Betsey at 10 months...

We love this girl! She is super sweet and I love how she starts showing her unique personality. All babies figure out how to pick things up with their index finger and thumb, but Betsey takes this to a whole new level. Nothing that she seeks with those two fingers stand a chance. She is determined and her eyes are fixed, and whatever is in her path is done for.

She is also starting to show her ability to do things she knows she shouldn't! She knows that it hurts people to pull their hair, but she insists on doing so. She will pull my hair, I'll wince and gain control and then she'll reach for it immediately again. Hmmmmmmm...

Betsey really, really chews on her tongue. All the time. She just gnaws away, and most of the time, it looks just like this:

The good news is, she is super cute and fun and we all just adore her to pieces! Aunt Pam sent her this handmade capelet for Christmas. I LOVE it! I am amazed she would find the time to make something, she's such a busy lady. Isn't Betsey super cute in it...and warm?

I also love this grey sweater sent by Pam (this one isn't homemade, but is so me and looks great on the little one). Thanks so much, Pam!

A minute and in the life of Alice and a date night...

Alice is such a little learner. She can't get enough, and I love it. Last night when we got home from church (we are on the horrible 1:30-4:30 schedule) I was making dinner and Alice asked me several very random questions in just one minute.

Alice: Mom, do you sometimes, always do that?
I was grating cheese in the food processor, which I rarely do.
Me: (baffled) Sometimes and always are contradictions. You can't sometimes and always do something. I think you know what sometimes and always mean, can you ask again?
Alice: Do you always do that?
Me: No, only when I have to grate a lot of cheese.
Alice: Do the short guys outside the grocery store go to church?
Me: (baffled twice) Huh? What short guys?
Alice: The ones that ask for money.
Me: (still baffled, but regardless, they could or could not go to church) Oh. Some probably go to church and others don't. They aren't all the same.
Alice: Oh. How do you spell cat sat?
Me: (finally an easy one) You know how to spell those words (which is why she asked), why don't you try?
Alice: c-a-t space s-a-t space. Mom?
Me: What.
Alice: (holding phone) Can I push as many buttons on the phone as I want but not push "talk"?
Me: Yes.

Alice is not a demanding kiddo. She doesn't ever lay guilt trips if I don't get around to something she wants to do, and she is just generally a happy little joy. Very uncomplicated and grateful and I just love her. We needed to have a date night the other week. It had been a very Ruby centered couple of weeks...Ruby's birthday, ear piercing, baptism, swim meet...and then the new Narnia movie was coming out and Chris and Ruby ran off to see it together. I was just feeling like Alice was very due for some ALICE time, even though she wasn't really seeming bothered in the slightest. I had to be home with Betsey who needed a nap, so we ran to Walmart and grabbed a few new play dough colors together, and we just played play dough together. She loved it. She is such a hands on girl...she rolled and rolled and rolled it and cut all kinds of shapes and fed me all kinds of play dough treats. I love dates with Alice. She is so special to me.

This is always Alice's happy face. She is always grinning with no teeth showing and she squints with her eyes and just beams happiness...always with shoulders up and head cocked to the side.

Unlikely Friends...

Stone has always hated cats. They don't go near him. He won't let them. We brought Stone in for his birthday and got him all bathed and clean and it turns out he and Roxy just adore each other!

 

Resolutions...

I'm not going to share all my resolutions with my blog, but I will say that if you are a junk collector, I am purging a ton of junk! I have decided that I really hate how much mess we make at our house. It's just always a mess! I was inspired by the organization posts of an acquaintence's blog. I realized after reading what she shared about how she organizes and simplifies, that my problem is too much stuff...I'll call it all "junk" because I'm mad at it. If I had less junk, I would have less mess...and the messes would be easier to put away because everything would have a place (even if everything shared the same place, which will make sense to you if you read her stuff).

I started before the new year with seven junk drawers in my kitchen that all look like this. Just in this drawer, I see passports, piano flash cards, pacifiers that Bee won't suck on, a night light that needs to be returned to my mom's house, a chia pet that we won at a couple's party, garage openers, air fresheners, you get the picture. Junk.

I really wish I had taken the time to scrape the hideous drawer liners out of our kitchen drawers before we moved our stuff in, but I started on a few drawers, and let's just say that this stuff isn't going anywhere.

In the past, I have pulled all the junk out of the drawers, sorted it and put it in it's places throughout the house. I usually have plastic grocery sacks full for different parts of the house...there's the hair ties, brushes and barettes in the bathroom bag and the screwdrivers, nails and such in the garage bag...but then I leave the drawers empty, and guess what? Six months later, they are all back to full again.

This time, I decided I had to fill the drawers with something. After considering how heavy concrete is, I opted to put things in them that may have had other places, but would fill the drawers and prevent them from becoming junk drawers again.

Here is a drawer filled with our math manipulatives. This drawer was repurposed three months ago and looks just like this still today. YAY!

I had my spices in a cupboard filling three shelves. It was sooooo inconvenient, I always had to pull a ton of stuff out to see what spices were behind and 1/2 of them were out of my reach. It was an awful system. So I filled one drawer with my spices, and now i can easily see and reach all my spices!! You can't throw junk in the spice drawer, and no one has tried yet!

I guess you get the picture. I also filled a drawer with sprinkles, cupcake liners, candles, etc. Stuff that was just fine in a clear storage container in my pantry, but it fills the drawer just as well and there's no risk of it becoming a junk drawer again.

Another thing I decided was to give up on separating crayons from markers and pens from pencils. Basically, I have a huge drawer now that holds anything that can write. This tactic makes cleaning up writing utensils more of a "kids can do it right" job and not a mommy job.

Okay, so here is the schedule that I made up for my house dejunking...
January: Linen closet, white bathroom cabinets, toy room, office built-ins, tidy up dining room.
February: Family room built-ins, my closet. (Less this month due to a big vacation to pack and unpack for.)
March: Our bedroom, our bathroom pantry and cabinetry, laundry room built-in drawers and coat area      cubbies and Betsey’s closet.
April: kitchen drawers, small appliances, kitchen gadgets, dishes, cleaning supplies under sink, etc.
May: Kitchen pantry food, kitchen pantry linens, kitchen pantry art supplies, kitchen pantry hodge podge, organize/purge school supplies, materials and curriculum.
June: my closet (again), Ruby’s closet/dressers, Alice’s closet/dresser, Betsey‘s closet/dresser (get rid of winter clothing and things that don‘t fit).
July: Too hot in our house to do anything but try to maintain order and pack and unpack from vacations and camping trips.
August: same as July
September: Plan school year goals and calendar, office desk drawers, office bookshelves and purge Alice’s toys in prep for her birthday gain.
October: Clear out all summer clothing, assess what is needed for each child.
November: Purge Ruby’s toys, stuffed animals, collections, trinkets, random stuff in her     bedroom in preparation for her birthday gain

Okay, so that is one tiny part of my resolutions for a better me. I hope this year will be one that holds serious changes...but I'll report on those when they are realized, not just imagined.

Two things I woke up to this morning...

Mount Rainier doesn't always come out to play, but when it does...I love having a view from the front of our house. I can usually tell if it is out even if the blinds are closed...just from the warm light. It seems like warm, sunny mornings usually bring the mountain with them. I took these in order...the first one from the stairs and then I realized I could get a better shot out the window of my bedroom because there isn't a screen on one of them. It just kept changing as the minutes passed...

 

 

 

As if that isn't lucky enough, I also woke up to this cutie. Alice usually sleeps in, but today she came in at 7AM claiming a nightmare had awoken her. We cuddled and pretended to sleep until Betsey awoke.

 

Playing "Friend" dialouge...

My girls play lots of funny role playing things together. I think it is funny because if they are playing "friend", they call each other "friend." If it is "sister," (which cracks me up because it isn't a role change but they totally change who they are when they play this) they call each other, "sister." Anyway, there's "horse", "school", "neighbor", etc.

Today, I happened to be working at my computer on some images when they started playing "friend" while eating lunch. I quickly started typing their dialogue.

They determined that Alice was pregnant but that she hadn't told Ruby yet. Here is their hilarious, shocking and somewhat disturbing conversation.

Alice: I have something to tell you, it's a surprise...I'll give you a hint. There is something in my tummy.

Ruby: Oh! You are having a baby.

Alice: Ruby, promise you won't say that?

Ruby: Oh! You have food in your tummy?

Alice: No...

Ruby: Oh! You have a baby in your tummy?

Alice: Yes!

Ruby: Where's the baby now?

Alice: Not here.

Ruby: Did she die?

Alice: No!

Ruby: Is she sleeping upstairs?

Alice: Yes, napping, and napping, and napping.

Ruby: Is your husband watching her?

Alice: Yes. He slapped her.

Ruby: Oh no! Did you tell him not to?!

Alice: Yes. He had to go outside for 31 hours. He was only wearing a tank top and flip flops.

Ruby: Oh. Was he cold?

Alice: Yes, he's out there now still. He's naked. With a scarf.

I know some will think that this must mean that Chris slaps the girls. He certainly does NOT hit them in any way at all, ever. If he did, he would not just go to timeout in the backyard!

A few more notes from today. The girls were making Sculpey sculptures at the table for some time, and then Alice got up and was playing with her new ornament for this year, when it crashed to the floor and shattered into a lot of pieces. She was heartbroken and ran upstairs dramatically when I said we couldn't buy another one. Ruby felt really bad for her and came over for hugs. Then she noticed the top of the ornament which was still in tact and she wanted to make her a new ornament out of a plastic baggie filled with water (so random). I suggested that she instead make one out of the Sculpey and stick the top on it so it could be a real keepsake. She was thrilled and did such a great job!

Here's the one that is like Alice's, only obviously this is Ruby's. You can tell I didn't pick these out until a few days before Christmas when there weren't many options. Just the font alone totally turns me off.

Ruby with the new and WAY improved ornament...

Ringing in the New Year with the Reynolds...

I think this was our third annual New Year celebration with the Reynolds. In the past, we have had a family slumber party at our house. Plans were all set for more of the same this year, but then my mom offered to take the kids so we could do something fun...

Of course there is no passing that up! Arrangements were made for all 7 of our collective kids to be with grandparents, and we had a nice, quiet dinner at Sommer and Ben's house followed by games, Brian Regan and the ball dropping on TV. Happy New YEAR!

The next morning after we slept in and had breakfast, we got the kids from the grandparents and met up at an ice skating rink. I think we were there a good three hours, and those kids skated their little hearts out. My kids asked for several days following the fun if we could go that day...ummmmmm...a little expensive for a daily outing, but we'll go again soon.

After the skating, we stopped for pizza and there were a few really tired kids (and adults). I know I slept on the way home (for a change)! Here's Ruby and Wyatt, it's so fun when they get together...they have been friends since before Ruby could walk!

Eden, Wyatt, Ruby, Alice and Kesley...

Anyway, I really think we are onto something good with these New Year's plans...thanks mom and dad!!!