Saturday, December 22, 2012

Sometimes I'm The Fun Mom

I have a friend who only makes breakfast foods for all three meals the entire week before Christmas. Needless to say, this friend is known around our house (for MANY reasons) as The Fun Mom.
I took a page out of her parenting book and, after making huge bowls of caramel corn to give away, told my kids that if they ate 5 carrot sticks, they could have caramel corn as their dinner.




You should have heard the cheers.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Instagrams from October

 

 

insta11

The mini Trader Joe carts kill me

 

Location: home

insta12

Quickest FHE ever:  Buckle, buckle beanstalk (a favorite from my growing up years).  Hide an object, people wait in garage while it’s being hid, look, yell “Buckle Buckle Beanstalk” when you find it.  Repat.  #moreenjoyedbythreeyearolds

 

Location: lunchtime with Ryan

insta13

“it’th bettoh to read undoh the twamp, Dad”

 

insta14

Sure I’d love you to START your hour of homework at 7:45 at night.  #janeisdesigninganentiregamerightnow #iamNOTanightperson

 

Location: Starr farms

insta15

Preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch

 

Location: Starr farm

insta25

 

insta26

Made this entire thing herself.  How talented is she?  #craftingskippedageneration

 

Location: Chez Romney

insta7

Huge southern food spread I made for bookclub last night.

 

insta27

Working super hard on their jack o’lanterns.  #isuperlovetheneighborhoodcarvingpartysoidonthavetodoitathome

 

insta9

Finished product

 

insta8

 

 

Location: Manito Park

insta10

Had an hour to kill downtown.Having a cool Sunday walk in the prettiest park in town.

 

Location:  King Tut Exhibit

insta1

Dress like an Egyptian

 

Location:  Woodland Park Zoo

insta2

Playing hooky at the zoo in Seattle while dad has a business trip #idonthaveasixthchild  #annaandwillowmetus

 

Location:  Ballard

insta3

Dinner with Mark and Mandy at Red Mill Burgers #jamburgeryummmm

 

Location:  Seattle

insta4

Family city walk to Top Pot donuts for breakfast this morning

 

Location:  Seattle

    insta5      

Not entirely playing hooky.  #mathassignmentsdontstopbecauseyouareinseattle

 

Location:  Seattle LDS temple

insta19

 

Location: Seattle

insta21

The troll under the Fremont bridge

 

Location:  Seattle

insta20

On the ferry to Bainbridge Island

 

Location: Plantes Ferry Park

insta24

Doesn’t every 17 year old boy love to play with his younger cousins like this for the entire soccer game?  No? Just our Austin? #lovethisguy

 

Location: Chez Romney

insta22

Dinner in a pumpkin!

 

insta23

Creating a redhead!

 

 

   insta16

Once in a blue moon, even mom dresses up.  #yesthisisfrommyhsdrillteam #yesicanbarelybreathe

 

insta17

Captain America, Japanese princess, Phineas (of “and Ferb” fame), peacock, Merida from Brave

 

 insta18      

I L.O.V.E trick or treating with little ones

Friday, December 7, 2012

Remembering October

To jog my memory about what happened 2 months ago, I went through my pictures and my phone’s calendar.  It’s funny because as I look at it…it’s just our life.  October was mostly just full of soccer games and preschool drop off and kids birthday parties and church callings.  Looking back at it in just cryptic calendar entries, it looks kind of sweet.  All part of that idea that the little brush strokes make the big painting.  We are blessed to have our lives filled with kids’ activities and other mundanities (word?). 

Probably doesn’t make for a super interesting blog post though.  But I’m doing one anyway.

Jane was on a super soccer team this year.  Fun girls and great coaches.  We watched her really figure out the game this season and she started scoring pretty much every game.  She’s the cutest girl.

2180 1

Faith had her first field trip to a pumpkin patch.  Fun, cute, COLD.

21462159

 

 

Our neighborhood is awesome at hosting kind of regular events and the Liaboes always do the neighborhood harvest party.  The apple bobbing is a must, despite the fact that everyone was in down coats and hats.  I love it because I don’t have to cover my table in newspaper in order for pumpkins to get carved.

10 11

We made a last minute decision to pull the kids from school and take advantage of Ryan’s business trip perks in Seattle. We hit the King Tut exhibit at the Pacific Science center, hung out with friends (Anna and Jeanelle) and family (Mark and Mandy), shopped when we decided to extend a day and didn’t have enough clean clothes, and ate. It was fun, but if I’m being honest, I was extremely stressed by the mass of active children that were within 2 feet of me in busy places at all times. I don’t know why it was so difficult this trip, but I was continually having to calm myself (and them) down. I felt like we were this huge disturbance everywhere we went. Case in point: At the Woodland zoo, Gabe was carrying Faith on his shoulders ahead of me. As he rounded a corner, too fast, he tripped and both of them hit the cement. I walked around corner to screams and copious amounts of blood from both my 12 and 4 year old. We had a 15 minute accident reporting/bandaid dispensing incident with Zoo security. But hey…free carrousel tokens.

912 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Also there was a tantrum that lasted 40 minutes.  I was in a good place and just thought it was funny.  THought I’d document.  The middle one is where she caught me taking pictures “DON’T TAKE PICTURES OF MY TANTRUM!”  And then it ended and we were buddies again.

 5 6 7 8

I had a ton going on it October, started with hosting my fabulous book club.  My book club is truly the best club I’ve ever heard of.  We have a crazily on-the-ball leader and she makes sure it’s an actual literary pursuit, which I love.  And the hostesses really go all out—full course, themed dinners.  It’s a collection of women from all over Spokane, only maybe 20% Mormon, and I love getting to know women I’d never have had the chance to know.  Anyway…we read a Southern migration themed book, so I went all out on the food: grits, buttermilk biscuits, cobbler, bread pudding, shrimp creole.  I look forward to hosting all year and the night was a success.

2174

 

The kids were in the Primary Program of course.  Highlights were Faith memorizing her part which said “as we follow the council of the prophet, we’ll know his words are true”.  Except she kept inserting the words city before council, which cracked us up.  But not as much as when she loudly whistled through the last 5 songs.  Everyone could hear her.  We didn’t realize she’d been asked to accompany.

 

Halloween was fun.  We fit everything in:  the ward party, the class parties, the work party, the dinner-in-a-pumpkin and the actual trick or treating.  Of particular note was Emma’s amazing, completely handmade BY HER peacock costume and the fact the she and Jane were trick or treating buddies which made Jane’s life. And, really, the only thing cuter than trick or treating with a 4 year old is trick or treating with a 3 year old but apparently God has decided Faith has to grow up, so I’ll take what I can get.

21622166216421682170

2 3 4