sticks and stone may break my bones....

We played Charades for FHE... only our kid-version of charades is that kind where you can say anything you want :) Ben drew out a piece of paper and confidently went up front. He pointed his finger and loudly scolded, "CLEAN YOUR ROOM!" Luke quickly guessed who Ben was impersonating = MOM.

When he sat down, Ben could see that he hurt my feelings, so he tried to comfort me. "Well, that's basically the only thing you say EVERYDAY." And I felt so much better. It's his fault, though. Just a few weeks ago he told me that if I had a messy house, I'd go straight to hell.

best Christmas decorations ever...

this has been going around the email circuit and I thought it was pretty funny. Because I am not one to forward, I thought I would post it on my blog. This is not my picture or my words below. If I had the original source, I would give them credit. It's a totally wicked idea...





"Good news is that I truly out did myself this year with my Christmas decorations. The bad news is that I had to take him down after 2 days. I had more people come screaming up to my house than ever. Great stories. But two things made me take it down:

First, the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents as they almost wrecked when they drove by.

Second, a 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound ladder almost killed herself putting it against my house and didn't realize it was fake until she climbed to the top (she was not happy). By the way, she was one of many people who attempted to do that. My yard couldn't take it either. I have more than a few tire tracks where people literally drove up my yard."

puzzlin'

Our Christmas chain countdown tells us to spend the day doing our annual 1000-piece Christmas puzzle. So that's what we're doing. We may not finish until next year, but that's okay.. who says a new baby should keep you from your traditions? Our photographer (Zack) had the camera, so we took a few pictures of the blessed event...

behind this wild-child is his latest permanent marker masterpiece.
I wanted to repaint the dining room anyway....

Zack took it upon himself to snap a few of the baby, (who was quietly hanging out on the sidelines)
I love angle from Simon's foot... and that action screaming shot!

We put a short clip on our Home Video blog... but it's not as exciting as last year's videos...
amazing that twelve months have passed since then and he's still just as crazy..

believe in what you're doing...

my wonderful friend Allison (who is a fantastic homeschooling mother of six) made this video for an upcoming Relief Society function. Every time I watch I get teary-eyed. I am obviously a little emotional after just having a baby, but EVERY mom needs a reminder of what's important... We all need to remember who we are and that the little things we do every day really do matter! I have to keep telling myself that NO ONE can do what I DO for my kids.. there's no one else like me.

Thanks Allison for sharing this video and for including pics of my tornado-child. If you look closely, you can see that Zack's girl friend Sylvia also made the cut. I think the picture of her drawing on her baby sister's face is basically..... awesome.

Happy Sunday to the beautiful, wonderful mothers out there!

who you gonna call?

Last night at 10 pm the boys were ready for bed. Their pjs were on, their were teeth brushed and they hopped on our bed to say goodnight. SOMEHOW the TV got turned on.. and fate would have it that Ghostbusters was just starting. Believe it or not, we watched the entire movie. Our boys were captivated.. except for Zack who was scared of Zuul, "the dog with horns and red eyes" But he fell asleep shortly after he hid his head under the covers.

After it was over and the boys were tucked in their beds, Aaron and I stayed up laughing about all the killer movies of the 80's. Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Back to the Future, E.T., The Princess Bride, The Breakfast Club, Herbie, Goonies, Labyrinth, and The Karate Kid... They just don't make 'em like they used to. I dare you to name something more entertaining than a green ghost named Slimer! and a skyscraper-sized marshmallow man. Thank you, Dan Aykroyd.

a few hours later when I was up feeding Simon, I kept asking myself...
"Who would EVER name their daughter SIGOURNEY
unless they themselves were possessed by the Gatekeeper?"