Christmas Best

Today the activity for our Advent Calendar read: Open and wear new clothes to church.  Both Eleanor and Amelia were thrilled with their dresses. Amelia was convinced her dress was made of real gold and Eleanor said her skirt was just enough fancy for her!! I'm sure Jude could care less, but he still looked cute in his little hat and sweater.

Trying to get a decent photo of these three nuggets is nearly impossible. 

 

 

Speaking of church, little Jude was a pistol today! Somehow he got the idea to fill his mouth full of milk and then spit it all over Eleanor's face. Of course Eleanor didn't like this idea one bit...but Jude thought it was hilarious and tried for a second round of milk.  That little stink!!

Jude's Mongolian Blue Spot

I think it's so funny that our little Jude has a Mongolian blue spot. I'd never even heard of it until I voiced concern to my doctor about the bruise Jude had for weeks. In case you are wonder what a Mongonlian blue spot is here is a definition and a photo. (Not sure if its "ok" to show baby butt's on blogs, but I figure why not? Look how cute it is!)

A Mongolian spot, also known as "Mongolian blue spot", "congenital dermal melanocytosis",^[1] and "dermal melanocytosis"^[1] is a benign, flat, congenital birthmark with wavy borders and irregular shape, discovered on and named after Mongolians by Erwin Bälz.^[2][3] It is also extremely prevalent among East Asians, South-East Asians, Polynesians, Native Americans, and East Africans.^[4][5] It normally disappears three to five years after birth and almost always by puberty.^[6] The most common color is blue, although they can be blue-gray, blue-black or even deep brown.

Her Lips

This girl is addicted to lipstick. Why not, she's got the lips for it, right?

San Diego

We all enjoyed our few days in San Diego, just wish we could have stayed longer! A few of our favorite things were:

Going out for Mexican in Old Town and having the girls serenaded too and getting a Cinderella and Ariel balloon.
Playing on the beach.
Eleanor taking off her skirt and running around the beach in her underoos.
Buying and planting beautiful seashells on the beach and letting the girls find them.
Laughing at John for having a bird poop on his head (last time that happened to him was when we were in Athens, Greece!)
Eating dinner at Anthony's Fish Grotto. (Poor Amelia had a little accident . Luckily a nice older lady watched the kids for me while John was getting our food.)
Multiple trips to McDonald's for ice cream and Reese's McFlurries.

Carnival...I mean SeaWorld

After Disneyland we made our way down to San Diego. We were pretty excited to take the kids to Sea World, especially Eleanor because she loves any and everything to do with the ocean.  Well lets just say I'm glad we didn't buy a three day pass!! Is it just me or has Sea World gone down? I felt like we were at a carnival with all the extra game booths and the smoking! Allthough John and I were a little disappointed with Sea World, the kids seemed to really enjoy it. The girls loved petting the starfish and could have stayed there all day. I think next trip to San Diego we'll just hang out at the beach!

Scared Me

John and I were hanging out down in the basement and he asked if I knew where Amelia was. I ran upstairs to check on her and I couldn't find/hear her anywhere. I looked outside thinking she went to play with her cat again but she hadn't. I then checked my bathroom where she loves to play in the sink and get her hair wet. I started getting a little nervous when she wasn't in there. I went to go start looking downstairs when I spotted her dead asleep on the couch. For some reason it always breaks my heart when I find my kids sleeping.

She's Addicted

This morning Amelia begged me to let her go out and play with her cat, Tiff. I tried telling her it was pretty cold out but she was determined! The girl loves her cat! When she came in she tried her hardest to convince me that Tiff needed to come and live in her bedroom. She wasn't to trilled when I told her NO!

That Smile

Just because I can't get enough of this little boy!

And It's Gone

This morning I noticed Eleanor's front tooth was pretty much falling out. I tried talking her into letting me pull it, but she was didn't even want me touching it! When I came home this afternoon she and Lilly were in the kitchen eating apples in hopes of getting her tooth to fall out. After about an entire bag of apple slices the tooth fell out.

Eleanor is on her way down to Las Vegas with Grandpa & Grandma Martin, Jay & Scott and Lana & John. I made sure to send down a $2 bill with lots of glitter. I also sent down another $2 bill because I have a feeling her other tooth will be out soon!

It's fun watching how excited Eleanor gets over milestones like this! She's grown up!

Change of Season

This morning I spent a good 30 minutes blowing all the dead leaves off our patio. I do love the winter,  but I'm going to miss spending days and evenings out on our patio. That's the beauty of living in Utah, we get to have all four seasons! 

Stupid Christmas Lights

This year John wanted to get a head start on the Christmas lights and try and get them done before the cold weather came. The weather has been perfect during Johns last week of vacation and John was  just about finished with the house. On Friday night he went out to finish the last strand and while putting up the last light the latter slipped out from under him. The poor guy feel onto the driveway and shattered his heel. I was down in the basement with my friend, Brianne. I heard what I thought was a car alarm but soon realized it was John trying to get me to come out. 

Poor John was in so much pain!! The five doses of morphine he got at the ER didn't help much and they only gave us 20 pills to last until Monday afternoon (good thing my neighbors don't mind sharing drugs).

We met with the surgeon this week and luckily John doesn't have to have surgery. The heel is shattered but the joint didn't break. I guess the bones will heal themselves. The bad news is he still has to be on crutches for 3 months! I hate that this happened but we are so very lucky it wasn't worse.

Jude, Judy, Buster Brown, Judders

This little boy is spoiled! When he wants to drink his milk, he brings me his sippy and I have to lay him on the ground. Spoiled he may be, but we love him just the same. He's just too dang cute not to spoil!

2012 Reflections

Over the years I've helped judge at a few elemenatry schools for their Reflection program. Kids can enter a variety a personal piece in either visual arts, photography, dance, literature and a few other cateogries. I was excited when Eleanor brought home the handout for this year's Reflection program. The theme this year was 'The Magic of A Moment". I told Eleanor what the theme was and she came up with the idea to paint a rainbow. She also had to write an artist statement. I don't have that right now, but I want to get it and add it. It was really quite clever what she came up with.

I gave her some canvas and paint and she went right to work. I love watching Eleanor do any kind of artwork. She does a great job and you can tell she tries her hardest to do her best. She has quite the imagintation and comes up with great pieces.

Lastnight was the little award ceremony at her school and I figured everyone who entered would at least get a little certificate or something so we all went to support Eleanor. It was fun walking around and looking at all the different pieces and seeing how proud Eleanor was of her painting.

When it came time for the visual arts awards we were all pretty shocked when Eleanor got second place. Visual arts had the post entries and her category was K-3rd.  When they called Eleanor's name she literally ran to the stage. She was so excited to be getting a little medal. We were all so proud of her and loved seeing her excitement!