Oh, I forgot...one more thing!

Yes, there is something else that happened Saturday and I forgot to mention it. On the way home, Paige finally fell asleep about 15 minutes from our house. She stayed asleep while I got Austin and all of our bags out of the car. I carefully undid her buckles in her car seat, gently lifted her out, and got a big whif of urine. Yes, she had peed in her seat. Yummy!!!!

Who....me?!?

When I posted this picture this summer, several people commented on the "look" on Paige's face. I have always interpreted this face as being very mischievious and guess what...that's exactly what our little girl is!!!

Here's our story for the day. It all began while eating breakfast. The kids were eating their cereal and I thought I'd jump in the shower real quick while they were happily occupied. It was a very short shower so I didn't think anything would happen. But alas, after I was dressed I went into the kitchen to find the milk jug on the table. (Not a problem usually, but I knew I had put it in the fridge before my shower.) I became very suspicious once I saw Paige's face. I told her that she needed Mom to help her with the milk next time and as I was putting the milk back into the fridge I noticed something moving in the jug. Lo and behold, there were tons of Cheerios in there, but that wasn't what I felt moving. It was a spoon. Paige thought that it would be a good idea to mix in a few Cheerios in the milk with the spoon, but realized that she couldn't get the spoon back out. So that resulted in just under 1/2 gallon of milk wasted. Great.

As soon as I got myself and the kids ready, we left to go visit my sister, brother-in-law, niece and brother. Once we got there, we fed the kids lunch and I put Austin down for his nap. One child down, one more to go. Since my niece was also taking a nap, I decided that it would be safer and more convenient to put Paige and Austin in the same room...Austin in the pack'n'play, Paige in my sister and BIL's bed. After storytime, Paige laid right down, no problem and I thought "Wow, this is going to be much easier than I thought!" I went downstairs to visit with everyone and make a necklace with my sister. After about 20 minutes I thought I heard something upstairs so I went to check up on Paige. I walked into the room and found Paige rubbing almost an entire bottle of lotion into Austin's head. She did manage to rub a little in her own hair, but most of it was on Austin. Austin was awake of course (maybe managed to sleep 30 minutes...maybe). Paige instantly went to timeout while I took Austin downstairs to clean off his head/hair and my wonderful sister took on the task of cleaning off Paige. I should have taken a picture, I know, but I was too angry at the time to do it. After all of this, I knew there wasn't a chance of Austin sleeping again for awhile, so I kept him downstairs and once again went upstairs to try to get Paige to take a nap. (I normally wouldn't worry about it, but I knew she was so tired because she had major bags under her eyes which is her obvious sign of being exhausted!) Once again, she laid down with her doggy and lamb and looked like she was going to fall asleep. I went back downstairs and began working on my necklace again. About 10 minutes later I heard a little someone coming down the stairs and I called up to her to just come down because I knew she wasn't going to sleep. As we were getting ready to leave, I went upstairs to make sure we didn't leave anything and guess what I found this time? Paige had gotten into a drawer and found a certain type of "stash" that I'm sure most married couples have next to their bed and spread it all over the bed...the pillows, sheets, comforter, etc. It was awful. I instantly called down to my sister to show her the evidence. She took it a lot better than I thought! :0) Luckily it was already "wash day" at their house and she put the load of bedding in before we left. So, I don't know if our little "angel" is just curious or purposefully looking for things to do to drive my crazy...I just hope she doesn't have another day like today!!!

Cute Background templates!!

One of my friends had this site on her blog and I absolutely LOVE the backgrounds. Check them out for yourself at http://cutestblogontheblock.blogspot.com/.

She can go down by herself!!

By the end of our day at the sledding hill, Paige would go down it by herself!! Such a big girl! I was in the car with Austin, but Brian said that she just laughed the whole way down.

More fun in the snow!

Here are some more pictures of Paige and Daddy sledding down the hill. She had so much fun, even when Daddy sprayed snow in her face on the 1st run. When I went down with her right after that she told me not to spray snow in her face like Daddy did. Very funny!

Paige and Austin on Sledding Day

We went sledding yesterday at our local golf course. Paige had a blast and I think Austin would have, too, if his face wasn't so cold. He was trying to smile when Brian was pulling them on the sled, but he couldn't get his face to work, I guess! ;0) As soon as I took him into the warm car, he started talking and laughing watching all of the kids going down the hill. Paige was a very good big sister and held onto Austin the whole time to make sure he didn't fall over. Good job, Paige!

One of our Christmas crafts

I saw a couple of my friends do this with their kids and I had to try it. Paige LOVED picking out everything to put on her snowman. She hand-selected everything you see on this snowman. She told me where to put the glue and that's all I did. Paige was so happy when it was done. Isn't it cute?!? ;0)

We're back...sort of!

I have been quite the slacker lately with my blog, but almost everyone has been over the holidays, right?!?



We had a wonderful Christmas and were able to see almost every one on both sides of the family. We started out our "vacation" (it's in quotation marks because I'm not sure if it really was a vacation with all of the traveling we did :0)) going to Island Park with Brian's family. It was so much fun playing in all of the snow. We stayed in a beautiful condo/cabin with an amazing view. Brian, Dan (Bri's little brother) and I were even able to play a little racquetball!! I was very out of practice, but it was so fun playing again. I really need to find a place to play here!! Paige had so much fun climbing the "mountains of snow" and making snow angels. Bri and Paige stayed there until Sunday, but Austin and I had to leave Saturday night because I had to lead the choir for our Ward Christmas Program on Sunday. (It went really well, by the way. I have such a wonderful, dedicated choir!)



We then left Sunday night to go to WY to visit my side of the family. We had all of the grandkids together for Christmas so that was so much fun!! We were just missing my brother and his wife. We missed you, Lance and Bekah!! I was just sad because we forgot my camera at Island Park, so I'll have to post pictures of our time there once I receive them from my sister-in-law. Sorry!! :0) Paige loved her Christmas presents. She received a Make-your-own bear kit, which she LOVED!! Her cousin, Challis, got one also and opened her's first. When Paige saw it, she was so excited. She put her hands to her mouth and let out a big, "Ohhhhh"! It was so cute. Then when she opened up her own kit, she was ecstatic! It was so fun. She also received some books, coloring books, puzzles, a dress, a "Wizard of Oz" doll set (she likes the Wicked Witch of the West the best, strange, I know!), a hot pink camp chair, and last but not least, a Barbie tricycle! She rides it all over the house. Silly girl! Austin had fun on his 1st Christmas, also. He received lots of books, a shirt that says, "It's Mister Little Man to you!" :0), a ride-on and push toy, which he loves! I think his favorite part was "helping" me put his push toy together. He was lots of help as you can imagine!



Here's a few pictures from our adventures this Christmas vacation. I'll post more once I receive them...this not having your own camera for Christmas Day really stinks!!!

These 2 pics are from our bedroom at Island Park. Gorgeous view, isn't it?!?
Paige with her cousins
Paige showing off her "Wizard of Oz" dolls. She took them to church on Sunday and loved playing with them. One of her little friends saw them and tried to play with them, too, until they started fighting over the Wicked Witch of the West....nice!
Austin modeling his new shirt that was actually his daddy's when he was little. He called it his "Hoss" shirt because he LOVED Bonanza growing up! :0)

Our family pictures!

My family was finally able to get together about a month ago to get family pictures taken. It was quite an experience with so many little kids, but my sister-in-law's dad did a great job taking the photos, don't you think?!?

Isn't it amazing how families grow and change?!? All 5 of us kids are now married and starting our own families. The wonderful thing is that all of us have been married in the temple and are active in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for guiding us and loving us enough to make this possible. You are amazing people to deal with all of us growing up! ;0) I know we didn't make it easy for you through the years! Thank you for everything and getting us to this point! We love you so very much!!

Adding a new instrument to the list

A couple weeks ago, one of my friends came over to practice her flute arrangement for "Silent Night", one of the songs we're doing for our Sacrament meeting Christmas program. Ever since then Paige has been fascinated with the instrument. She uses a chair to climb up to the counter and gets a wooden spoon out of the container. Then uses it in this manner. She always is so proud of herself. "Mommy, I can play the flute, too!!" I know never know what she's going to come up with next!!!

Ward Christmas Party = SANTA

I finally am getting around to posting the pics from our Ward Christmas party. Paige really LOVED Santa even though these pictures don't really show it. I had to play the piano right before Santa came in (yes, our new ward has discovered that I play, so I'm put to work quite often) and Paige was next to me. She pretty much flipped out when he walked through the door. "Mommy, Santa's here...Santa's here!!" All the while, jumping up and down. Pretty funny. She had to be right by him the whole time he was standing in front of everyone. Once he went up on the stage to hand out the Christmas bags, she was one of the first ones. Silly girl!

This is a pic of Paige, one of her nursery buddies, Joy, and another boy from our ward. I felt sorry for him because Paige and Joy refused to leave Santa's side (or front in this picture) to let the boy have his picture taken alone with Santa. Not so silly girl! :0)
And here's the best thing she received that night...a candy cane. Yep, she's a candy cane addict. I have to hide them so she will sometimes forget about them! :0)

Paige's haircut

Paige's hair was getting a little too straggly for my liking, so I decided to trim it a little. I have to say that I LOVE it!! I think I love the idea that she actually has hair to do something with. Remember not too long ago that she was completely bald except for a tiny bit of fuzz?!?

Reindeer antlers...some like them, some don't!

As you can see, Paige loved her reindeer antlers, but little Austin...not so much. I have to say, though, that they're growin' on him now. I had them on him for a good 10 minutes this morning and he didn't mind them at all. They both look pretty darn cute in them, don't you think?

Paige's new dances!

So Paige is learning tempo and figuring out how to change her dancing style depending on the music. Very smart, I know! ;0) Here's the latest. Enjoy!!

I love the drop to the floor and then kicking the feet. Classic dance move right there! ;0) Don't you love Austin percussion techniques in the background. It pulls it all together, I think!

The "After" picture

This pic was taken about 10 seconds after the first pic. She slept like this for quite a while. Talk about neck-ache!!! At least Lucky was there to act like a pillow....kind of! :0)

This is the girl who doesn't sleep in the car?!?

Yes, we have proof that Paige does sleep in the car....sometimes. :0) We were on our way to celebrate Grandpa A's birthday and she surprised us. I love that her dog, Lucky, was in that position also. She HAD to have Lucky on her lap like that or she got very upset (he had to look at her). I also love her glasses. Those are her movie star glasses and she has to have them on every time she's in the car. When she realizes she doesn't need them (cloudy day, for example) she doesn't take them off...she puts them on her forehead. Don't ask me where she got this from!! :0)

The Sick Household

Just wanted to let you know that if you were planning on visiting us this week....DON'T!! This week, well actually the last 2 weeks, have been interesting. We are all trying to get over some nasty colds. Austin has been by far the worst, so that means little rest for Mommy, who isn't feeling up to par either. At least I know how the kids are feeling. (A little empathy never hurt anyone.) Paige started in all about 2 weeks ago. She then gave it to Austin which in turn gave it to me. Luckily Brian has been able to avoid most of it. Thank goodness. This is the excuse I'm using for not posting as often this past week! :0) We have been busy, though, with Ward and Relief Society Christmas parties and just life. (I'll hopefully upload some pics of Paige with Santa at the Ward Christmas party. She was quite hilarious!)

Our little elf family

I saw this on one of my friends' blogs and had to try it. Brian and I were laughing hysterically. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did!!!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1144926522

Paige singing her ABC's!

This has to be one of the cutest things ever. Paige was so excited to have a project of her own because Aunt Kandra and I were working on our crafts for almost 2 days straight. We've been playing with Paige's letters almost every morning when Austin is taking his nap. She loves it and is doing pretty well learning her letters. Her favorite one's right now are S and P. Very fun. Enjoy Paige's song. She took the liberty of adding a few new lyrics! :0)

A couple Thanksgiving pictures

We spent Thanksgiving with Brian's parents, grandparents, Uncle John, Aunt Bethany, and Uncle Dan. It was so much fun. We did feel very bad for Uncle Dan, though. He broke his collarbone the day before Thanksgiving. He went snowboarding on the opening day at Targhee. Paige kept asking him if she could see his owie, but we told her he had to keep it in his sling. She seemed to accept that since she's never seen a sling before. We just hope Uncle Dan is doing better! :0)

I completely forgot about the camera because we were all busy either getting the food ready, watching the kids, watching football (this probably more than watching the kids!) and playing football at the park. But I finally remember that I did bring it and took a couple pictures before Thanksgiving dinner. I love that everyone is actually looking at the camera in this pic. Between Paige and Austin this doesn't happen very often. I also LOVE Paige's hair in this pic. I love actually being able to do something with it because it's finally growing!! Yeah!!!

I absolutely LOVE this picture. Paige is such a good big sister. She's almost always willing to help Austin play with toys, get his diapers or burpcloth, and just playing with him. She's been especially loving lately, which I definitely can't complain about! This is just one time that I caught her being affectionate towards her little brother (who, by the way, adores his big sister)!!