The Grand Switcheroo

Over Christmas break we worked hard to finish what Joseph and I called, "the grand switcheroo." This involved switching the kids' rooms around. The ripple effects of this project ended up involving every room of our house. We had to find new places to put lots of stuff and we got rid of lots of stuff. It feels good to have it all done. Funny how the arrival of one more little person can require so much preparation. Now that it is all said and done, Sarah and Ally share a room downstairs. Sariah is still on her bottom bunk, but with a new bedspread that she loves. It is actually a quilt that a dear friend made when Sariah was born. I was excited to have a place to use it.

Our Pal now occupies the top bunk. She thinks that is pretty cool. Brook misses her roommate, but loves her new big girl bed with the pink covers. She takes everything in stride if it involves something pink. Brook loves to tell everyone that Bean (that is what we all call the new baby) will sleep in her crib and share her room. She has no idea what she is talking about but I am glad that for now she is happily anticipating her new roommate.

The girls are learning to get along and share the space. I am glad I took pictures when everything was clean. It is not that way as often as I would like it to be. They are getting better. I will take what I can get.

Zac finally got his own room. Since it used to be the storage/craft/whatever room, it took significant effort to clean it out. Hence, the ripple effects throughout the house. He loves having his own space and is doing a pretty good job of keeping it clean.

He is even a good sport about sleeping on the food storage. (Yes, he has a typical Mormon boy bedroom: food storage bed, BYU poster, piggy bank with a spot for mission savings, etc.) Joseph did leave a little space between boxes that makes the perfect weapons cache for his swords and guns. It is a pretty cool room, even if his closet is full camping gear, extra bedding, etc. It works. When we moved into this house 9 years ago, I wondered what we would do with all the space. Now I know. We filled it up with kids. It is the best house in the world.

A Holly Jolly Christmas

Since Easter is around the corner, it might be a good idea to do the official Christmas blog. We had a great month of festive activities to help us get ready for the big day. Ally was excited to be a part of a program at school. Her preschool did a short Christmas program. We got to read Christmas stories together and then the class sang some Christmas songs they had learned. I might be a bit biased, but I think she is the cutest reindeer I have ever seen. (Sariah had a Christmas program at school, too. Unfortunately I only got video of that and even that was not the best. She was front and center which means from where we were sitting in the cafeteria, most of her was hidden by the utility cart that was in the middle of the center isle. Note to self: If I am ever in charge of a grade school program held in a crowded cafeteria, I will send home a seating chart so that hyper parents like me will know where to sit so they can have the best recording/picture taking vantage point. The program was adorable and so was Sariah. I am glad I got to go. If any of you want to come over, she would be glad to show you the video of her program.)

Finally, Christmas Eve arrived. As Zac put it about a week before: "I know Christmas isn't very far away but it feels like it will NEVER get here." I love to see Christmas through their eyes. I know this is a magical time in our family. All of them are at perfect ages to enjoy the wonder of Christmas and to wholeheartedly "believe" as only a child can. As per tradition, we went to a movie matinee and then to Brick Oven for dinner. We saw The Princess and the Frog. It was a hit. Brook surprised us all by watching the whole movie, most of it in her own seat. She kept talking about the "two froggies." All of the Smith cousins enjoyed it, too. Even Uncle David suffered through it. Dinner was yummy and fairly uneventful, just the way we like it.

This year Zac and Ally were Joseph and Mary for the Nativity. They played their parts well. The roles everyone will play is the topic of much conversation at our house during the month of December. I am glad everyone was happy with how it turned out.

Brook really was excited to be the angel, even if you can't tell by the picture. She loved being with her Hadley. Even Blue Baby got in on the show.

Sariah was very gracious to give up her coveted role of Mary. Of course the prospect of being a shepherdess with her favorite cousin definitely sweetened the deal.

Christmas morning was wonderful as always. Even I have a hard time sleeping the night before. (Sariah wrote a story later at school about Christmas. My favorite line was when she talked about going to bed. She said, "It was a hard night for me." Bless her heart.) Ally got a waterfall adventure set for her Puppies in my Pocket and lots of other good stuff. She loved her Tinkerbell Barbie. She has this thing about not looking at the camera when we take her picture. One day I am sure it will be endearing, but right now it is a bit frustrating.

Sariah got a camera that she took pictures with all morning. She was also excited about her Disney CD's. So was I. We made copies to go in the van so there would be something that we would all enjoy listening to. It has been a welcome change. We have also discovered Magic Tree House books on tape at the library. Between those and the Disney songs, life in the van has gotten much better. But I digress . . .

Brook was the last one awake. We actually had to wake her up. She was not too excited about that. She was tired from the long day before. She stumbled out into the living room, not really sure what to make of everything. Then she discovered that Santa brought her a baby doll, just liked she asked. That is all she talked about for weeks. She still mentions it on occasion. After that she woke up and decided this Christmas thing was OK after all.

I am not sure who liked Zac's present more, him or his dad. They had a grand time chasing each other through the house. Amazingly enough, we have not lost any bullets yet. My favorite is when Brook dresses up in the gear. It is very cute. Zac also got a signed Max Hall jersey from our neighbor who works at BYU and is always bringing the kids little surprises. He was thrilled. The shirt is huge on him and will fit him for years to come, literally.

We rounded out our Christmas activities with a trip to Temple Square to see the lights. We went with some of my college roommates. We went last year too and I hope the tradition will continue. Our kids love the Thornton kids so it is a highlight for them as well. My picture taking skills were not at their best that night, but here they are in front of the big Christmas tree in the Joseph Smith Memorial building. It was a COLD night but we had a great time anyway. I love Christmas and can honestly say I can't wait for it to come again.

Zac's Dream Come True

After seven years of waiting, Zac finally gets a brother. We can hardly wait!

Brooklyn the Explorer!

A neighbor gave Ally a blue backpack that floated around our house until Brook claimed it. Now, they are inseparable. Sometimes when she dons the backpack, she becomes Dora the Explorer. Other times it is just a backpack. It is always full of envelopes. I am not sure where the fascination came from, but she loves envelopes, especially if they are decorated with pink crayon. I bet she has at least 20 that she carries around.


Ally gets cast as her faithful sidekick, Boots, and they have grand adventures together. Sometimes that game changes to Diego and Alicia and they run around the house calling each other on their video watches. Many animals have been saved from predators, mudslides and other impending doom. On occasion, I get to play, too. Usually I am "Dora's Mom." Which means that when Brook says, "Hi, Dora's Mom," I have to respond with "Hi, Dora. What is your adventure today?" It can come in handy when I need her to put on her "adventure clothes" or hurry to the "rescue van." A few days ago it was a little embarrassing when the game was in full tilt in the grocery store. The girls informed me that I was Linda the Llama. (I think she is in an episode of Diego.) They loudly called, "Rapido, Linda!" or "Despacio, Linda!" when they wanted me to push the cart faster or slower. Asking them to please use softer voices did not really work. But, I got to just be Dora's Mom again when Brook suddenly looked at me and said, "Hey, Linda doesn't have arms." I apologized for having two arms and agreed to their suggestion that I just be the mom in the game. They really were disappointed. I guess I am just not cut out to be a llama.


Even an explorer's day must come to an end. This is what we found one night as we checked on her before going to sleep. Buenas Noches, mi hijita preciosa.

November in a Nutshell

November was a fun and full month at our house. It is a month full of birthdays. Zac started us off by turning 7. Yes, I said 7. And yes, he really did take a bite out of his cake before I could even light the candles. He is full of life, 100% boy. I loved the fact that he only requested a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. We enjoyed celebrating his big day with our family.

Some kind soul gave him a package of rubber lizards. Another kind soul discovered that they stuck to the ceiling. So for a few days after Zac's birthday, it literally rained lizards at our house. The kids had a blast throwing them up,sticking them on the ceiling and then waiting for them to fall down so they could do it all over again. It did look kind of cool until one lost its grip and fell, catching me off guard and scaring me half to death. Other favorite presents included a BYU football poster and Bionicles.

Zac tends to invite the same group of boys to his birthday parties, which is fine with me. They are cute kids. This year he wanted a football party. He envisioned a backyard full of his friends with all the time in the world to play touch football. Apparently recess at school is much too short to have a good game (although the holes in the knees of Zac's pants tell a different story). But, the weather did not cooperate. Lucky for Zac, he has an amazing dad who loves sports as much as he does. We moved the football party inside and Joseph introduced the boys to the world of paper football. After helping them each make and decorate a paper football, he explained how to play the game. He even divided our coffee table into "fields" and set up a tournament schedule so they all could play against each other. There were playoffs and a Superbowl to boot. The boys loved it and before we knew it, parents were arriving to pick up their boys. We did manage to have time to devour our football cupcakes before they all left. Thanks again to familyfun.com for a great idea and to Aunt Emily for helping. She is now a yardline specialist. All in all, the party was a success, even if the party favor footballs fell apart after a few throws.

Joseph and I also celebrate birthdays in November, but we won't disclose how old we now are. We splurged and bought "good" tickets to a BYU football game. By "good" tickets I mean they were not at the top of the endzone. We saw them play Air Force. The weather did not really cooperate that day either. It was COLD. Thank goodness for hot chocolate. But, at least it did not rain and the Cougars won. The best part was being together. Thanks to Mom and Dad Anson for watching the kids.

And of course, we had Thanksgiving. I found another great idea on familyfun.com for a pre-dinner appetizer. The kids had fun making a fruit turkey and we all had fun eating it. The pepper feathers were my favorite part. Ally and Rachel were the two that really stuck with it to the bitter end. The turkey turned out almost as cute as the cousins that made it.
The actual dinner was yummy, too. Unless you are an unfortunate little girl named Brooklyn who has mean parents that actually expect her to eat the food on her plate. Right about Thanksgiving time, we decided that Brooklyn was old enough to be accountable at the dinner table. We made the highly unreasonable rule of requiring one bite. Brook decided to hide in the corner instead of eating. Maybe she thought we would forget about her or we would give in. Neither of those things happened and she did have a bite of Thanksgiving dinner. She was rewarded with a roll which she happily devoured. After patience and persistence, Brook now eats her bites without much complaint. Although on one particularly stubborn night, she was the only one left at the dinner table. We calmly told her that she could not get down until she had her bites and to let us know when she was ready. She let us know that she was not happy about that plan, aka she threw a fit. After a few minutes we heard her yell, "Mommy! I'm ready for my bites!" The dinner wars have paid off and she has discovered that dinner isn't so "disgusting" (thanks, Zac for the vocabulary lesson) after all.