*Toot, Toot*

We've been working on learning the Articles of Faith as a family for the past six months. The girls learned the first eight at lightning speed, but the last few have been a bit of a struggle. Last night, I was trying to say #10 without looking, and my girls corrected me and then finished it without my help:

That's my girls!!

Porter is a good sport (and no, I haven't taken away his bottle but his time with it has been cut back). I'm hoping he is learning these subconsciously and one day, after he starts talking, of course, he'll be able to prattle them off with the girlies (it's a wish, ok?).

You only wish you could dress like this...

Instructions for creating this fabulous look:



1. TEAR APART Mom's closet looking for just the right skirt (even though Mom has told you about a million times to STAY OUT of her closet.



2. Find something to cinch the waist- anything will work, really. As you can see, Adi is sporting a darling headband that she refuses to wear on her head but loves as a belt; and Piper has a pair of heart leggings wrapped around her a couple of times.



3. Try to hurry and get your waist tied before skirt falls... scream after three failed attempts. Big sister will then come and tie it for you.



4. Put on church shoes that Mom has warned you and warned you and warned you not to tough excepting Sundays. They're scuffed now anyways from previous adventures, so Mom doesn't get as mad anymore.


5. Demand that Hish School Musical 3 songs be played and have Mom sing Troy's part.

Now you're dressed for success and ready to rock!!

A Dose of Reality

Scene: I was doing Adi's hair for school at six o'clock in the AM (yep- I got morning kids). Adi is acting as though I am methodically pulling out each and every hair on her head.

Adi asks, "How many days do I have left of school?"

Me, "Three days till Saturday." I'm too busy trying to pull her hair into an even ponytail while she is busy trying to pull out every ribbon in my ribbon jar to reach the bobby pin on the very bottom... don't ask.

Adi, "No! How many days till I don't have to go to school anymore?!" May I insert here that Adi is not a fan of school. Already she says that her favorite part of kindergarten is recess.

I chuckle. "You have twelve years left of school and then there's college..."

Adi bursts into tears.

"I'm done going to school!!!!!!"

She then went to school.

The Taking of the Christmas Pics

So, I have done it. The dreaded photo shoot. Me versus my three little monkeys. Getting the three of them to hold still is almost as hard as getting the three of them to look at the camera at the same time.

I think that I have one photo I could possibly use.... it isn't exactly what I wanted (at all) but I do not want to subject myself to their torture again! I'm serious.

To prove the difficulty which I faced, I caught a moment on camera:

See... now do you believe me?

Here are a few of the rejects that I love but they just don't work:

Ya gotta love Porter's face in this one!

Alright, look carefully at Piper's face and what Porter is about to do to her arm....

I really love this photo... Porter's eyebrow, the background, but the darn girls weren't looking!

YUM-MO

Need I say more?

Let It Snow

I'm not a big fan of cold. At all.

Especially when it involves bundling up three extremely stubborn children, all of which hate their winter coats.

But, ahhh... the first real snow of the season. It is a beautiful thing. And it was fun to watch Porter's reactions to it (he just didn't really get what it was, but he did keep saying snow)!

The girls were determined to make a snowman, which then turned into a slide, but they didn't get very far before they decided they were just too cold and came inside for a hot shower and a mug of hot cocoa.

They're Animals!

Unfortunately, none of my Trick-or-Treating pictures turned out :( But I did get this video of Porter-Pot trying to figure out why he had to put his first candy into a dumb old bag:

For the rest of the night, Porter would get upset whenever we tried to get him to put his candy in there...

We visited the Hogle Zoo on Saturday- and let me tell you, it was the perfect day. It was overcast (but no rain) so the sun wasn't beating down on us, and the temperature was just perfect! So, there are some benefits to living in Utah.


(That's Pip's ticket sticking out of her pocket)

Porter didn't much care for this pose...

And this one is my favorite pic of the day.

Now, you might be asking why I always have pictures of the back of my family. I'll tell you: my children are animals and I am extremely lucky to get a picture of even their backside! Porter automatically turns away from the camera when he sees it, Adi puts on a cheesy grin and Piper strikes her sae ole pose of tilting her head to the right side and smiling. So, to get one good picture I usually have to snap at least 20. No joke.

Let's just say that my kiddos are little celebrities with their own personal papparazzi stalking them...

The Lil' Pumpkins

We finally carved our pumpkins. I've been putting it off since I hate gutting the darn things, but, thanks to the unrelenting insistence of Adi, we carved 'em up for Family Night. Adi drew her own face on and I cut it out for her (although she was fully prepared to do the cutting herself). Piper insisted on a heart somewhere on the Jack O Lantern, and Porter just wanted to play with the top.

I most especially love the picture of Pipes since it is a rare occurence when I can get a pic of her without all of the attitude!

And this one is for Porter's Dad:

He is SO the next Troy!

It Ain't Halloween,

Till someone makes sugar cookies!

Can't Wait For The Movie...

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One Cute Lil' Pain

This boy is very lucky that he was born with dimples. And big blue eyes. And curly white-blonde hair. Otherwise his Mommy would be in the crazy-house by now. As we got close to entering the church today, Porter realized just where he was being taken and decided to run the other way, yelling, "No."

Well, I get him inside and try to put him in Nursery.... yeah right. He clung to me while screaming, "Mama!" The teachers told me to just leave him, but when those baby blues are all teary, he can pretty much get whatever he wants from me. So I stayed for about half-an-hour before I finally got the chance to sneak out. I watched him through the window for awhile and saw him cut in the slide-line, tell the other boys "no" when they tried to go down- he even planted his lil' behind on the bottom of the slide and wouldn't move.

I snuck a peak again at snack time and he was pointing at the little boy sitting next to him and telling him "no" for no apparent reason. The leaders had to push Porter-Pot away from all of the other kids.

He then terrorized my Mom during sacrament (it was the Primary Program today so my mom watched him while I kept gesturing at Piper to sit down and cover-up her panites).

It was so much fun. Yep.

And then we got home, where he continued his rein of terror.

But, he's sleeping now so it all seems so cute and funny.

That is, until he wakes up.

One Reluctant Cowboy, One Punk-Rock Fairy, and One Witchie With Attitude...

Yes, I know. It's been a while.

I've been rather busy and just plain preoccupied. Lots of changes happenin' around here, but I would rather not discuss them right now, thank you very much. Maybe later...

Anyway, since the days till Halloween are dwindling, I decided to take the tricked-out kiddies out for a pre-run of the costumes and a mini photo shoot (Courtney-style). We went to my Auntie's house since it is way fun for the kids and she has some cool landscaping going on back there.

If you remember last Halloween's costumes, I had a theme: Wizard of Oz. This year, the girls wouldn't go for a theme (no matter how much I tried to coerce them), so we ended up with these:

And:

And, last, but never least:

Thanks Leanne for the use of your yard and for entertaining my kiddies with your horse!

And yes, please hold your applause, I made these costumes. Porter's was the easiest since I just had to make the chaps and vest, Adi's was wonderously simple also, but Piper's was a little bit of a pain (it doesn't help that I don't have the patience to read the instructions all the way through so I end up doing a lot of unpicking).

So, there you go, all of my family who have been begging me to post their costumes. What do ya think?

Oh, and here's a video especially for Dad:

P.S. Adi tore the tuelle on the front of her dress whilest climbing on the playground. I wanted to cry. Hopefully it is fixable, though :)

Pillowcase Dresses

While perusing around Etsy one day, I came across these cute little dresses that were literally made from pillowcases. $20 for a dress made from bed sheets? I don't think so! So I visited my local fabric store that has all of the fabric that will make a seamstress drool (I am not exaggerating. Everytime I go I scheme of ways to get $500 just to spend in the shop). But, I digress.

I whipped up a couple dresses of my own (Patterns? I scoff at patterns. No, seriously, I do). Here are the results:


They didn't turn out quite like I imagined they would. In fact, they look like a flour sack cinched around the girlies.

Yet, the more I look at them, the more I like them

So here's the big question: Are they church-wearing appropriate? They would, of course, have a long-sleeved white shirt underneath (they are very into modesty after my FHE lesson a couple of weeks ago).

What do you think? Take the poll on the sidebar and let me know (seriously- I am torn up about this). Anyone can go ahead and click away, I can't get offended by what you think since I won't know who clicked what. And anyone can do it!

Please!!

**Oh, and please don't ask why my daughters have a strange tulle thing wrapped around their head... I try not to stand in the way of their creativity!

It's Here....

Welcome, Autumn!

This is the one thing that I have missed while living in Arizona: the changing leaves. Already the mountains are on fire with orange and yellow- faintly, but it's spreading quickly!

When I was little, our family would drive into the mountains in the Fall and have a picnic lunch while admiring the beauty all around us (I'm pretty sure that I was there just for the piles of leaves and the good food, but the beauty was important too).

Me & My Gramps when I was round-about Pipe's age

I personally can't wait to take the kiddies up to the canyon and let them play in the piles of leaves. Hopefully this warm weather will hold out until we can do that...

Redecorating; Digi-Style

I've been looking for a new way to decorate the girls' room lately that would keep the same colors I've got going on now (I have way too much pink and brown to replace all of it).

Why? You may ask....

Because I enjoy hearing Orrin groan when I bring up redecorating a room, that's why ;)

Anyway, I was shopping at Tangie's Big Birthday Sale when I came across these beauties here and here. I could suddenly feel those long-unused decorating wheels start a'turning in my head (the poor things have rusted).

Wouldn't it be great to do something a little more vintage-y, borderline-Victorian in there? I also have this strange fascination with Emily Post, so I dug up a few quotes from her 1922 etiquette book and came up with these:

I'm going to frame them (probably in white) and hang 'em up (11x14 maybe?). Quick and inexpensive way to change their room!




Oh, and stand-by, 'cause I also bought Tangie's Giddeyup cowboy kit to do some things on Porter-Pot's wall!