had spilled. But it wasn't enough to make up a whole bottle's worth. I totally panicked. I asked her if she drank any. She said yes. I asked her how much. Her reply? "A lot". Thankfully Steve was home or I don't know what I would have done. I just knew we were going to have to take her to the hospital and have her stomach pumped. I asked Steve to clean her up and get her dressed. I immediately called Poison Control. For every bit as freaked out as I was, the girl on the other end of the line was cool, calm and collected. She must have talked to lots of freaked out moms before. She asked me how much Addison weighs. She had me measure out what was left in the bottle. She asked me how many doses I had given out of the bottle. She then assured me that Addison would be fine and there was no need to take her to the hospital.

SAY WHAT? Really? Apparently a three year old can pretty much down almost an entire bottle of Ibuprofen and be just perfectly fine. She said that with the doses already given from the bottle and what was left in it Addison would be fine. And with her spilling some, she could assure me that no harm was done and I could calm down and take a deep breath.

WHEW! Calm down is just what I did. I went up to her room where Steve was helping her get dressed. I held that sweet little angel tight in my arms and thanked my Heavenly Father that she was OK. I asked Steve to give her a Priesthood blessing. He tried to take her out of my arms to do it, but they would not let go. It was out of my control. My arms would not, could not release her. I told Steve he was just going to have to do it with her on my lap, which he did.

Oh Addy girl. I love you. Thank you for surprising me. From now on though, can we try to keep the surprises to a minimum?

Monday Morning Musings - Norm!

Not exactly morning anymore. It's either do this or clean my kitchen, so I choose this.

We have all been a little under the weather here lately. I am getting really tired of it.

I was able to go on Aubrey's field trip with her today. I feel like such a horrible mother. When Zac and Emily were in Kindergarten, I used to go all the time to help in their class. I never go to help in Aubrey's class. I don't really know anyone well enough in my new neighborhood to dump Monster Baby off with them and I would be less than helpful if I took her with me. Aubrey asks me to go and help all the time. She always says, "But so and so's mom goes all the time to help!" Going on the field trip today helped to ease my guilt a little.

We had parent teacher conferences last week and we found out that Zac scored in the top 10% Nationally in Science and Reading on some standardized test. Yeah, he gets it from me....

We were watching old home movies earlier tonight. I had to explain to my children why we have 5 million hours of Zac doing pretty much nothing on tape and about and hour of Emily and 30 minutes of Aubrey and nothing of Addy. I told them that when moms and dads have their first baby they think everything the baby does is so awesome because it is the first time they are seeing one of their babies doing it. By the time you get to the 4th kid, they are lucky if they get their diaper changed every day. But moms and dads still love all their kids just the same. Even if it is hard to tell from the taped evidence.

Speaking of old home movies. WOW! I had some major mom jeans goin' on all over the place. And Steve, he looked like he was about 15 years old. And thank goodness he got rid of those sweats that were way too small.

I love my new house and my new neighborhood and everyone is really nice and all but I'm just really tired and.....

♪ Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name. And they're always glad you came. You wanna be where you can see, people are all the same. You wanna be where everybody knows your name. ♪

trying...not...to...cry.....

Monday Morning Musings - Warning: Animal Cruelty Photo Included

Some of you might have noticed that I have not been a very diligent blogger lately. This is what is goin' down. See, we thought we had until the end of November before we had to renew our construction loan AGAIN, but we recently found out that it is actually up for renewal on the 4th of November. So we decided to kick it into high gear and run ourselves ragged trying to finish the house by then. The lady in charge of our loan did say she would give us a few extra days if needed. I think we just might make it. We might kill ourselves in the process, but it will be very nice to have it done and to be able to move in! We had about a thousand people working on the house on Saturday and made huge progress.





My sweet little Emily was chosen to be on the student council at school. Each class in the school has 1 representative on the student council. She had to turn in an application along with a conduct form from her teacher. They chose the top 3 students from each class. Then she had to go through and interview process, after which she was chosen to represent her class. Way to go Emily!!! She was also chosen to be in the gifted class which she leaves her regular class for and goes to 3 times a week.





I am really getting irritated at my children. They think it is great fun to click my little blue tool bar along the bottom of the computer screen up on it's side. Then I try for like an hour to flip it back down and only have success 10% of the time. Addison got up on my chair and was playing around on the keyboard the other day and SHE flipped it up. If someone knows an easy way to flip it back down, please share! It makes me crazy to have it up on end.





My "sweet" little Addy who isn't even 2 yet, came to me the other day with all her clothes off and said, "Bathroom". So I took her to the bathroom and put her on the potty. (Hey, I'm a mom. That's what we call it, a POTTY) She did the most amazing thing. She pooped. On the potty. All of her own free will and choice. So I went out that very day and bought her a potty (cause who knows where the one we already have is) and she has gone on it several times since. Yes! I see and end in sight.





You wanna know why I said "sweet" little Addy? I mean she is the sweetest cutest little thing ever, but let me just tell ya. She has taken Monster Baby to a whole new level. Friday I loaded up the girls and made the long trek to Ikea. We were in the store for over 3 hours because I was getting stuff we needed for the house (drawer handles, mirrors, an oven range). Huhhhhh.....It was a pure delight to have that child in the store with me. Pure de-light. By the time we finally had everything we needed (it really is a long drive and I didn't want to have to make it again for something I forgot) I was like, "YES!". I was so ready to strap her in her car seat and go home and put her in bed, and put myself in bed too. I get up to the front register and I am about to pass out right there and what do I find? Only self checkouts open. I was ready to cry. After struggling with Monster Baby for hours in the store my arms felt like they were made out of butter (butta). Then I had to find a way to keep her next to me all while pulling huge heavy mirrors out of my cart so I could get to the 80 some odd drawer handles in the bottom of the cart. We checked out and got everything loaded in the truck and then my sweet little Aubrey decided she wanted to cry the entire way home. Yeah. Sigh. Hooooo.....that was a fun trip right there, let me tell ya.

Hee,hee. The other day I was at Target and they had these doggie shirts on sale for 25 cents. I just couldn't resist. I wanted so bad to put one on my brother's dog, Bean-O. That dog is the bane of my existence. So I put it on him and he hung his head really low. Emily said, "Mom! Take that off, he looks like he is ashamed." Ahhhh, ha ha ha ha. He really did. Next time he makes me mad, I'm pullin it back out.

The kids and I drove up to the new house the other day and we saw that we had a visitor on our scaffolding. Actually Emily saw him and pointed him out to the rest of us. I being so observant would have totally missed him if I had been by myself.

Third Time's A Charm? Yeah, We'll See About That.

I just finished giving monster baby her third bath of the day. Why the need for a bath this time? She climbed onto the bathroom counter and schmeared hand soap all about her face and neck.

My Mom Calls Me Monster Baby

My mom has this nifty sewing machine that embroiders stuff on stuff (?)(I'm not a sewing person) and I made Addison a shirt that says "My mom calls me MONSTER BABY". Here are a few pictures of my cute sweet little monster baby. Please note she likes to smear things all over her face.

I call this one Popsicle Schmear:

She found the box of....junk....cords, chargers, headphones, and was walking around the house dragging stuff behind her:

Marker Schmear:

Lotion Schmear:

More Lotion Schmear:

My brand spankin' new dishwasher is broken so we are back to trashing the environment. We can always tell when Addison is finished eating because she starts taking bites of her plate:

Sour Cream Schmear:

Why is my brand spankin' new dishwasher broken, you ask? It could be because the dial gets turned about 10,000 times a day. Especially when it is in the middle of a cycle:

Mascara Schmear:

Very pretty Addy!

Countdown To 400 - #5: All 4 Wheels

In case you didn't notice, I am doing really bad about getting to 400. Part of my problem is that I made a whole big old giant list of possible posts in my handy dandy calendar and I have seemed to have misplaced said calendar. Or more likely, MB (I don't think I should label her anymore, maybe she won't know that MB stands for Monster Baby when she grows up) misplaced it.

Anyway, above you will notice some pictures from when we were riding ATV's on Saturday. And below you will notice some videos from the before mentioned activity.

Countdown To 400 - #6: The Monster Baby Chronicles

Side Note: One day last week Addison was being especially.......energetic......going from one thing to the next. So Steve wrapped blue painters tape around her wrists. It is very light adhesive, less adhesive than masking tape, more like a post it note really, and it only took her a minute to break it off. So I just wanted to make sure you know that NO BABIES WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS VIDEO.

WebCam Wednesday - Splish Splash I was Takin' A Bath

This is my wild monster baby (I really should stop calling her that) (she really should stop acting like one) taking a bath. Yes, this is how she takes a bath. Every time. Yes it makes me crazy. It doesn't seem to bother her that she almost drowns every time she does it. So, this is why I only bathe her once every 2-3 weeks. And I don't actually put her in the tub, I just hose her off outside.

Don't Be A Square

Since someone came to see the house on Sunday, we had to vacate the premises. So we went downtown to Temple Square. Here are some pictures of our little adventure. Once again everyone had a great time, except for the person trying to keep Monster Baby quiet and destruction free. That person was me.

Monday Morning Musings - Hello, My Name Is Allyson And I'm An....Just Read On

Sooooooo.......Somebody came to see the house yesterday. They want to buy it. I'm trying not to get too excited because they just moved from out of state and they still have to sell their house. They were transferred here with the husbands company and his company has some type of program where they will buy their house. They are checking on it. My agent said that those programs usually put the house on the market for 3 months and if it doesn't sell then they buy it. They said they want to rent it from us if they can't sell their house now. Not sure how I feel about that. We will wait and see what happens. In the meantime we have some one coming to see it tonight. HELLO! The house is spotlessly clean now from yesterday. How am I supposed to keep that up til tonight when I have 4 kids running around?





It really is running me ragged trying to keep the house constantly clean with all the kids home. Especially with Monster Baby in the mix.





Speaking of Monster Baby. Hhhhhhh. That child is.....I don't even know. She is making me very tired. My mom and Lauren got really mad when they read my post about her being naughty. How dare I call their sweet baby naughty? She's not naughty. Ha. Well, guess what? They babysat her on Saturday. Ummm hmmmm. Guess who's calling her naughty now????





I had a very disturbing dream the other night. VERY DISTURBING! I had a dream that something upset me and I started drinking to numb my feelings and I became an alcoholic. It was very detailed and very vivid and I was feeling all the emotions and everything. HELLO! What the heck?! OK, I have never even touched a bottle of alcohol. I have never had a desire to drink alcohol. I was drinking to numb my feelings? Holy cow! I have this thing about taking any kind of drug into my body. I freak out if I have to take Tylenol. The dream was a couple of days ago and I am still upset by it.





I was cooking the other day and I was making something with lemon juice in it. So I took a big swig out of the bottle (there's my alcoholic tendencies showing through). I tried really hard not to make a sour face. I swallowed it and everything without making one and I was able to hold off the sour face for several seconds after swallowing but then the sour face came. I'm just curious if it's just me or does everyone have to make a sour face when drinking lemon juice. So will you please try it and let me know? Like right now?

OK, I have been trying for forever to embed this video but for some reason it won't work. You can click here to watch it.



Last night I put Addy and Aubrey in bed. Zac and Emily were supposed to be in bed reading. I was dead tired so I was up in my room. A while later I went to tell them it was time to go to sleep. They were watching Jurassic Park in Zac's room on his PlayStation with the volume turned way down. I was so mad because I know we are going to have repercussions from their viewing. I have somehow managed to raise scaredy cat children (I have no idea where they get it) and I didn't want to have to deal with them not being able to sleep or go down in the basement by themselves for fear of dinosaurs lurking around. So I was saying something along those lines to them while I opened Zac's blinds to check his window and make sure it was locked. He looked outside and, even though it was still a little light out, said "Oh, it's already dark outside. It must be late. I think I'll turn this off and go to bed." Oh, did I forget to mention that it was at the very most scariest part of the movie? And also that Zac is my hardest child to get to go to bed at night. It just made me laugh.

What's Been Goin' Down Here Abouts In Our Part Of Town

Put away the Kleenex, dry your eyes. I'm back. I never actually went anywhere. I have just been busy, tired and hot. It has been almost a week since I last posted. Wow. That is a long time.

We have had several people come through and look at the house. Thank you for all your prayers on our behalf. I am enjoying a clean house, like all over clean, and it has lasted for almost a week. It is nothing short of a miracle. And well, we just haven't been home much. That might have something to do with it too.



I was really craving avocados the other day for lunch. I had 4 that I had just bought at the store 2 days before. I cut them all open and this is what they looked like inside. I was really mad. Mad mad.



My cousin Jennifer came home from her mission in Guatemala. Here is a little video of the family celebration to welcome her home:



The kids and I went to the Aquarium last week. Emily and I went back today with the Activity Day girls. Here is a video of my children trying to torture innocent marine life. There is some unknown kid in the video. No idea where he came from. Thankfully he didn't make it home with us.



Aubrey got new sunglasses.

We went to the Museum Of Fine Arts and saw the special "Monet to Picasso" exhibit. Steve and the 3 older kids loved it. I spent my time there trying to keep monster baby quiet and trying to avoid destroying priceless Renoir and Matisse masterpieces. I have decided that I need to go back by myself and have a looksie.


We have done a ton more but I will only bore you with the highlights. Peace out!
(that is a really goofy way to end my post, I know, but I am so tired TY-ERD, that is all I could come up with.)(stupid. i've got to come up with something better than that. i'll tell you when i do. peace out? whatever. or as aubrey would say, WHATEV!)(i'm just kind of rambling now, it's been a long day and like i said, i am tired. so i'm just gonna go now. really. bye.)(peace out)(shut up already)(you are so annoying)