Yada yada...

It's been a little while!
In my effort to keep an upper hand on my photography/crocheting blog, I've shamefully neglected this one.
So here's one of those updates that everyone glances at the pictures of, but no one has the time to read (I'll admit I've done that a few times...). I'll keep on her
e so it can go in our printed book at the end of the year and I'll have something for the month of October. :-)
...although I'll likely have a few more posts for this month since it'll be Halloween and all. Can't neglect an opportunity to take pictures of kids dressed up.
Starting at the bottom and working our way up, Odell is a whopping 14 months old this month and still not walking! :-) She gets her way around, though. She's learned how to crawl up and down stairs, but hasn't figured out how to turn herself around at the top of the stairs, so I still have to keep the gates up, unfortunately (no one in our house is a fan of the gates and may have actually caused more injuries to the older kids climbing over them than they would have prevented with the younger one...). She can say "Mama" and "Dada" and "Gama", but only when prompted and is not real interested in speaking much more than that. She can sign "drink" and "please" and folds her arms lightning quick when we are ready to say a prayer. She also hugs. All the time. She lays her head on my shoulder every time I pick her up and she hugs her stuffed animals whenever she runs across them. Her favorite things to do are: climb stairs, climb the kids rocking chair, stand up and rock it, then laugh when I run over to prevent her eminent death from knocking the chair over, eat food (any food, she's never rejected anything I've given her, even the raw broccoli I once ground up for her with a little water when she was littler, she ate the whole thing and had a bright green diaper the next day), grab the clean diaper from me when I'm changing her and try to put it on herself, hand toys or spoons or my cell phone or anything to me, then take it back, then hand it to me, then take it back again, and so on and so forth, open cabinet or dresser drawers within reach and empty out contents, play with metal bowls and spoons on the kitchen floor while I'm making dinner, play pikaboo on the kids' couch, climb up on the fireplace, stand up and laugh when I run over to again prevent her eminent death from falling onto the brick below her, get really mad and cry while waving hands around hysterically anytime Chloe or Linus climbs into my lap (she's got some serious lap envy) and grab my glasses off my face every time my attention is diverted from her for a millisecond. Every time. And Chloe's too, it's a regular pass-time. Cannot get enough of this girl. Follow this link to see some cute pictures I took of her for a belated smash cake photo shoot.



Linus is getting taller and thinner every time I look at him. He's still a brute, don't get me wrong, but he's starting to even out a little bit. He's been learning how to help me more around the house and has been more and more sweet and giving every day. We still have our challenging days, but the more patient I am with him and the more hugs and kisses I give him, the better it is for both of us. The other day he was playing with my fantasia flower plant, and there were some buds that were open and some that were closed. He kept wanting to squeeze and pop the buds open and pry the petals apart to open them up. He thought he was helping me, but I had to quickly stop him from killing all the buds on my plant. He asked innocently why they wouldn't open, and I said that only the sun opens them, and explained that the warmth of the sun helps those petals open up little by little until they are in full bloom. He seemed to understand that, then said sweetly, "I'm sorry I popped your flowers, Mom." Immediately this divine impression popped into my head: Linus is one of those buds. Sometimes I'm so eager and impatient for him to change and settle down and "be good" that I try to force his petals open before they're ready to bloom. But what he needs is the sun: all the love he can get from me. The more hugs and kisses and giggles and tickles I can get out of him, the more he opens up naturally. I've gotta remember to do that. He also mixes up his words all the time, and it's so gosh darn cute I don't have the heart to correct him sometimes.
"Mom, are we having hangabers for dinner?" *hamburgers*
"Mom!!! I got-for my gun in the car!!!" *forgot*
"Mom! Are we going to the fixing-car today?" *T&T tire, where we get our oil changed and they "fix" our car*
The other day he was playing with one of the neighbor kids, whose name was Liam, and he kept calling him "Woman" because he couldn't say it right. Right now he likes to play with his gun (he puts this black and white sweat-band around his middle, which serves as his gun holster, and walks around protecting the innocent ladies here in the house), he plays "Da Mommy/Daddy and da sweetie" with Chloe a lot (sweetie being the kid), he likes to draw ovals (not circles, ovals), is starting to recognize some letters and numbers, takes 45 minutes to eat any meal, loves playing soccer outside with his Daddy or uncles, and genuinely feels bad when he does something to make me sad or mad. That's a really big accomplishment for him. He also still takes a 2 hour nap every day, which keeps me sane.
I wuv my Winus.


Chloe is turning into an actual little girl. Like, no more toddler whatsoever! That makes me excited and super sad at the same time. Her hair is getting so long, which I love, but also makes her look older too. She's mastered all the letters and their sounds, finally, and is starting to sound out some words a little. Yesterday she sounded out the word "OFF" on the thermostat in the car by herself and was very excited about it. She writes letters to her cousins, with my help (that...ah, yet to have been sent, but don't tell her that...) She's also learned how to swing by herself- she loves to swing now. The other day we were in a parking lot and there was a splatter of white paint on the asphalt by my side of the car- Chloe stopped, gasped and exclaimed, "MOM, watch out!! There's a REALLY big bird poop right there!!! That bird must have been HUGE!!!" I don't know why I thought that was so funny, but I stopped and laughed for like five minutes. She loves her little sister with all of her heart and will go and play with her whenever I ask her to. She's just about the only person that can really make Odell giggle without the help of tickling. I'm starting to realize the benefits of having kids so close in age- she and Linus play so well together, and will even include Odell in sometimes, when Odell is in the right mood. She loves to play house with her toys when the little ones are down for a nap, read lots of books, have her "lessons" everyday, give hugs whenever I'm frustrated, which makes it hard for me to get mad at her ever, loves to look at Spiderman, Batman, and Star Wars books in the library (oh dear...), but also loves to play "save the princess" whenever I'm watching kids and the kids I'm watching happen to be boys (which means no competition for the lead role, she can be the damsel in distress without a fight...), asks me to go swimming every day, asks me to go camping every day (I'm thinking this is going to be a long winter for her), and is one of my best friends.

I am doing great. Really. It's the first time in my life I've actually enjoyed housework (doesn't mean I do it everyday, but I enjoy it when I do do it!). I LOVE waking up everyday to an "unplanned" day, which means we can go and do whatever we want. Lunch at the park today? Sure! Stay in while I make bread and clean the bathrooms? Why not. Run errands with Mommy and stop for a treat on the way home? Perfect. Make a fort in the living room? Sign me up. I have a general idea of what I want to get done each week and I have the freedom to do it when it fits our schedule, instead of fitting it in our schedule somewhere. Ahh...and I've been busy with my creative outlets. Super Ahhh....if you haven't already checked out my blog, Chelsea's Attic, please do and look around! Even if no one looks at it, though, I really have fun with it. And if you have any suggestions or are confused about a tutorial, or see an editing mistake, please tell me. It's a work in progress. But one that frees my soul. In short, life is good for me. Which means I should watch out because something crazier will be around the corner I'm sure.
(Like maybe a wedding for a certain family member??? *coughAMBERcough*)

Craig is...less "super ahhh..." than I am, but thriving nonetheless. He is in full throttle mode right now, but somehow it seems like this was the final push in the puzzle pieces of our lives that made everything click together- having me stay home means that he has the freedom to do whatever he needs and not worry about stressing me out anymore by piling anything else on our agenda. So we thought his schedule was pretty much maxed out when we started the semester with full time school/work, then our wards split and he got called as the new Young Men's president in our ward (which means he is in charge of the male youth at church, basically), and then his computer crashed at work and now he's spending every waking minute at work (literally, he leaves in the morning before we even have a chance to rub our sleepy eyes) going through bills and records for the last two years. So needless to say, he's busy. But we do get to see him now and again and yes, it's hard, but yes it's worth it. At least I still get to have pillow talk with him most nights, that fills my "missing hubs" cup when I need it. :-)

We love our lives. Yes we do. We love our lives, how 'bout you?
Whooot.