Too much fun and cuteness

Since last Wednesday my sister Emily and her kids Jonah and Elora have been staying with us and we've been having a ball. Saturday I took all the kids to a jedi training birthday party and immediately after Charlotte had a princess bday party. That night Trent and I had a double date. Sunday was Mark's homecoming talk and that night we had a big V-day dinner with the P* family. Here are a bunch of pics to document the last few days.

Couldn't let Elora leave without making her a pretty.

The headbands I made for Charlotte's friend Taylor's birthday gift. Oops, this headband was too small, gave it to Paisley instead.

Charlotte practicing her photog skills. She loves her new camera from Aunt Jen, but this one was with my camera.

Trent and I after our double date with Jimmy and Laura.

Padowan Paisley.

Jedi party.

Paisley finishing the cottage cheese straight from the carton.

Marky the return missionary and sister Emily.

Oh baby.

Cousin tea party.

Elora on the "jumpoline"

Charlotte rocking the foam curler look!

i've discovered a fabulous website

And I just ordered this dress from it. I love shabbyapple.com for cute stylish modest dresses, but was really happy to discover eshakti.com that has cute stuff that's more affordable and you can add sleeves or customize your size for a small fee. I'm totally not being paid for this post. Just excited to get a new dress!

Ahh Monday

Saturday night I failed to get a babysitter, which turned out to be a good thing. I still needed to get out and since Trent had already had his fun that day I decided to go out and was lucky enough to get Kathi to come with me. I really needed the night off. We enjoyed dinner, shopping and dessert. I really wanted to find a dress. I NEED a dress, but alas, no luck. The mall proved not to be a total loss, since I decided to treat myself to the bright red lipstick I've been wanting and a new eyeshadow from MAC. And call me crazy, but we went to The Cheesecake Factory for dessert and didn't even get cheesecake. We shared the mud pie, it's to die for! I love that Kathi, I don't know what I'd do without her. She trimmed my bangs and Paisley's mullett and fed my kids on Friday. I had to pay her back by buying her food, it's the code.

For Sunday, I attempted curling my hair with my flat iron. It actually turned out and I got several compliments. Wish I had gotten a picture. Guess I'll have to do it again soon.

Marky's home!

If you ever need major cheering up. Look at this face.

And this body.

And this face.

And then take those girls to dinner with these guys, while your husband has the boys at monster trucks.

Rainy Days

We have been enjoying rainy days all week. A rare phenomenon around here. Our yard is a lake. It would be even if we did have grass. The highlights of the week were probably the sounds of rain and thunder, Kristen and her kids visiting on Wednesday and my last Bunko night last night. I will probably crash an occasional bunko from now on, I just can't do it every month when my time away from the kids is so limited. There are a lot of friends I don't get to see regularly and a lot of things that I might be able to get done, so I am changing it up a bit. I wish I had gotten a picture of the bunko girls!

Other than that, I am getting excited for my little brother Mark to get home from his mission February first and seeing Emily and her kids when they come down to see him.

I have been kicking myself for failing at dieting. I told myself that January I was going to buckle down and really watch my eating so that I could lose a few more pounds. Bigtime fail! That doesn't mean I'm giving up. I just need to find a different tactic to motivate myself.

The couch

This is the couch I got for Christmas. I love it and can't wait to make some cute pillows for it. I need to get it professionally cleaned (cough, cough. . Mike, Robby, or Ted).

Speaking of making things, I have been busy making more headbands and necklaces and have grand plans to sell them. My friend Kristen has invited me to participate in a handmade goods sale at her house and Abbie and I will have an etsy shop opening in the very near future. I'll keep you all updated with more details soon.

Downsizing

It's a funny realization to think that when Henry was as old as Paisley, she was already born. And When Charlotte was as old as Paisley I was over halfway through my pregnancy with Henry. In other words, it is a refreshing change of pace to have a 16 month old (almost) without having been pregnant again yet. And it is such a fun age to watch her. She is silly and fun. She is finally saying a few words (ball, mine, mom. . ) and trying to repeat us. She is such a climber and loves to play out back with the other kids. Even bouncing on the trampoline with them. She gives kisses and has so many teeth now. We are enjoying her two naps a day for now, I think she is starting to phase down to one.

I don't know if we'll have any more babies. For the time being I am so satisfied not worrying about it and not thinking about getting pregnant any time soon. I am really content with our little litter and am happy to slow down and enjoy them. I am enjoying getting my physical body back into shape and spending some time on my own little hobbies.

Speaking of changing my body, it has been a slow road. I was not excited to start dieting and exercising, it had been a long time since I had done any of that. I saw the numbers on the scale and I knew my clothes were larger and larger, but I didn't see a fat me in the mirror, I just saw Robin. I kept telling myself it was baby weight and that it would come off. But the numbers weren't changing and then I saw some pictures of myself that made me so sad. I was fat. I needed to do something.

I know it's not a great picture, but you can see that I'm quite large.

In May I started by doing workout videos at home a couple times a week. After a couple months of that I added in jogging after the kids laid down about 2-4 times a week. Then I did 2 bootcamps (four weeks each 5 days a week) and now I have joined Fitness Works and do classes there 3-5 times a week. I have lost a total of 28 pounds and who knows how many inches. I feel much more comfortable in my skin, more confident around others, healthier and happier. If I lose 10 more pounds I will reach the goal weight I wanted. But for now, I am pretty happy at the progress I've made!

Why kids love Daddies

We make good use of our floors.

A very busy bee

My multi talented Sister in law Lauren (who took our beautiful family pictures) has opened up an online shop. To promote it she is giving away one of her lovely headbands. Just click here to enter the giveaway. What's even funner, if you go to her shoppe you will see that she has named some of her headbands after me and my girls! Cute.

weekend update

Charlotte's birthday is the day after Christmas. She woke up to a few balloons and a couple presents. After we cleaned the kitchen and said goodbye to all our relatives that were heading back home after coming down for Christmas she got to go on a date with her Dad. She got to pick out a toy at ToysRUs, get ice cream and a cake at Baskin Robbins and then she got to go play at Chuck E. Cheese! When she told me all about it I told her that's what my Grandpa Jay used to call a "triple treat" three places in one outing, pretty exciting. She also got presents from Nana, Grandma, Blake and Andrea,and Kim and Dan. We were planning to celebrate with more cake and presents the next Sunday (yesterday) over Sunday dinner. Our New Year's was boring as usual, we hung out in the hot tub for a while, let the kids stay up a late. Tucker played with the neighbors for a while and we were all in bed by 11. Tucker woke up around 2am puking and threw up several times. He slept a lot the next day. We had been planning to go stay in a cabin up at Christopher Creek that night. Trent ended up taking Charlotte and Henry up and met Blake and Andrea and their kids there. It was so quiet with just Tucker and Paisley and I spent pretty much the whole time folding laundry and cleaning out the closet, which I have been meaning to do forever. So Saturday afternoon when Trent got home Tucker and I went on a date, since we had missed out on the snow day fun. We went to the dollar theater to see Up and ate dinner out. It was fun to have some one on one time. Sadly Charlotte and I were up that night with the pukes and though Charlotte seemed fine in the morning I was miserable all day. We missed the Sunday dinner and didn't get to celebrate for Charlotte. So I guess we'll just get to stretch that out even longer. Thankfully today I am feeling much better and Tucker is back in school.

Christmas Day

After Henry came in our bed at 6:30 I couldn't go back to sleep. I got up and remembered I had forgotten to put one thing under the tree. I took it into the dark living room to discover that my darling husband had snuck my dream couch into our home (after convincing me it had been sold) while I was getting ready for bed on Christmas Eve. What a wonderful Christmas angel he is! He didn't even get to see the look on my face or the little tears that sprang to my eyes. I was so delighted! I went back to the kitchen and mixed up some german pancakes to pop in the oven. The kids woke up around 7:30 and I turned on the tree lights and waited with my camera while Trent ushered them in. They were all happy and darling. Paisley woke up and joined us within minutes and loved checking out everyone else's new gifts more than her own. Tucker got the DSlite and blue light saber he had asked for and was oblivious to anything going on around him after that. Charlotte got her first barbie and a cheap shopping cart that has been a huge hit with all the kids, along with various other goodies. Henry got several motorcycle toys and a tricycle that he's not quite big enough for.Paisley got her own baby with bed, stroller, and high chair along with a ball popper and brush blocks. They all got new dress ups as well. I was the most spoiled of all with my couch, an ipod nano, a breadmaker, a rotary cutter and mat, and lots more small goodies. It was glorious! Since Trent had recently bought his dirt bike all he got was some jeans, knee pads, and a couple other little things. I felt kinda bad.

Later in the morning we headed to my parents where we had the sibling gift exchange and we all got to talk to Mark who is finishing up his mission in Mexico. My mom and Aunt Lauren continued the spoiling of the kids and the beanies Lauren made were to die for (pictures soon). We had a big lunch and all the little cousins played. Then we headed out and stopped at home for just a minute before heading to Bart and Dusti's for more fun playing and more delicious food. It was a wonderful day with all our loved ones!

Christmas Eve

This year was Christmas Eve with the P* family. They always treat us to a mexican meal Christmas Eve followed closely by pie. All the cousins run around happily together, the women chat, and the boys talk about manly things. Then we have a little program. In light of me trying to develop my "talents" I offered to sing this year. So the program started out with my solo of "Still, still, still". Although it was just my family, my nerves took hold. I managed to get through the song with a pounding heart and a little lip twitching and virtually no eye contact. I hate my stage fright. But that's what I'm trying to get over, so I don't think I'll never do it again.

Then Grandma read "I Believe in Santa Claus" to all the children, it is a lovely book that compares Santa to Jesus Christ. Then the kids dressed up and made a human nativity while Uncle Dave read the story of Jesus' birth from the scriptures. Paisley laid calmly drinking her sippy as a pretty baby Jesus, truly a Christmas miracle, since she had not held still all night. It was wonderful. Then we exchanged gifts and made our way home to tuck in the tired and excited little munchkins.

all the goings on

Last Friday: Tucker's bilateral hernia surgery. I only have camera phone pics from the hospital. All the little kids got to spend 6 hours with Nana! Thanks!

Saturday: Paisley falls itno my footboard and gets a wicked black eye. Charlotte splits her head open on the outside wall of the house playing outside with Tucker. Luckily didn't need stitches.

Sunday: Everyone wondering why our kids are all beat up.

Also, I have spent a lot of time and had a lot of fun making some accessories for Christmas gifts. Check them out.
Some pins and headbands, and I've got a couple necklaces to finish up today.

it's been a great day

Charlotte's last day of preschool before winter break was this morning. She loves her teacher. Her teacher is moving out of state over the break. So we made her a holiday/thank you/goodbye present. She was wearing it when I came at the end to watch the holiday singing (where Charlotte sat on the floor pouting while the other five girls smiled and sang so cute.)

Then we met Trent for lunch at Pei Wei where Henry ate his entire meal with chopsticks. I could just eat that kid up!

craigslist shopping

it always cheers me up. the couch i'm begging trent for. he likes it better than the green.
a cool retro dining set.
this awesome sunburst clock.

recent photos

My dad and Trent in turkey induced comas.

Elora.

Jonah

Me with my seriously way cuter and skinnier sisters and sister in law.

Paisley sporting wings and a grumpy face.

Playing with Gracie.

Paisley and her best friend, water bottle.

Katie and I after our date watching Mel sing in the East Valley Mormon Chorus.

I am seriously unphotogenic.

Funk

I never like it when people say they are in a funk. It seems so ambiguous. But honestly, maybe that is the best way to describe the depressive few days I seem to cycle around to every few weeks. I didn't get dressed for 3 or 4 days in a row last week. I had no desire to do anything. Then I feel worse when things aren't getting done. So that's always fun.

My sister Emily came down with her 2 super silly and darling kids for a few days around Thanksgiving. Her husband came down a couple days after them. It was really fun. I had a wonderful holiday with my family. But I really hated watching them leave. I kept thinking how much fun we could have if I got to see them every few days instead of a couple of times a year. Jonah and Elora are really close to Henry and Paisley and I wish they could grow up together.

I hate working so hard to exercise so much, but knowing that I am not dieting enough to reach my goals and still not wanting to put down the food. Why is food such a crutch for me?

Anyway I will get some pictures up here soon. I'm out of my latest funk. sort of.

Tucker says

This morning Trent said to Tucker, "Go get your backpack all put together."
Tucker, "Dad, it's not a puzzle."

Family pictures

My brother Ted is married to a very talented and lovely Lauren who is a very popular blogger. She so sweetly took our family pictures last Friday and posted some of them on her blog. Click here to take a look

I just realized she also posted some more here on her photography blog..