Happy Little Clouds

Watching Bob Ross painting clouds is quite possibly one of the most relaxing activities I can imagine.




 After the insanity of Christmas, nothing is better.

 

(Stori refused to wake up)

Our holiday was rather delightful, Elliot got a Lego Buzz Lightyear (translation - Elliot got to watch all giddy and excited while Mom put the Lego Buzz together), Astoria got the Cinderella kid doll she has been asking for, and you know what her response was the minute she opened it? "I thought I wanted the Tiana doll?"  Seriously child?

And I got tickets to see this:

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa !


But my hands down favorite part of the gift extravaganza? The card Elliot made to accompany the Waffle maker we gave Blair.

She may be the next Bob Ross.

i like candy

Candy is my favorite. Seriously.

Some facts about candy, and it's relationship with me and my family.

• No matter how many days a week I teach Zumba, I will never get rid of these flesh pockets sitting on my hips, because of candy.

• My three root canals, and myriad other teeth problems are not completely because of candy, but I have no doubt it played a pretty significant role.
  
• Elliot is having oral surgery next month... due in large part to my bad genetics, and of course, candy.
• When I was pregnant with Rousseau, I craved sugar like you would not believe. In fact during my pregnancy I had a very special dream once where I was able to take a private tour of a pastry shop, and I could eat anything I wanted. Best. Dream. Ever.
• I don't remember the last time I went through an entire day without eating sugar in some form or another; usually chocolate, but also cookies, Cherry Pepsi, ice cream, chai latte, various baked goods, you name it really...

(fun fact: Elliot is wearing a Slytherin shirt that used to be mine. Also, the shirt i'm wearing, Blair bought on the day we met. Brand New concert t-shirt. And Rou enjoyed some chocolate... obviously.)
 

 Elliot and I made a "Hogwarts Gingerbread House Castle". The marshmallow on the top, Elliot told me it was smoke from the chimney, but I still think it's Neville Longbottom after the incident with the broomstick and the remembral. We added a little more after this, but you get the general idea. Where was Astoria during all this you ask?

Passed out, probably not due to candy consumption, but then, you never know...

And we are still a good 4 days away from the sugar-fest that is Christmas.

I'm not promising anything, but in order to avoid the evil diabetes fairy that is probably waiting around the corner, something must be done.

Like I said, I can't straight out promise that candy and I are totally splitsville, but I need help. really. So, if you have any advice to offer? that would be pretty amazing.

I hope your Christmas is the best thing ever. Better than a backstage pastry shop tour (ooooohhhhhh.....).

Slow Down, Baby

This post is a double whammy.

First, my totally unrealistic, but still fun to dream about Christmas dreams:

• Someone to come decorate (and clean, while they're at it) my house.
• Someone to pick out my clothes every day, because I have no sense of style.
• Enough financial stability to ensure that Blair would never have to work another stupid graveyard shift again.
• To magically have perfect teeth.
• For massive amounts of delicious treats to have a less devastating effect on my body.
  
• To somehow have enough time to just slow down and enjoy things, like holiday traditions.

Second:

Mary+camera+Picnik.com = A life which looks much more interesting



Kids on a trampoline + Zach Cowan + Leaf blower = Hundreds of delightful giggles

Astoria, Rousseau, and I spent Saturday with my dear Katie Cowan. It was so very wonderful. Even though i'm sure I WAY overstayed my welcome, (oh, eat all three meals at your house? don't mind if I do!) I had a fantastic time with many inappropriate comments regarding breakfast meats and possibly some hilarious quotes from the Little Mermaid.

ALSO, I finally got to meet the very delightful Ruth! We had a lovely breakfast (thanks Zach and Katie!) but alas, I didn't even think to get my camera out. Boo. Nevertheless, Ruth is just as wonderful as I'd imagined.

Ma petite chou

Voila! Puis-je present ma petite fille qui est une an aujourd'hui! Fantastique!

Je voudrais ecrire cette histoire tout en français, mais ma orthographie et grammaire est tres terrible.

See? All those years I took French in school has now been validated... or something.

Today is my little French woman's birthday. And to celebrate, she got an eye infection! Woo-hoo! The other girls wanted to join in the fun, so they got eye infections as well. How thoughtful.


Because we are SO high-class, we took the family to the ihop last night to celebrate. Hey, it's the only restaurant (that is not pizza) where the girls will actually eat the food.

Who is Rou?

• Rousseau Evangeline is lovely
• She has a delightful little smile, and will show it to you with very little coaxing
• She is the first of my kids to refuse the aboo (pacifier, binky... whatever you want to call it.)
• She will climb into everything the second you turn your back.
  

Evidence:

Cupboard, Dishwasher

Fridge, toy box...

• Songs she loves to fall asleep to: If my heart was a house - Owl City, The Moon-Atomic - Angels and Airwaves, and Don't Stop Believing - Journey.
• We had decided on the name Rousseau before she was born, which is fortuitous in the sense that Rousseau means "Little red head", which she is.

Bon Aniversaire littlest one!

Flying Milk

Ten Things!!

1. For the second time this month, a gallon of milk decided, of its own accord, to fly out of the back of the car the second I opened it, bursting open and spilling all over the driveway. FOR THE SECOND TIME THIS MONTH! Boo milk.

2. See this? it's a picture of myself, taken with my camera. Notice I did not say camera phone? YAY! Thanks to wonderful friends and family, and the amazing generosity of Katie Cowan. This girl has a camera.

3. Now that I have a camera, I can document all the glamorous things that happen to me, like Rousseau dumping out a box of cereal on the carpet. It's a rite of passage at our house.


And Astoria thought it was hilarious, obviously.



4. Today is one of those days where every time I think about teaching Zumba tonight, I feel like i'm going to barf all over my new dancy shoes...

5. Look! new dancy shoes!



6. I have a strange desire to make a Hogwarts gingerbread house this year. Awesome? Or just nerdy?

7. I have seen Blair for a total of 4 hours since Thursday. Welcome to basketball season.

8. I love the way Elliot says "Chilly"

9. It seems as though I will not be completing my book list by the end of the year like i'd planned. I'm still going to make a push for it, but the small amounts of free time I have can either be devoted to reading, or finishing my sister's Christmas present, and well, my sister wins hands down.

10. Note to self and others as well: Watching The Walking Dead right before bed? not the best of ideas.

December Winner

We have a weeener!

Gregory!!
(I hope your Amazon Wishlist is up-to-date kid. I'm kind of a stalker, sorry!)

Yay!

Here's the problem though. I kind of want ALL of you to win. I'm not joking. I get SO excited when I start looking for books for people, you have no idea. And it is my intention that sooner or later, if you keep playing, everyone will win! So do not despair dear friends. (or dear family members, who will PROBABLY get books for Christmas anyway. I'm nothing if not predictable.)

I have a host of other things to tell you about, but it will have to wait till I can get my monkeys... I mean children busy doing something other than climbing all over me (Rou), whining for jam sandwiches (Astoria) or begging me to play Lego Harry Potter with her (Elliot). Till then, farewell!

I ain't no hater... mostly

I have a complicated relationship with Christmas music (and Christmas in general to be completely honest, but that's a post for another day). Surprisingly, I am not the kind of girl that keeps the dial glued to lite FM 100 from the day after Thanksgiving on. No I'm more the type that seriously contemplates tearing off my own ears and flinging them on the first 8 bars of "Last Christmas" (I don't care if it's Wham!. It still makes me want to punch kittens).

Other songs on the ear-flinging list?
Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time (sorry Katie)
Baby, it's Cold Outside (also known as "Christmas Date Rape! Yay!")
The Harry Connick Jr. version of Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Blech.

Did that sound like a bah humbug? Sorry.

However, I do not hate Christmas music. I just hate sucky Christmas music. There's tons that I really love. Call me a sappy sentimentalist, but I'm into the pretty stuff. I could listen to Sufjan Stevens for hours. The Carpenters, and classic ones like "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas" or "The Christmas Song" are great. I'm all about chestnuts roasting. But the hymns, and pretty instrumental ones are the best. Bring a Torch, Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming, and O Come O Come Emmanuel, and anything that is lovely.






This one. OH yes.
Just close your eyes and listen to it. The video doesn't really add anything to it.

See? I'm not a total scrooge. I just have standards.

I also like The Matches, December is for Cynics... but that has really nothing to do with Christmas. AND it's the Matches, so it doesn't count.

So what are your most favorite, or most hated Christmas tunes?


Did you enter the December Book giveaway yet? Do it! Nowish! You have till Friday, kids.

Christmas Present for You!

My book giveaway #1 was a success I think. (Ruth, I'm really REALLY hoping to give you yours in person!) Thanks to everyone who played! So... wanna play again? If this gets annoying just let me know, but seriously. I like books, and I like giving them to nice people even more.

Reminder:

1. Comment on this post if you'd like to enter
2. After you've commented, you get additional entries if you:

• a. Are a follower
• b. Send me a picture of you peeking over a book and a link to your current reading list
• c. Tell someone else about the giveaway (and then let me know about it)

3. I'll choose a winner (through a random number selector) this Friday, and hopefully get it sent out the winner before Christmas!


In other happenings, Elliot and I unlocked this piece of awesome:



I promise I am doing more with my life than playing Lego Harry Potter with my daughter, promise.
Look at all these lovely little things I have on my plate

• TONIGHT is Blair's first basketball game of the season. The Parowan Rams shall conquer Milford most triumphantly!
• Still teaching 6 Zumba classes a week, AND getting my first ever pair of real-life dance Nikes in Blair's basketball shoe shipment (YAY team discount!)
• If work had a face, I would punch it.
• My kids are amazing. Have I mentioned that already?
• Working on a top secret Christmas present for my favorite seester. Laura, can't you just live closer so I can kidnap you to Denny's again? Or Cheesecake Factory (ooohhhhhhh.... cheesecake...)

Anyway. Enter drawing. Win a book. And let's be friends.

Little Kid Things

Rousseau is saying words.

Uh-oh ("Uh-ay")
Thank you ("Da-day")
Mom ("Mom-eeeeeeeeeeeee")

My other kids say things too. Like Elliot. The other night I reminded her that if she was going to drink that juice, she needed to go to potty before bed. She responded, "I won't let you down, Mom!" Cute.

Astoria says words too, but she also thinks it's the most hilarious thing in the world to sneak up on me and LICK my arm. What? Nice one kid.

Black Out

photo via

Call me crazy (no, I know you already do. But this time you have my permission.) but I really think there should be a mandatory power outage at least once a month.

Benefits:

• Provides an excuse to avoid vacuuming, doing dishes, and other such activities
• Who doesn't love candles?
• You can eat something that isn't cooked by radiation. (you know, like Peanut butter sandwiches?)
• Good reminder of how a four-way stop works
• Entertaining kids with real-life activities like the park, and books, and coloring in lieu of spending 4 hours trying to save up enough Studs to buy the Dumbledore character you just unlocked. (oh that was me. sorry.)
• (unintentional bonus) Your husband might just use up all his cell phone battery reading twitter, and with no electricity to charge it will be forced to listen to you ramble about really exciting things like visiting teaching and how many people were at Zumba class instead of tuning you out.
  
• The first movie your kids watch after 7 hours of being denied due to no power will be the most entertaining movie they've ever seen.

Ten Thi... oh look, shiny!

Hey! It's ten things for today!!

1. Remember Trent from Daria? He was totally the hottest cartoon. However, I think he's in for a replacement.


Megamind. Yeah, he's blue, what of it?


I took Elliot and Astoria to see Megamind over the weekend. The weirdest part? The fact that I have 2 kids who are old enough to sit through an entire movie at the theater without any running around, playing with the chairs, kicking the lady's head sitting in front of us... They were totally on their best behavior. I don't care what you say, it's a milestone for me.

2. Bacon and I are on a trial separation. We've decided to see other people/breakfast meats.
Sorry Bacon, you know I love you, but I think I love you a little too much, and that's really not beneficial for any successful relationship.

3. I fear that the winners of my book giveaway are going to realize very soon just how totally nerdy I am. Sorry about that.

4. In Sunday school this week, I kept wanting to bring up examples from Scott Pilgrim to illustrate points from our lesson. (I restrained myself though)

5. Cars are the lamest things ever. Blair's needs a new alternator, a serpentine belt, and a headlight. Mine needs brakes, a tie rod, windshield wipers, and an inspection+renewal. yay. Oh i'm not complaining or anything. oh no, i'm just so excited because taking cars to get fixed is like my favorite thing ever. meh. If it wasn't for the fact that I have quite possibly the greatest Dad on the face of the earth i'd be tacking new tire, oil change and car wash on there too... but like I said, my Dad is the business.

6. I have been reading this book for what feels like the last ten years. Thanks Susanna Clarke for totally messing with my Fifteen Books by the End of the Year Thingy...

7. Basketball season for PHS officially started yesterday. See ya in 4 months, Blair.

8. Trying to come up with ten things for this post has made me realize how completely boring and uninteresting my life is right now

9. Sorry about that.

10. Um, I like stuff.

wow. that was astonishingly anti-climactic.

Candy Coma

Wanna know how I topped off my Halloween sugar rush? Oh with a POUND of fancy See's Chocolates.

Seriously?

What? I had a gift certificate, and I was in town. I wasn't going to let it go to WASTE was I? So much for sexy Zumba arms (a girl can dream...)

Obligatory Halloween pictures:







The sorting is my favorite part. This is where I steal all the Almond Joys and Butterfingers. I'm not that mean. They don't like those ones anyway. (Almonds and coconut for the pickiest 4 year old in the universe? Right.)


One of these things is not like the other...




Here I am dressed as, you know, myself.

Well, I had every intention of being the White Queen, and I was going to wear my wedding dress (not like it's being used for anything else) but the dress in in storage at my in-law's house and I couldn't get to it in time. Wanna know what's weird though? That Tinker Bell-ish dress? I wore that to a Halloween party when I was 17. What the WHAT? I'm sure I was drowning in it back then though. You don't get much size selection when you buy from the D.I.

Also I haven't done ten things in a while. Next time, next time.

Another also, Enter Gregory's contest, and look for my next book giveaway in a couple weeks.

Chicken Dinner

So who wants a book? How about this kid?



Ruth!

(My blog BFF who i've never met. She actually won both times. :) Since we are friends on Goodreads, this one should be pretty easy. Yay!!!)


Or maybe this kid?


Carrie Rosalind

(Yay for new friends! I do love a good challenge.)

Congrats friends! (y'all need to e-mail me with your addresses. Okay? mary_gola(at)live(dot)com )

The next step is my favorite. Picking out the books. Oooooh I can't wait!

"And Otho?" (as Elliot would say) don't be too bummed if you didn't win this time. Because I just decided I'm going to do this every month. Back in March I decided that I was going to "Give a good friend a good book" every month. I followed through with it for about 3 months. So not only is it high-time for a comeback, this way i'll have friends to bug me about it if I forget.

OH and If you didn't win mine... You might just win Gregory's. Go there and enter now! Do it!


The next post will contain Halloween costume pictures. Ye have been warned.

"Off With Their Hats!"

A little preview for this weekend.

Elliot:

Queens always have perfect penmanship.




I am exhausted. I stayed up WAY too late finishing Astoria's costume

Apparently I'm not the only one.




Also, don't Forget to enter my little BOOK GIVEAWAY

You have 'till Monday to enter.


Happy Hallowe'en Kids!

Sweet 100 (and a present for you)

This is my 100th post.

That deserves a celebration don't you think?

I think so too.

SO in celebration of 100 posts I want to give you a book. Because we all know how much Miss Maryposa likes books right? I'll pick two winners and send them a book (a secret surprise book! hee hee!!)





Then of course Neil Gaiman has to go and steal my thunder. Ok Mr. Newberry-Award-winning-61-weeks-on-the-bestseller-list Gaiman, but i've had this idea for months, then you swoop in with your Hallowe'en give a book idea and make me sound all unoriginal? huh. Touche...

You've won this round Mr. Gaiman!!!

Moving on...

Here's what you can do to win a book:

1. Follow this blog
2. Leave me some comments or other love-type notes (make sure you leave at least one on this post so I know you'd like to be part of the giveaway)
3. Tell someone else about this blog (it's all about sharing the love)

extra credit: Post a reading list on your blog (for any season or occasion) and send me a link and picture of you peeking over a book.



Already done all these things you say? Well then consider yourself entered 4 times. (so yes, you get an entry for each one.)

I shall select a winner on November 1st. That's one week kids.

There you go, I hope you win!

2 Very Important Things

(this one is going to be long. you may want to get a snack.)



I'm not the only one that just can't seem to get a handle on October, right? It is always busy, and yet I'm always surprised when it gets here and running around like an insane asylum escapee screaming out nonsensical things like "JAM SANDWICHES!" or "RAFER ALSTON!" while attempting to shove a bacon and peanut butter casserole into the dishwasher because my brain has stopped functioning and I no longer remember how to prepare food.



Last weekend Blair and I had a party. A no-kids-all-day-awesome-sauce-happy-6-years-of-marriage kind of party.





Do you see how hot this man is? No wonder I said "Ok i'll marry you"... after 2 weeks of knowing him.





I made him a scavenger hunt. And with the help of some very very dear to my heart friends, was able to pull it all off. (Brittni and Joe, y'all are my heroes!)






That was last week.

***

TODAY...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASTORIA!

(adorable, even when she's stealing my hot chocolate)

This kid is 3. and she is amazing.
At risk of sounding like one of those annoying braggy-pants moms... you have never met a kid as awesome as this.





Fun Facts:

• She can read. No seriously, like whole books. (her first one was I Love My New Toy (an Elephant and Piggie book) by Mo Willems) And she's been doing it for the last 4 or 5 months. I would love to take credit for this, but in all honesty, I didn't do anything. She is OBSESSED with the ABCs, and has a redonkulous photographic memory. (now if only she would use that memory to find our lost hard drive remote...)
• She tells people at church that she is "Cinderlella"
• She attempts to sweep my floor while pretending to be Cinderlella or Snow White. This could turn out to be awesome...
• Last night after I told her she looked lovely she said "Right?!"
• Gives the BEST smooches. No battle. (sorry kids #1 and #3)

But unfortunately she has the terrible burden of not only being the middle child, but also having her birthday fall one week after her parents anniversary, and one week before Halloween. And therefore pretty much gets the shaft when it comes to birthday parties.

I'll let you know how it goes.

OH one last thing... The next post will be EPIC AWESOME. So prepare yourself.

(Thanks to Joe and his camera for the pictures!)