It's ok to be you

Do you all remember Henry's phase of liking girl clothes?






Well, we thought he had grown out of it. After all that picture was taken when he was two, and he's 4 1/2 now.

But we started noticing dress up disappearing, and he became overly concerned with us looking in his dresser drawer.

Upon further investigation, we discovered that he has been stockpiling dress up clothes.

We also found him in his room in a princess tutu.

Seems the boy likes dressing up, and he doesn't care what color or style the dress up is.

But he does seem to be aware that he has some siblings who will make fun of him for dressing up in girl dress up.

Jeff and I honestly don't care, and we told him so. Jeff basically said,"Henry, you can wear that purple tutu if you want, you don't have to hide in your room."

But maybe I need to be on the lookout for more boy dress up? Just so the poor kid has options?

He has a Buzz costume, a dragon costume, a Robin costume and a power rangers costume. Maybe he needs a jester costume or a princely costume or something fun and whimsical that will satisfy his fun side?

After all, he does come by his love of dressing up honestly.

joy

Today is the start of mid-winter break.
That means my kids are home all week!
Sleeping in, slumber parties, cleaning (boo!), eating yummy stuff, movies, sleeping in, playing with friends and cousins, and did I mention sleeping in?

But the best part? I get my children. Not their teachers, not their friends at school, but me! I get them, they're all mine.

They are my life. And what a beautiful life it is.

And a shout out to my awesome friend Frances-Happy Birthday dearest!

Kate

My sweet daughters each have their own blog.
But you can't read them because they're private.

But Kate posted something yesterday that I just had to share.

I was bored today.

So I went to my list I posted in July, and picked the one where I write 100 random things about me.


So here it is.

100 Random Things about Me
1. I have red hair
2. I’m LDS
3. I’m a Dominant Type 2
4. I’m almost as tall as my mom
5. I’m taller than my grandma
6. I’m in 7th grade
7. I love laughing
8. I’ve never said a swear word in my life
9. I like taking pictures
10. I like playing the piano
11. I’ve made a stop-motion movie
12. I have green eyes
13. I’m a good singer
14. I like to play volleyball
15. I have straight A’s in school
16. I weighed over 9 pounds when I was born
17. I’m the oldest of 6 kids
18. I’m the Beehive 1st Counselor
19. Taco soup is my favorite food in the whole entire world!
20. I wear glasses
21. I want contacts
22. I have a cell phone
23. I don’t want to move ever again
24. I have a 1960’s bike
25. My favorite book series is Skulduggery Pleasant
26. My 2nd favorite book series is Harry Potter
27. My 3rd favorite book series is the Hunger Games
28. I have 5 American Girl dolls (Felicity, Addy, Mia, and 2 Bitty Twins)
29. I still play with them some times
30. Once (last year) I took my sister’s Barbies and played with them in my room
31. My favorite TV show is Psych
32. Henry will actually hug me now
33. I get strep throat every year
34. I have strep throat
35. I need my adenoids out
36. I’m allergic to penicillin
37. I’m really scared for geometry next year
38. My favorite color is purple
39. I used to have an iPod Touch
40. I lost that iPod Touch
41. I wear the nightgowns my grandma makes for Christmas to bed every night
42. My favorite dessert is homemade apple crisp, that or cinnamon rolls
43. I like to make fun of the movie “Twilight”
44. My favorite movie is “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”
45. I think I will have lots of smile lines when I’m old
46. I like making Power Points
47. I like watching Brian Regan
48. I like writing on my blog
49. My blog is called Advancing in Reverse
50. I used to play the violin
51. I had my hair cut for Locks of Love
52. I’ve moved about 800 times
53. My favorite animal used to be a whale (not an orca, though)
54. I sometimes text my aunt
55. I sometimes text my cousin’s cousin who I’ve met once
56. I’m a Beehive
57. I’m a secondary Type 4
58. I like to play Solitaire on the computer
59. I’m the only one who dresses the way I do in my whole school
60. I don’t really have a favorite animal
61. I like to play the board game CLUE
62. My handwriting is starting to be cursivy
63. My handwriting is starting to either be cursivy or just get lazy
64. I randomly sing in an opera voice while I’m by myself
65. I look forward to General Conference all year
66. I read the New Era
67. I want to get the Wii game “Just Dance 2”
68. I want to learn how to dance the Charleston dance
69. I’ve never read the Lord of the Rings
70. I’m trying to write in my journal more often than before
71. I used to write in my journal about twice a month
72. I’m trying to read my scriptures every day
73. I’m going to run the Ragnar Relay Race in July (I'm runner 10; I have legs 10, 22, & 34)
74. When we were little, I always made Julia be the prince and I was always the princess
75. I’ve run 3 miles at one time before
76. I was on the 7th grade volleyball team
77. I tried a burger at Red Robin for the first time
78. Every other time I’ve eaten at Red Robin I’ve gotten either chicken fingers or something from the kids menu
79. Me and my dad were once mistaken for brother and sister (when I was about 8 or 9)
80. In 5th grade track someone asked me why I was so slow
81. I’ve been told countless times that I screamed nonstop when I was a baby
82. I got to have probably the awesomest 6th grade L.A. teacher ever
83. I got my room redone by TV show people
84. I’ve never broken a bone
85. I sprained my pinkie toe in 5th grade
86. I once had strep throat, viral pneumonia, and an ear infection at the same time
87. When my glasses broke, I got 20/100 on a vision test
88. I only wear eye shadow, mascara, and lip gloss
89. I’ve slugbugged my mom probably around 500 times
90. I plan to go on a mission
91. I plan to go to college (preferably BYU)
92. I plan to get married in the temple
93. I plan to have at least 3-4 kids
94. I plan to live well, laugh often and love much throughout my life
95. I plan to be like unto Christ
96. I plan to return to my Heavenly Father in the Celestial Kingdom
97. I plan to stay active in the church my whole life
98. Julia is my best friend – always has been always will be
99. I probably laugh at least twice as much as the average person
100. I have the greatest family ever

I posted this because I am so proud that this is who she is. And you really must click on the link to see her stop motion film she did. It's completely awesome!

Valentines

At my children's elementary school, they are not allowed to bring candy in with their Valentines.
BUGS ME to no end!

Some silliness about an epidemic of childhood obesity and diabetes.

Ok, those are real things. But I can guarantee that kids are not obese or afflicted with diabetes because of the twice a year school parties they have. I'd venture a guess that it has more to do with what they eat at home then the treats they get at school a few times a year.

Alright, I'm off my soapbox.

Anyway.....so because we can't bring candy, and because I was informed that they don't like all the pencils and stickers that people substitute, we opted to include nothing with our cards.

But instead of store bought cards, we sat down for a couple of hours and made our Valentine's.

Julia and Kate are past the Valentine's Day party stage, so Kate helped with the process.

It was actually really fun, and hopefully these cards will be loved for their uniqueness, rather than thrown out with the rest by a bunch of parents who are sick of finding Valentines all over the house and chuck them when their kids aren't looking.

Not that I've ever done that or anything. Ahem.

Real life-around here anyway

There are days around this house where everything is clean.
My laundry is caught up.
Dishes are done.
Everythings dusted, vacuumed and polished.

And then there are days when no matter what I do, how hard I work, I still find things like this:



What is that, you may ask?

Oh, just your standard, chewed around the edges, left by Nora, Beef Bologna.



Either that, or I am confusing 2 year old antics with a great piece of performance art.

Anyone else feel like bologna sandwiches? Minus the vacuum, of course.

Good to have around

Over the course of knowing Jeff, I have come to learn that he is capable of anything.

ANYTHING.

On one hand it's really awesome cuz me or the kids can ask him to fix or make stuff and he can do it. No, he really can.

On the other hand, I have to work really hard at other stuff to seem as cool as dad.

Case in point:

Charlie's latest love is BeyBlades. They're basically a new fangled spinning top. You can take them apart, double stack them, and they have cool launchers and accessories that can set any parent back a couple of big ones. (20's)

Charlie has a list of all the stuff he wants for his personal collection.

One such item is this:

It's hard to tell but that launches one of these:

The point isn't really that it costs money. The point is that Jeff decided it would be more fun to make something themselves, instead of laying down the 8 bucks for some plastic gadget.

This is what they came up with:

And people, it actually works.

And the best part? Charlie and his dad spent a few hours working together, building something. Not the least of which was their father/son relationship.

Can't you just see the pride and joy in Charlie's face?

Can't you hear the pride and joy I have in my spouse?

And just to add to his awesomeness-the other night Kate came into our room and asked, "Do either of you know how to do blah blah blah blah-math?"

I didn't even understand what she said, but Jeff says, "Sure." He hops out of bed and helps Kate with a hard math concept, for an hour.

All I can say is, you'd better live forever mister. Cuz my skills DO NOT extend to making Beyblade launchers or doing advanced math.

Now, if homemade treats and decorating skills and squishy comforting hugs are required, I'm your girl.

And I am your girl, Jeff Allen, forever.

I always try

Twice now I have submitted my name as a chaperone on a field trip for Anne Marie's class.

Twice now I have been too late. Other parents got there first.

Twice now she has come home teary eyed, telling me that I can't come.

Twice now I have hugged her and told her I tried.

I know they have at least one more field trip and a field day.

So please, Mrs. Teacher, can we not make it three times that I have to look into Anne Marie's big blue doe eyes and tell her I tried?

Thanks.

Motivation

The way to a boy's work ethic, I have found, is through his stomach.

To motivate certain members of my family to help with laundry and other chores, one evening I promised brownies the size of their heads.

Charlie ate all of his. And then still begged others for the rest of their brownies.

Henry proved himself equal to the task as well. Devouring a brownie the size of his head took almost no effort.

And on a semi-related note. To ensure that all my children are growing up in a healthy, chore necessary home, I am attempting something that could only be described as a social experiment. I am unplugging the tv and the Wii for one week.

It's been irritating me lately. Much of it is my own fault because I have felt tired and lazy and the tv is a good babysitter. But I realized that we have a problem when Nora asks for a "mooie" (movie) before she asks for breakfast.

She isn't the only one who will be facing withdrawals, so I imagine I'll see from everyone, a bit of this~


Wish me luck!

Woe is me

For my 400th post, (thank you, thank you, hold your applause please), I would like to discuss the ins and outs of illness and it's ability to hold a family hostage.

I have not posted for days because we have been hit with an onslaught of sickness the likes I have rarely seen.

It started with the regular flu. Body aches, fatigue, head and chest congestion. And then mingled in with that, people started dropping like flies from the stomach flu.

At one point we had half the family that had been throwing up, and the other half with stuffy noses and headaches. But all of us unable to do much but lay around and moan.

Then, just when I was getting over the part where my nose was too stuffed up to even be able to sniff, I broke the mold and got BOTH at the same time.

It was pretty much the most awesome day ever. (Said with a thick layer of sarcasm)

I had to tell my mom to not come for piano lessons.

I had to cancel preschool since it was my week.

I had to call 2 different schools to excuse 4 different children who were all home sick.

I had to tell ladies at church that I could not help much with an activity that we are in charge of this week.

I had to cancel my visiting teaching appointment.

Luckily, or not luckily for him, Jeff was home sick for 2 days and so there were at least two grownups here. Because really, with both of the flu's overriding me, I was more like half a grownup somedays.

I am on the mend. I still have two kids home from school, though, and no groceries.

However, on a positive note, there is a quote from the movie The Devil Wears Prada that always makes me laugh because of it's ridiculousness mixed in with truthfullness that applies to my situation.

"I am ONE stomach flu away from my goal weight!"

Also on a positive note, the sun is shining here. It was yesterday as well. Jeff and I bundled ourselves up and sat on the front porch just to feel the sun on our faces. It was soooo nice.

I am grateful for little blessings at this point.

I hope you all have faired better. And for anyone who got caught in the wake of our wave of illness, you have my apologies.

Carrying eachother

I went on a walk yesterday.

I didn't have my double stroller with me, just the umbrella one.

So it meant Henry had to walk while Nora road in comfort.

I thought he would be just fine.

And he was on the downhill parts.

On the downhill he squealed with delight and ran it.

But on the uphill parts, which were plentiful, he kind of sat down on the side of the trail and whimpered.

I tried encouragement, coerce-ment, and just plain pulling him along.

Finally I could see that it was no good.

So I gave the stroller pushing over to someone else, and I proceeded to give Henry a piggy back ride up the hills, about a mile back to the car.

My hiney muscles hurt today.

But as I lifted my son, and he sighed happily from relief, I thought how wonderful it is to be a mother.

To be there to lift my little children, to hug my big kids, to listen and be a shoulder, and to sometimes laugh so hard it hurts. Because that is what is needed.

And then I thought of my Savior, and how He lifts me constantly. How He figuratively carries me when I have no strength left, and helps me when the hills just get too big .

And I felt joy in the ability to do that for someone else. To help my little Henry when he was feeling small and weak, and I was feeling strong.

My hope is that we can do that for others.

That we can encourage.

That we can help.

And that when it's really needed, we can lift and occasionally carry each other.

Til the end of whatever trail we might be on.

This is an essay Julia wrote for her 6th grade writing assignment. About her hero.


Who’s dancy pants over there? Oh, that’s right, it’s my dad. He is awesome and weird, in a good way. His fantastic, intelligent, mad genius mind, can read me like an open book. My dad is awesome because he is insane (in a good way), intelligent, and he understands me.
My dad is so insane. His insanity causes him to do random things. He’ll crack a random joke and make me wonder what goes on in his head. He will start dancing randomly in the kitchen for no reason at all. When he just starts singing High School Musical. Sometimes I believe if my mom wasn’t there to keep him in order, we would be living on Mars.
My dad is extremely intelligent. He has a master degree from BYU and always got good grades. He knows so much about mechanics that he has fixed up a lot of our appliances. He knows so much about computers, it’s amazing. I’ve never known him to not be able to fix a problem.
My dad understands me. He knows what to do when I’m feeling blue, furious or even just plain bored. He knows how to help me when I don’t understand something, and he knows how to make me laugh. When I was upset about home work, with a few choice words, he had me with a new bright attitude. Another time when I was so angry I locked myself in my bed room, he was the one that coaxed me out. My dad knows me like an open kindergartener book.
Looks like dancy pants dad is having a great time. He’s awesome, so I’ll let him keep doing it, but he’s also so weird I’ll have to make him stop if my friends come over. He’s insane, intelligent and he understands me, but no matter how crazy he is going to get, I wouldn’t replace him for the world.

Overheard

Overheard at 2:30 in the morning.

Henry, standing in our bedroom. "I guess I was wrong. I DID have to throw up again."

"I HATE being wrong"

Yeah, it was an awesome night.
It was mostly awesome for Jeff, who cleaned up two pools of vomit while I lay in bed and tried to ignore what was happening around me.

Me and throw up=Not friends

And in case I seem like a complete wuss, I did rub his back while he threw up in the toilet this morning.

The end.

In our family, dressing up is essential.
Essential I tell ya.
It always has been.
From Kate on down to Nora, there is nothing like pretending to be a ballerina, or princess, or Batman, or Batgirl even.

Eventually they grow out of daily dress up.

And have to pretend they don't like it anymore, and instead wait anxiously for Halloween to roll around.

Another essential thing?

The Wizard of Oz.

They all love it. The movie, the trivia game, the little figures from McDonalds.

But it creeps me out.

It always has.

What a weird phobia, to be afraid of the Wizard of Oz.

So instead, I take pictures and chime in with answers occasionally.

Cuz even though I don't like it, I've seen the dang movie a million times.

That's what we do when we love people.

We watch their favorite movies.

And play their favorite games.

Oh wait, I have to draw the line somewhere.

What's weather got to do, got to do with it?

I have not felt like posting.

No I have not.

I was trying to figure out why, and then I looked out the window and realized the source of all my anti blogging sentiments.

Rain.

Rain, rain and more rain.

Yes I'm complaining, even though I shouldn't what with all the weather disasters around the world and birds falling from the sky and what not.

But rain has a negative affect on me. Especially when it's been raining straight for 3 weeks.

And yes, I'm thankful I don't live where it floods, because there has been some flooding around here, but I still want to whine.

Because I miss the sunshine. I miss the blue skies. I miss dry grass and I miss exercising outside.

So instead of sitting down to post about my awesome children, my awesome husband, my awesome life.. I mope around, don't clean my house and don't go anywhere.

Whaaa!

This is what I need today. To be here:

But instead, I will make sure to be at the bus stop for my kids today, because it is raining soo hard. And even though we live in the greater seattle area, we can never seem to find our umbrellas. Go figure.

So what weather gets to you the most? Rain, snow, tornadoes?

Oh, I hope you don't say tornadoes.

Yesterday I had the joy of taking photos of my sister (in law) Amy and her 4 kids.

Amy is due in about six weeks with baby number 5 and wanted a picture with her kids for the baby shower invitation.

So lucky for me, I had my camera in my car when I came upon this:



And while I didn't exclaim and start crying about rainbows, it was quite beautiful and fun to see after all the stinky rain we've had.

And just because I can. Here is one of the pictures I took of my beautiful SIL and her awesome children.




I don't think it's fair that she looks that good at 8 months pregnant. With baby number 5, no less.

There is a reason there are very few pictures of me pregnant.

Anyway....have a great Tuesday~

I'm not old

Tomorrow is my birthday. And in honor of my arrival into my late thirties, I want you to watch this.

It's a classic. Just like me.


And on a side note: thank you Kim. Thank you, thank you, thank you for thinking of me and bringing me flowers when I was feeling super icky and unattractive from having shingles.

It meant more to me than you know.

My day yesterday

Wake up at 6:40.
Make pancakes.
7:00-make sure Kate and Julia are up
7:15 make everyone's lunches
Get dressed
7:40 drive Kate and Julia to the bus stop
7:45 wake up Charlie, Anne Marie, Henry and Nora
8:00 feed them and myself
8:15-8:30 bark orders for Charlie and Anne Marie to brush their teeth, put their lunch in their lunch boxes, get shoes on, find your coat, brush your hair, TURN OFF THE TV!
8:35 pile the 4 younger ones into the car and drive to the bus stop
8:45 Cut Henry's hair
9:00 give henry a quick bath and get him dressed for preschool
9:15 leave for preschool.
9:45 get back from preschool
10:00 get Nora situated on PBS kids, reply to some emails
10:15 exercise
11:00 make Nora come upstairs with me while I take a shower
12:00 finally get Nora dressed
12:15 leave to go pick up from preschool
12:45 come home, let Henry go to Gavin's house
1:00 feed Nora lunch and myself lunch
1:20 put Nora down for a nap
1:30-2:00 clean the kitchen
2:00 go get Henry from next door so that he can clean his room
2:15-let Henry go back over after we clean his room
2:16-3:30 clean, clean, load of laundry, clean
3:35 kate comes home
3:40 tell Kate to have a snack and then practice piano for half an hour
4:10 Charlie and Anne Marie come home, eat a snack
4:15 Have Kate start her chore, and Charlie start his piano practice
4:20 Clean some more-tell charlie to do his chore when he's done with practicing the piano, get Anne Marie started on her job
4:40 leave to go pick up Julia from play practice
5:30 get back from picking Julia up
5:40 Sit with Anne marie while she practices piano
6:15 Start dinner
7:00 eat dinner
7:15 Jeff gets home, eats dinner
7:45 Read scriptures as a family, say prayers
8:00 start putting everyone to bed
9:15 go back downstairs to finish cleaning up before bed
9:55 shut off lights,trudge back upstairs
10:00 read my scriptures for a while, pray, zonk out cold.

This is not a brag post. This is a post about what it's like to be a mother some days.

If I had posted about my day Monday, it would have been like this:

Wake up, get the kids to the bus.
Stay in my pajamas all day.
Make a halfhearted effort to potty train Nora.
Abandon the effort to potty train Nora.
Read all day instead.
Not clean
Finally get dressed at 2
Not make dinner (jeff made AWESOME eggs and sausage)
Barely help put the kids to bed, and then fall into bed myself.

Granted, on Monday, I had a splitting headache and was feeling icky from the shingles.

But that was just my excuse. I really just wanted a mental health day more than anything.

And while laying around all day was sort of fun, I did not feel awesome at the end of the day. I felt lame.

But yesterday, I felt awesome.

I would love to hear what your day was like yesterday.Was it as busy as mine? Busier? Do tell.

The final match up

So here's how it stands.

Nora:1

Toilet: Zero

Yes folks, we have quite a match up. So far the champion has kept her opponent, Porcelaino Bidet, aka "The Toilet", up against the ropes.

He seemed to be gaining ground when, BOOM! She completely annihilated him by peeing on the floor.

The Toilet's manager, Amy, aka "Mom" isn't looking too good right. All her expertise and years of training may have been more hype than anything.

But stay tuned, this match ain't over yet.

There still more rounds to go and a pile of clean undies at the ready.

We'll keep you updated.

Birthdays are still fun for the young at heart

A few days ago, we all, meaning the kids and I, received one of these:




Jeff, in his awesome-ness, decided to forgo a birthday present and instead throw himself a birthday party and invite his 7 favorite people.

And where are we going?

To the Family Fun Center.

Oh yeah.

He is awesome.

And I'm married to him.

Lucky me.

Happy Birthday dear Jeff.

Thank you for being the big kid that you are.

And for your viewing pleasure, somebody TOTALLY AWESOME put up posters of the following for Jeff to see at work today.

Truly, the best laugh I have had in a very long time, I may have snorted a little.

Change of plans

Update: I have shingles. Weird, huh? Seems that if you had chicken pox as a kid, the virus lays dormant and can show up as a painful rash later on in life. Usually it happens in people over 60, but for a few "lucky" ones, like myself, it can happen when you are younger.

I am glad to know what it is, and I am glad that I'm not allergic to something. And though I don't love that it's on my face, I am super greatful at the same time. When it's on another part of your body, your clothes can rub against it and cause more pain, or your skin can be irritated when you sit down or against something. But for me, I just won't be sleeping on my left side for a while. So here is an example of things happening that you never think will happen to you. C'est la vie!

I had a lovely, long-ish post planned for today.

But instead, I will be going to the doctor for a weird allergic reaction I am having on my face to something.
Two words: puffy, pustule. Nice visual, eh?

And....

I will be attempting to potty train this little goose:




Wish me luck, with both things.