February Cell Phone Summary...

Let the record be clear that for some bizarre reason, Chris takes all the kids to Costco almost every SATURDAY! Who goes to Costco on Saturday?! Crazy people with no children who must work during every other open business hour the store offers...and my husband and four children. On one such trip, the girls got to playing in this house and came home with one of their own! It is meant for the outdoors but they assembled it in our bonus room...yep! It's pretty fun, I have to admit. I got a text from Chris saying how much fun the girls were having and how cute they were with it and how it was only $$$. Hahahaha. How could I refuse!?

Leo in the cart. 

That face!

At piano lessons, Betsey wrote all these names on the board! I was impressed! She's in an independent learning program for Preschool. It's called life, and she is excelling!

So much fun to be had at piano while the older two have their private lesson.

I love these two. They look the most like each other. 

Alice copying Betsey who fell asleep in the back of Chris' truck. 

These gates kept Penny on one side of the house...for minutes...until she realized she fits through the slats! What?

I love this daddy-Alice cuddle!

Betsey likes to do my hair and I like it too. Win-win! She likes to take pictures of her creations.

Not bad!

A hopeless book I picked up at Goodwill that talked about like five hundred things you need to do before you bring your puppy home and a crud ton of things to do in the first seconds, minutes, hours and days. Too bad she was four months old when I got the book. She's pretty much a lost cause.

We had some really stormy wind for a few days and one morning we woke up to this!

Penny really is a great fit personality-wise for our family. We just need to get through the training part.

My Bets Bets with her bunches of patterns and colors and mismatched-ness. I love it.

Alice also does my hair...this is a pretty bun!

More buns.

My adoreable cousin, Sydney left on her mission! I didn't get a bunch of pics but I did get this one of some of my peeps sitting around chatting at the Biddle home. They have the coolest homemade home ever. Ever. EVER.

One weekend, Chris's brother, Mike, flew into town to go to a concert with Chris (Presidents of the United States of America). Mike joined us up at the Biddle's before we had to take him to the airport and say "goodbye". Chris is holding our sweet nephew, Davis.

In January, Alice joined a Lego League team because she is really natural at building things and seeing how they go together. She loves puzzles, Lincoln Logs, blocks and now Legos. It is her favorite activity right now, as they are in a level where they build small machines and some of the machines have remotes and can be controlled using the computer. The curriculum is really scientific and it is cool all the stuff she comes away with after they meet.

We got a new waffle maker in one of the storage units. It's a fancy, Villaware brand and it makes perfect, thin, heart waffles. Mmmmmmm.

So one Sunday, I was running late and needed to get to church so the kids could at least get seated. So I woke Leo, knowing he needed a new diaper and grabbed one to change him at church and by the time I got there, just on the drive over his diaper reached maximum saturation and this is what I found when I pulled him out of the car. Luckily, Chris was available to help me and he held him the rest of church, pants-free.

Betsey gave a talk in Primary. She didn't want me to help her or write it out so we just practiced a bunch of times, I'd feed her a prompt and she'd say her own answer. So once we got up there, I'd say the prompt, like, "What can we do to show Heavenly Father we love him?" and Betsey was nervous and could only repeat after me. It was totally predictable and not a big deal at all, so I wound up feeding her like four sentences and she did a great job. So cute. So excited to sit up front! Look at those socks. Gosh I love her! (Leisha, she had her pack pack from you full of her treasures...see it on the floor?)

Once upon a time, the chickens started laying again...and there were a dozen eggs in the coop when we finally checked!

We got the throw ups. It was actually just Betsey but it was not fun.

Ruby in front of our Christmas card door...I didn't take them down until March! Anyway, I couldn't belive that she was invited to the YW program, New Beginnings because she will be 12 this year and will leave primary and enter the YW program for 12-18 year olds at church. Sigh. She is getting so big!

Haircuts...

 We have hair problems at our house. We aren't the daily groomers when it comes to hair. Nope. We sometimes go a day or two between brushings which is a major problem since my kids have bed head just from a short ride in the car. I always like their hair shorter (Ruby's hair is now long enough to be worn long, though she NEVER does anything with it and never allows me to do anything to it either), but it is a tough sell since every little girl wants long hair. This particular morning while I did the torturous hair brushing while Betsey screamed, I told her how shorter hair would mean less knots and she got on board. It was a drop everything and run to the nearest hair-cutting shop situation so that is what we did.

Before. 

 During...look at that adorable group of fans posing for a pic in the background! I can't get enough of this foursome! 

 The lady did some horrible flipped curls on Betsey's hair, but I didn't stop her, she was so pleased.

 Leo hanging out.

 Betsey AFTER. I love that happy face and that short hair really is easier to brush...we are both happy!

 Alice always wants to grow her hair and I always manage to talk her into choosing to cut her hair. Phew, because she didn't get the Hamm hair genes. She has thin, sparse hair and it doesn't look good long. 

 After...what a beauty! 

Funny guy...

(Anne, I sat down to get more of my committed words in my novel but had to write this instead...does it count?)

I don't remember when or why it came up, but this summer when we were camping with our old schools, Leisha said that I was a lucky one because I married someone with a sense of humor. Turns out I am an auditory learner and sometimes I don't really understand something until I either hear it or say it out loud. Since she said that, I've thought about how much laughing with Chris means to me. I have always known he is funny, of course...and I believe if when I was single I was asked to rank the typical qualities I look for in a match, I would have likely ranked sense of humor as numero uno. So I shouldn't have really learned anything different from that remark, but it refreshed gratitude in me at that moment for that quality/talent Chris possesses. 

One of my favorite things to laugh about is when Chris pretends he is the expert at something. He never backs down, ever. He is very clever in his ability to, for example, speak fluent Spanish. Hypothetical example follows:

"Mi casa es su casa." 
What are you talking about?
I just said, "I want some dinner" in Spanish.
"That isn't how you say that."
"It is how I say it, how do you say it?" 
"Quiero cenar." 
"Well that is one way to say that." or even funnier, "that is what I said!" 

You'd be surprised how long this can go on. He can go all night on three Spanish phrases pretending like he's a native Mexican. The other day he was relying on Tae Kwon Do Japanese counting to convince me he is pretty much Japanese. I am convinced. He can count to ten...and he can say, "Domo arigato," and I'm sure it doesn't have anything to do with the song by Styx.

The same mock cockiness applies to EVERYTHING else in the whole world. Sometimes he isn't even trying to be funny, but it is funny. Like when he decided in five minutes at Lowes he was going to start a garden in mid-JUNE. Now, I don't know much about gardening, but I do know that you don't start a tomato, lettuce, carrot, corn (yes, corn!!), onion, beet, cucumber and radish garden in mid-June in a grow box that you have spent 7 years burdening the contained weeds with Round-up spray. Undaunted, he and the girls marveled over how tall the corn was getting in spite of weeks without water and most of the other plants already giving up the ghost. He banked on that corn coming up clear into October when it was a good three feet tall. I thought it was pretty endearing and hilarious. Whenever I would try and point out that maybe they had started too late, he is quick to remind me that I know nothing and he knows everything. Now it is February and he is already talking about this summer's garden grandeur but I am unconvinced that he has done any actual learning still...as it turns out gardens don't grow from charm alone. 

I think the hardest I laughed in a very long time was really recently when Chris claimed he was pretty much a professional dog trainer. I just laughed alone here in my office for a good three minutes trying to write this. Have you ever met Stone!? Stone! The dog that Chris always claims is perfectly behaved and trained but literally never moved an inch unless it was due to his own conviction to do so? Stone, the dog that eventually Chris decided was hard of hearing because he would lolly gag around the neighborhood with us shouting after him and completely ignore us? Stone, the dog that pulled as if in a tug of war match the entire time he was ever on leash? Stone, yes. The fruit of Chris' dog training labors. Yes. It was funny because he was serious and I couldn't hardly eek out my rebuttal but he knew he was ridiculous and eventually he laughed with me. The next day, I asked, "What was that you claimed to be a pro at yesterday?" He pretended he didn't know to what I referred. Then he quietly said, "That I am an expert dog trainer." And there I went again. So funny. Can't get enough of that idea! Since then I have noticed as we progressively head farther down the path of Penny owning our lives that Chris is now referring to his successful dog training efforts proven by his childhood dog, Scooter. The question is, did Chris actually single handedly train Scooter? If you ask him he did...and also, can an experience training a dog when you are eight possibly equal relevant experience thirty years later?

I remind Chris every so often that he doesn't have to feel stuck in his career choice. I'll say, "We can live in an apartment or with my parents or in a trailer and I can work part time and you can do anything...you want to build chicken coops or install finish carpentry or answer questions about anything in any department at Lowes (he definitely knows WAY more than the people who work in any of the Lowes departments and he hates it if they try and tell him otherwise)." He always appreciates the potential freedom but he's always liked more than hated his jobs and so it goes. So anyway, he is obsessed with a show, "Storage Wars" where people bid on storage units that are past due on rent payments at an auction. They walk with the contents of the lockers and of course score things that are super impressive and worth a ton of money. Anyway, so the other night after he had unloaded his fourth unit into our garage and had picked through it all and was amped about the stuff he was going to sell, I said, "Maybe you can be a thrift store owner one day!" I really am not above that at all, but I was joking. 100%. Not serious. He goes, "I think that's it. That is what I want to do." I laughed and laughed, though I know he wasn't joking. 

The other night, I had seen a commercial for a show on MTV about perfect matches. People underwent some intense interviews and personality and compatibility testing and they find their perfect match. So we were lying in bed and I said, "I wonder what would happen if we took a compatibility test--" I didn't even finish my sentence and Chris said, "Done. Not. Compatible." Bwahahahahaha. AMEN! He kept going with it and I just kept laughing and agreeing. 

We are two truly incompatible people in love...and we even can be pretty convincingly not in love if you ask those who spend much time around us. 

Anyway, if he weren't super hot and hilarious I'd have nothing to go on. Thank goodness for those two things! Happy Valentine's Day!

Candid Daddy Daughter Dance pics...

Here is my crew after they got all ready for the dance. I love Betsey with her cocked head...that means she feels super (thoopah) pretty. Ruby has such beautiful hair, and she let me add some curls. She likes to wear it back pretty much 100% of the time, but it is so pretty down. I love that Alice got her hair cut because I think her hair is best at just this length. These pictures don't do the cut justice, but she's so beautiful! I let Betsey wear her Easter dress because it was a special night. I love the dress, it is by Kate Quinn, I think her Plum Bunny line. Love it so much!!

The dress twirls.

The dance was really well decorated and put together. There were 450 or so people there this year! Crazy! So fun!!

February snow...

We had a great snowfall followed by a fast snow melt (I love that part) in February. The girls were so excited! We made good use of the snow, made a few snowmen in various stages of completion...one snowman though even had a nose and a scarf and arms.

Alice liked to be the snowman head. 

Chris took the girls sledding before church on the day that the snow melted away. I have to say that when Chris takes the kids to do fun things and I stay behind with Leo, I always ask him to take pics. HE ALWAYS DOES. I am so grateful!

Nathan's Baptism...

My nephew, Nathan, the second of Jeff and Mary's children and just three months younger than Alice, chose to be baptized when he turned eight. It was a nice day and very special to be with him at his baptism! Here is a pic of their whole family...with another bun in the oven due mid-March...and the best news is, it is a brother for Nathan!

Daddy Daughter Valentine's Dance...

I love Daddy Daughter dances!! Last year I spearheaded the whole dance, so this year it was awesome to be only in charge of the photography...and I wasn't alone in that responsibility...Jen Wilcox did more than me and between the two of us and our gear we had two booths for photos set up this year so that the line for photos would move faster. The older two and Chris had a great time at the event, but Betsey was a little stink for the second year running. Chris found me and ditched her like he did last year and she was happier sitting on a chair by me working the photo booth than she was on the dance floor. Maybe next year she'll get into it.

Even though she isn't that fun to dance with, she certainly IS fun to take pictures of! I love her little face and her totally Pierce "straight line smile". I love her dimple, though she has to smile right for it to really show. I love her lellow hair and her beautiful KQO dress. I love that when she feels pretty, she rocks her hips dramatically back and forth when she walks and she runs to show daddy how pretty she is. I don't know what to do with all the cuteness she exhibits all day, every day. It's too much.

Ruby and Kiley Benner have been friends since six months. I guess that is too early to really be friends with someone, but they have known each other that long and they were in nursery together and they did preschool together and to this day she is the first name mentioned if I ask Ruby who her best friend is. I am grateful for their connection, Kiley is a very sweet, kind and sincere girl and my only wish would be that they could spend more time together. It is hard to coordinate schedules with public schooled friends. Anyway, so these two spent time at the dance together and I couldn't be happier that I got a few good pics of them out of the night.

My girls. My man. Second year in a row that I wished we'd dedicated more prep to our own dance experience and not just the general dance experience. Some girls had fancy hair and corsages matching their dad's boutineer's and some dad's wore tuxes and some sisters matched and I think all of those things make for a really special night like no other. I'd like to do that for my girls one year. As it has been for two years, I barely run in the door from setting up in time to brush their hair and be sure they are wearing a dress that at least fits them and isn't noticeably dirty. Chris walked out of the closet in jeans, and when I tried to steer him fancier, it just wasn't worth it. I do love this picture though, I love what Chris wrote on the heart. It's a good thing that Betsey is naughty because something has to balance out the cuteness. This was Ruby's last year of the dance age and I can't believe how close in size she and Alice are! Look at them! They wear the same size clothing half the time.

Daddy loves his girls and is so good to them (unless he is brushing their hair). They are lucky as can be!

Superbowl Win for the Seahawks...

 The Seahawks managed to have such a great season that even the anti-sports enthusiast got into the season. I watched probably five games toward the end of the season and actually shouted at the TV a few times and anxiously watched the clock awaiting the late afternoon games. It was fun and the kids had fun with it too. So they wound up playing against the Broncos in the Superbowl and it was CRAZY. I am serious when I say that there were days when I would see nothing but people clothed in some kind of Hawks gear. SERIOUSLY. It was like every person that I encountered for a month was a huge fan. Anyway, so I didn't and wouldn't drop a bunch of money on shirts, but I decided the night before the Superbowl that my kids needed to have something. So after a few trial and errors (Leo's shirt has a backward hawk) I got it right and using freezer paper stencil methods I made shirts for all the kids. I was pretty pinteresty, right? I know! So fun! $4 Walmart T-shirt makeovers!

 We had the Mondrut's over to watch the game and we had enough food to feed a crowd four times our size...and you can see it was the food champions eat. Anyway, it was tasty and fun and WE WON! Like, we almost didn't have an opponent we beat the Broncos so thoroughly. It was close to a shut out at 43 to 8. I know. I didn't want a close game, at that point, with all the state wearing nothing but blue and green for weeks, we just needed a win. And win we did.

I didn't get a pic of the kids in their shirts until the next morning...I love them!!!!