Happy Halloween!

I think Owen is trying to look spooky here...it works. But mostly he just looks sad!

Luckily Alec is the one that takes the kids trick-or-treating. An especially good deal for me when it's raining!

The fruits of their labors...

Molly Poppins

It could be said that I have oversold one or all of my children in the previous posts. Of course my children aren't perfect. They apply to the laws of nature...for every positive there is an equal and opposite negative. While they can be very charming, smart, funny and obedient some of the time. They are also annoying, dumb, strange and defiant some of the time. But I'm just trying to keep it positive.

But this one....
There's no overselling this one.

Molly. She's got a serious case of the Mary Poppins. She's practically perfect in every way. Cuddly, soft, sleepy, smiley and content.

Oh sure she's been crying lately at strangers, doesn't really take a bottle or a Binky, and she has a massive bald spot on the back of her head...but no sense dwelling on the negative!

I love babies. I now see why my mom pretty much just kept having babies until she basically couldn't have any more babies. Babies are the best thing ever invented.

My mom also used to say that she didn't have favorite children, just favorite stages and ages. I'd have to say I agree. My favorite is definitely babies. Although I may have to come up with a new favorite stage here at some point, otherwise I run the risk of not liking any of my children. Wish me luck.

Here's to Mollipop--my perfect, favorite child (you know, because she's a baby)!

To our dragon, dinosaur, animal loving boy...

Here is why you should want a child with an anal retentive personality like Owen...

His shoes can be found neatly organized on the floor of his closet, not strewn about the house.

He doesn't just throw his clothes into the hamper after he takes them off (which, for others of my children I would gladly take at least that), but he examines them to see if they are actually dirty, and if they are not dirty he folds them neatly and puts them back in his drawer! Or if they are stained he will bring them to me to put stain remover on them.

He almost always clears his place from the table without being prompted.

When the baby was still waking up at night, I would sit in my bed and just roll up the dirty diapers, throw them off the end of the bed into the darkness, hoping for them to land somewhere near the door. At some point every morning I realized that someone was picking them all up and actually throwing them away for me. Owen said, "I bet you thought your husband was doing that." And I did. But, no, it was Owen. That's when "Owen's Diaper Service" or "ODS" was born.

Owen has afternoon kindergarten, and Nate has morning preschool. I love running errands with Owen in the mornings. He stays right by the cart, has fun looking at things, but doesn't always ask to buy them. And when the baby gets fussy, he entertains her. Plus when we get home he turns into "Owen's Robot Delivery Service" and he will help put things away where they belong.

Owen is very smart. I feel like I can say that without seeming like I'm bragging, because I don't think I had much to do with it--he just came that way. He already reads. Like reads, reads. And nobody really taught him. He probably read a lot sooner than I even realized (about a year ago), because by the time I knew he could read he was already beyond the "cat" and "hat" variety of words. Somehow all the TV watching and computer gaming he likes to do really paid off! (just kidding. kind of.)(Owen off to his first day of Kindergarten)

Of course his anal retentiveness has its negative side. Opposition in all things right? For example, if you try to challenge his knowledge of prehistoric beings or dragons (or any other knowledge for that matter), he doesn't take it very gracefully. Somewhere along the line though, his Grammy or Pops taught him the phrase, "my mistake." It has been wonderful for him to realize that it's okay to make mistakes and not be right all the time.

Here's to Owen: the service-oriented, detail-oriented, intellectual!

Abigail--or as she prefers now, "Abby"

Here's Abigail on her first day of 3rd grade this week...

We are two days into the school year, and she has made her official declaration that she would like her teacher to call her "Abby" this year. I'm a little uncertain about this, even though I call her Abby the majority of the time. I guess I always envisioned the world knowing her as Abigail, and those she's closest to calling her Abby. But, it is her life apparently.

Speaking of which, since when did eight-year-olds become tweens? I didn't think this started until 10 or so. I think I was still pretty oblivious at 8. This summer Abigail has really come to fit the true definition of a tween...in-between. One day she'll be combing her dolls hair and watching Sesame Street, and the next you'll find her listening to her ipod, wanting nothing to do with "little kid" stuff, and acting all moody like a teenager. It's definitely interesting to watch.

Today I spent a good hour or so in Abigail's room while she was at school. The mess in there had reached critical mass, and I was just waiting for the summer to end, so I could go in there and throw a bunch of stuff away (a garbage bag and a half, btw), without her tears and complaints about how that sucker wrapper is part of a collection, or that rock is the one she found while riding her bike around the block, or some other such excuse. (I'm thinking of showing her that Hoarders show as some type of scare tactic. Is that wrong? I thought about posting a "before" picture of her room, but I was honestly too embarrassed.)

Anyway, what I realized it what a creative girl she is, and how much she loves to read--the majority of the mess was mostly accumulated arts/crafts projects and books. She has also taken on a new desired identity of being "sporty". It was around the same time Molly was born, so I'm not sure if it was to differentiate herself from her sister or what. But we'll see if it lasts. Today for school I asked her if she wanted a bow in her hair to match her outfit. She said, "No, Mom. I'm Abby, I'm casual." She did end up with a flower clip though.

Here's to Abby--the casual, bookworm, artist (possible hoarder).

Super Nate

I decided I should do a brief update about each of the kids (since it's been awhile). I'll start with Nate, since I think I sent him to time-out the most today (first it was for throwing train tracks at Owen, then later it was for sticking his tongue out at me, and some other infraction I can't recall at the moment--most likely hitting someone) and therefore, I should try and say something nice about him...

Really, truly I do love the kid to bits. He is so happy. All. the. time. It's hard not to love that about someone. Sometimes that's what's so maddening about him. You're never quite sure if he knows he's done something wrong--he just keeps smiling! He loves to make everyone laugh, and I'm not sure he knows yet that he is really funny. He has the most infectious smile, and he is definitely the most talented at giving hugs and kisses of all the kids. (Watch out, future ladies.)
As you can see, he loves his little sister. I know it looks dangerous, like he might let her slip or choke her, but just roll with it, they're practically the same size.

Nate has been the baby for awhile, until just recently being dethroned, so I think he gets away with more than his fair share of things. Plus he's on the short side (Alec and I call him "midge" behind his back). After I helped him get dressed again after using the potty, and then Alec proceeded to spoon feed him his dinner last night, we looked at each other like, "What are we doing? He's three!" (Note: we don't spoon feed him all the time, just when we're sick of listening to him whine, and we just want to be done with dinner. You know.)

But at the same time, that still seems so little to me. Some days I hope he stays this little forever, and never quits saying things like "pewgrit" for computer, or "Super-Nate to the E-RESCUE!!" Or to complete strangers, "hey guys!" Or waving and yelling after the UPS man, "THANK YOU!"

Here's to the unstoppable Super-Nate!

As promised....

B-days...I think the entire family has had a birthday since I last did a real update, but here are some pictures of Abigail's birthday party. She turned 8 this year, and we thought it would be fun to have her party at the Lion House--which is where my 8th birthday party was!

It was perfectly adorable for girls that age. Any older, they would think it was lame and any younger, they wouldn't fully appreciate it.
(apparently making a weird face for pictures is the thing to do when you're eight--notice the 15-year-old babysitter and the 5-year-old cousin are not doing it)

Baptisms and Baby Blessings. . . We decided to combine Abigail's baptism and Molly's baby blessing into one big day. It was best that way, because then we didn't have to make people drive ALL THE WAY to O-town too often. :)

It was a wonderful day. I feel so lucky to have been blessed with these two beautiful girls. And even more lucky to have such a wonderful hubby to share it all with.



Beach trips...In July we were lucky enough to spend the week with Alec's family (minus his sister and her family--they were at home having a new baby boy!) in Newport Beach, CA. As usual it was so much fun! By the end of the week, we were all wishing we could trade in our usual lives in Utah for beach living--if not for the beach, then to at least be closer to Grammy and Pops!






Don't you wish you were just floating around in a pool right now, without a care in the world, like these two?

So I connected the camera to my computer the other day. Wow. I haven't done that in awhile apparently! Thank goodness we recently remedied the dinosaur-internet situation we had going on, so that I could upload them to blogger without it taking 3 days.
Here are the highlights of the latest import to iPhoto...

Merry Christmas 2009!
Yeah, don't worry, we didn't forget to send you a Christmas card. Here it is!!
Kids in a box.

Trip to Maui in March with my siblings, their spouses, my dad and his wife.
These are the best photos I could weed out. Most of the rest include a very forced smile on my very bloated face. (Not that it wasn't a wonderful trip or anything, I just was VERY uncomfortably pregnant--not great for photo opps.)





Owen graduated from preschool and played t-ball this spring for the Dodgers (much to Alec's delight).


And we brought the total of our brood up to 4!

So that's just some of what you missed while I was away from blogging. But stay tuned...believe it or not, I just may post some more pics. Pics of things like b-days, baptisms, blessings and beach trips!