the girl with a curl

there once was a gi---rl who had a curl right in the middle of her forehead

and when she was good she was very very good

but when she was bad - she was horrible

{a poem that my mom has told my girls since they were little}

my sweet Eliza is a bundle of energy, cuteness and TROUBLE.

she is often has a curls going everywhere. she remindes me of the puppy dog from Lady and the Tramp with a curl usually coming down around her eye.

she doesn't talk yet. she taps and taps and taps. charles even teases her and calls her "tap tap" as a nickname. it drives me crazy to sit by her at dinner because she is contstantly tapping me with her messy little toddler hands asking for more food. She doesn't even say "momma" yet. boo hoo. she will be the one that starts talking in sentances when she finally does. she understands everything. she will follow directions but WONT talk. stinker.

she is constantly into everything. today i pulled a hand weight out of the shower that she had carried in there. she carries her shoes all over the place and last week we could not find 2 of the 4 pairs that she had. she is the cause of many a lost item around here. we lost the ipod touch for well over a month because of her.

this morning was just a little dose of her mischief…

the boys had left out the sugar bowl from cereal this morning and while charles and i were getting ready we came out to this. a slobbery Eliza hand that she had been dipping in the sugar bowl eating it by the handful. her arm had layers of chunky sugar all over it. her hand was in the sugar bowl when we walked in and she quickly shoved the wet, sandlike sugar ball into her mouth.

and yet i would not trade her for anything in the world. i know that i this stage will pass and i will miss it.

Hudson's Week

i have always been a planner.

always.

i think that i might be rubbing off on my kids.

on most Sunday nights you will find our family "going over the week" after we have had dinner and everything is cleaned up.

it started out that we would send the little ones all off to bed and we would plan out the week with the older 3 kids.

i would make up a really simple calender for the week that the kids could see and would have our meals planned out, appointments and special events listed.my kids really liked having that on the fridge and especially if they could see what we were having for dinner.

well after a few weeks of the little boys being sent to their room to play while we planned, rexton finally came out and asked why he and hudson didn't get to "go over their week too"? they didn't like being left out even thought there was not a lot to put on their schedules. so in an effort to include them but not have them slow down our process, they each get out a piece of paper and illustrate what they have going on {or at least what they would like to have going on}

hudson's calender for this week was deserving of being remembered.

hudson's week in pictures:

monday - cub scouts

tuesday - play basketball

wednesday - mom and hudson christmas shopping

thursday - school holiday performance

friday - play ninjago legos

saturday - aunt julie comes

sunday - church

his artwork right now is stylized after the artowrk in "diary of a wimpy kid"

Patiently waiting

miss maggie was laying on the bed so patiently as we all scurried around her to get ready for 8:30 church.
this baby has the patience of job i tell you.
while she was hanging out waiting hudson {obviously} hooked her up with hobbes to keep her company.
love the thumb.
so does she.
big time.
the finger wrapped around her nose is just like what emmelyne would do. 

Many faces

Oh this boy. 

He really makes me laugh. 

I really love this age but I think that I say that about every age.

Brooklyn went a little crazy just taking picture after picture of him.

Some of the things that I want to remember about Rexton at this age:

You love the color Green

You fall asleep with both of your hands behind your head.

When I tell you that I love you - you always reply with

" I love you too - mom" 

There is something about the way that you add my name at the end 

You can do everything yourself!

You rarely sleep in your own bed

You love putting your "puppy" on his leash {an old Disneyland lanyard} and pulling him around

You like to build train tracks

You can play pretend with Hudson for hours

You want to eat what everyone else is eating - every sauce, every condiment, every dressing.

You LOVE to help me cook - when you hear my mixer start you come running {and you are good too}

You love to pretend that you are a superhero with Hudson {right now you are always Ironman}

Your pet peeve is to be interrupted - you want to be heard.

You love to snuggle up to Jingles and often with have cat fur stuck to your dirty face.

You always have a dirty face.

Sometimes you leave the first letter off of words when you say them

{ajamas aka pajamas}

You think that you have super powers {super climber and super strong}

You love to go to grandma's house on Tuesdays.

You have sound effects for everything.

Eliza - 10 Days

before you were conceived I wanted you

before you were born I loved you

before you were here an hour I would die for you

this is the miracle of life

A good Idea - or so I thought

This year I was a judge for dutch oven cooking at 11 year old scout camp.

{One of the highlights of getting to be Primary President}

At the camp out I saw that one of the men there had these GINORMOUS marshmallows. 

I had never seen anything like them before.
I had to have them for our campout. 

Little did I know what a disaster that would end up being. 

SMORES are not the easiest thing to eat as it is but this was ridiculous. 

They were everywhere. 

When you ate it it looked like you were making out with a marshmallow. 

YUCK!

We saved the rest and brought them home to use in Rice Krispy treats.

This one is not mine but I will claim him!

We took Brigham's great friend, Jaysen with us. 

Those boys had such a great time.

One marshmallow was enough for even the 11 year old boys!

O is for Ocean

This was no Hawaiian beach for sure. 

Northern California beaches are COLD! 

The wetsuit rental was well worth it's money.

Charles was able to get Hudson out on the boogie board once.

These kids are sure lucky to have a dad that is so willing to play so hard with them.

We were proud of him giving it a shot. 

Cold is not Hudson's favorite.

Sandcastle building with Dad.

Trying to stay warm with Mom.

Hudson did this all on his own after he saw me make one saying "Pacifica 2010"

They had more fun playing in the sand than they did in the water.

This is how Eliza spent most of her time at the beach.

Totally Wicked

Brooklyn was able to go see Wicked in San Fransisco before it leaves town for good. 

She has been listening to the soundtrack since Charles and I went to see it in January. 

She did not think that she was going to be able to make it before it left but we had a friend who was getting group tickets which reduced the price greatly allowing her to go. 

She paid her own way and had a wonderful time. 

At the last minute 2 of her friends, Lauren and Danielle, got a ticket too.

Brooklyn was lucky enough to talk Grandma and Grandpa into going too. 

It did not take too much convincing.

They were able to have dinner together and then ride BART into the city. 

Brooklyn LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it.

She really appreciates the theater. 

And I know that I am her mother but she looked beautiful as she walked out my door. 

I spent extra time blow drying her hair out and straightening it for her.

She looked so grown up. 

You cant tell too much since she pulled it back once she got there.

I was a bit sad not to be able to share this with her. 

Thank you grandma and grandpa for filling in.

Summer Days

These two can play pretend for hours and hours.

Even though we have acres that they can go exploring on, most of their playtime is spent in the little backyard right outside my kitchen window. 

There is so much shade so it is normally pretty cool.

All they need are a few stuffed animals and the backyard can become just about anything. 

I also love that it is so close to where I usually am working that I can hear almost every word they are saying.

As a side note - so I do not forget - this little car was bought at a garage sale and we had to get it because it had wood paneling on the sides just like the car that their dad was driving at the time. 

Charles loved his Jeep Grand Cherokee with wood paneling.

and Charles does not LOVE cars but that is a whole other story for later.

Choke Hold

All 3 of my boys share a room. 

Charles and I have known from the beginning that we would like to have 1 girls room and 1 boys room. 

Kind of like the room in 7 Brides for 7 Brothers.

Our cousin {in law} grew up this way and he told us that he thinks that it one reason why all of his siblings are so close. 

It has its pro and cons. 

Yes, there is fighting about who messed things up.

Yes, the big kids have to pull more than their fair share because the little ones spend more time messing things up than cleaning it up. 

Yes, lights get turned on when older ones come in to go to bed and possibly wake up little ones.

Yes, they do ask to have THEIR OWN ROOM. 

However.....when there are moments like this I would not trade a shared room for anything. 

Rexton can usually be found in someone else's bed. 

If not Hudson's or Brigham's then the girl's will do too.

I just do not know how either one of them can sleep like that.

Especially Brigham. 

He really is a good sport.

B is for Blessing Day

Eliza Juliette was blessed by her father on Sunday August 1st. He was joined by friends and family.

She cried {more like screamed}during most of the blessing. Luckily Charles was not phased by it at all. 

Eliza wore the dress that both of her sisters wore. It is the bottom of my wedding dress and is very sentimental. My grandma, who passed away last year, helped turn my dress into this beautiful dress for the girls. It has grandma's signature rolled roses on the front and back of the dress. Grandma thought that they should also be on the back because little babies are often over your shoulder and she wanted some of the decoration to be seen then too. 

This was the only picture that I grabbed the whole day. I am glad that we thought to do this before church because the rest of the day got a little crazy.

After church we headed over to Grandma's house for dinner. I made a HUGE pan of Penne Rustica and other family and friends brought the rest of the meal. We topped off the night with brownie sundaes with homemade hot fudge. Yummy! I believe that our numbers for dinner {including babies}was 40. It is nice to have so many family and friends that are so close but we were sad to miss some important people that live too far away.

Circles

Do my kids realize how fun it is for me that they have curly hair?

Everyone but Brigham has curls.

When I do Rexton's hair for church I have to squirt it all down and then I scrunch it all up to make the curls come out. When he looked in the mirror he started brushing all of his hair forward and flat.

I told him to stop and that it looked so handsome.

"Mom - I don't like the circles on my head!"

Oh please my little boy - let mom do circles on your head for as long as they last.

Dinner by Chef Emmelyne

    

Emmelyne has been cruising through some of her summer goals.

This one was "Cooking dinner for the family"

Emmelyne picked the menu and learned to make 

Stroganoff and Sticky Rice

she added a side of cantaloupe and canned pears to round out the meal.

Great Job Em!