The Big Girl Bed

We moved Kate to a big girl bed. Technically we just took the rails off of her crib. We don't have enough room to put a normal bed in there. It is so much fun when they can get out of bed, right? Not so much. The first night she fell out a couple of times. The first time I went in her room and she had her feet on the ground and her back on the bed with the funniest expression on her face. The second time she fell completely off and looked at me like what in the world happened.
The second day without the rails she stayed on her bed and took a nap but that night fun started. She came out of the room once and we told her to go back in her room. She covered her face with her hands and with a fake cry ran back to her bedroom. We thought that she went to sleep because we didn't hear anything. At 11pm she came out of her room. I took her back in there and she had ripped apart a diaper. That thing was destroyed. I don't know how she did it. There were bits of cotton stuffing, the plastic or whatever covers the outside of the diaper, the gritty stuff on the inside of the diaper, everywhere.
The third day I put her in the room to take a nap. I could hear her in there but she didn't come out at all. At 5 or so I went in to go and get her and this is what I find.

She was curled up in a little ball by her bed asleep after a party happened in her room. The room was clean before this. She had taken her clothes out of the dresser. She had three shirts on and one pair of pants that she didn't start out in. Toys were everywhere, books everywhere. I had to push toys with the door so I could get into the room. I feel like I need to empty her room before I put her in there. Hopefully she will learn to stay in bed and just go to sleep. These are the days that I love to be a mom.

Cub Scouts

Jack is now a cub scout. He has already earned his bobcat so we had to go to pack night. All I can say is bless the leaders who have this calling. I thought that I was going to go crazy with all those boys running around. Here are some pictures of pack night.

Playing a game. They had to keep the balloons up without putting their hands on it and get to the end of they gym.
See the leader? She is 9 months pregnant. 9 months pregnant and trying to wrangle 20 kids together, I'm impressed.

Noah lasted about 10 steps before he came over with his hands over his ears saying it was too loud. Noah isn't the best in social situations, he is a loner at heart. Then about 5 minutes after this Jack tripped on his shoelace and fell down and hit his knee.

When the boys get a badge the moms get a pin. Being humongous we went with the pin it on the bottom of the shirt. I guess next time I will bring a ladder.

Getting his badge and my poor posture. I need to work on that before I look like the hunchback of Notre Dam

So handsome.

Before we left to go. Thanks to Uncle Adam and Aunt Jill who gave him the shirt, neckerchief and the thingy that you pull over the ends. What is that called? Jack wrote you (meaning Adam and Jill) a thank you note but I didn't get it in the mail. If you email me your address I will send it. A little bit late but I don't buy stamps and I am forgetful. Jack keeps reminding me so I will get it to you.

My cute little cub scout.

Random Kate Pictures and a Pie

I had to post this picture of my pie. I know not very exciting but I made it with a pumpkin from our garden. Little bit harder than opening a can of pumpkin but I now know that I can use the pumpkin I canned. Don't mind the horrible pie crust, I am still trying to figure out how to make one. Don't judge, they are hard. Plus others have a hard time making pie crust, it isn't the same as my inability to make Jello. (Seriously, for the life of me I can't make Jello). Any tips from anyone on making the perfect pie crust?

Anyone? No, moving on.

Kate got a princess dress up kit for Christmas. She loves to put on the outfits and say "I a Princess". It has a Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White or as Kate says, "Wipe Snow". They are all a little bit big but she loves them. She does not love me when I won't let her leave the house like this. I am mean like that.

Gorgeous Kate! I especially like the boot.

Another lovely ensemble. This is what you do when you don't have any clothes. You get inventive with decorations.

Notice that Noah has clothes on? He loves to run around the house in underwear. Plus he is sitting still without staring at the TV and playing X-box. However, he may just be showing patience and waiting since on the right I see a foot, a hand and a controller. Just as long as they don't ask me to help them, I am alright with that. Keeps them out of my hair so I can do more important things like taking a shower without someone banging on the door and yelling, "MOM". One day, one day it will happen, right?

Temple Square

Whenever my step-kids are here we try and go to Temple Square. Here are a few pics from our visit.

Noah and Kate look like some kids just wandered into the photo. Plus we were in the tabernacle and Kate totally did go into someones photo. Need to teach that girl some manners.

In the visitor center

These next photos are a little bit dark. Notice Kate isn't in this one. She refused to go over there.
Then she finally decided to after the kids were away from there so we have this photo

We then told the other kids to hurry and get back over there and Kate didn't want anything to do with it so we have this photo.

The joys of a 2 year old.

While we were in the visitor center there is a little narrative about Jesus Christ that happens. People were being noisy so Noah said they needed to be quiet because he was listening to Jesus talk. It was a good visit. Cold but good. Maybe next time we should go in the summer.

Christmas

It has been a couple of weeks since Christmas and I realize I am a little bit behind. However, after the chaos of Christmas I barely stopped twitching in order to even do this post! We had a full house, kids were sleeping in bathtubs, no but I did have a full house. Brianna and Josh will probably have permanent back problems from sleeping on recliners. We have air mattresses that they usually sleep on but I forgot that I put them in a trunk that our fish tank sits on. As much as I hate having them sleep on recliners and risk permanent injury, I wasn't about to try and lift our fish tank off the trunk. Maybe by summer. Here are some pictures from our Christmas.

Noah and his "ipod". Santa Claus was brilliant with this gift. He always wanted to listen to the same songs over and over in the car so I said that we needed to get him his own ipod to listen too. Both him and Jack got mp3 players and Noah's barely leaves his ears. Plus he turns it up really loud and pretends he can't hear me. Oh well. I haven't had to listen to Spaceman in the car for a couple of weeks now so I will take the I'll pretend I can't hear mom game a little longer.
Opening Gifts

I don't think Christmas was quite thrilling enough for him.

Brianna happy with her EZ Bake Oven and yes she is 13. You have to start small when you are learning to cook. Cooking by a light bulb is very smart as this age. Maybe in a couple of years she will have moved up to a toaster oven. Fingers crossed.

Jack so excited.

Noah

Kate

Jack with a disgusting science kit. So far he has made boogers. Yep, gross. you can say it.

Noah with SpongeBob Operation. He hates SpongeBob, can't you tell?

Look at Katy eyeing those presents. This was Christmas morning after I had to wake the kids up at 9am. You heard me, had to WAKE up my children. What is up with that? I remember from my childhood that my sister and I would stay up late and try to sneak out to see if Santa had been there. My mom had very good hearing though and we never made it. Then my brother would wake us up with some song about a chicken named Pierre. I started twitching again.

Christmas Eve. Katy looks a little bit frightened. Not sure why?

One more of Christmas Eve. Katy now looks like she is praying for help.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Why I love Noah

We were walking home from a party at our church house and Noah asked me if Jesus was at the hospital. I asked him why would he be at the hospital and his answer, "so he could get alive again."
One night he found an old cell phone and was making phone calls. He asked me what Grandma Chris's number was. I told him I wasn't sure. He told me it was some random number. He then started to talk to Grandma Chris. He asked me if I wanted to talk to her and I did. He got back on the phone and then was saying bye and said, grandma says she loves you. Then he decided he needed to call Grandpa Bill as well. I love the fact that he is sure that he can call Grandma Chris and Grandpa Bill in Heaven.
For all the craziness that it is Noah he is the sweetest little boy.

Noah's Birthday

Noah's birthday was last Tuesday. I am just a little bit behind things. Noah is now 5 years old. Has a very interesting personality that keeps me on my toes! He is so full of joy and what mother can't resist when her child says, "but I love you so much" when I tell him he can't go with me. I love you Noah!

One of his presents was some tools. Luckily these are plastic because he finds real tools and takes things like electrical outlet coverings off.
So Happy!

Him with a Sponge Bob Squarepants movie which we have now watched at least one hundred times. In fact he is watching it right now in my bedroom.

With his presents

Of course a SpongeBob cake.

Noah and his brothers. Kate just wanted cake, this is why she is not in the photo.

Noah's big present. A big bike. His other bike kept getting flat tires and we decided just to get him one. I asked him what he wanted for Christmas and he said another bike so if this one gets a flat tire, he has another one. Hard to argue with that logic.

Happy Birthday Noah!