Cuteness!

Our neighbor found this baby butterfly and so we took the opportunity to take some cute pictures!

Too bad I don't have an amazing camera that can really focus in on the details.  Too bad Emma looks like she's half asleep, but I think they are cute anyway.

Arabic to French to English

A couple of days ago Jenna was playing with the computer and managed to somehow translate my blog into Arabic.  I could not figure out what to do because not only did I not even recognize the alphabet but it seemed to be reading and writing right to left and possibly bottom to top.  I couldn't even find the settings button let alone figure out how to translate everything back.  I finally posted a question on the Blogger help page and a kind person counted and wrote down how many buttons over and how many languages down on the drop down list.  Unfortunately, the drop down list is in alphabetical order and in Arabic, evidently English doesn't start with E!  Through trial and error I was finally able to get it translated into French and with my little knowledge of French and my knowledge of Spanish I was able to finally get everything back to English!
What I can't figure out was how she managed to translate it so thoroughly that I had to change it on the dashboard as well as in the settings!  Who knew my 3 year old was more tech-savvy than I am?

Our beautiful Jenna

I have been very negligent in getting Jenna's pictures taken so we went this morning. I still wish we had managed to capture that big amazing smile that I love.

Tender moment...

A couple of weeks ago, Paul and Jenna were snuggled up on our bed talking. Paul had named each member of the family by name, asking if "they love Jenna" to which she answered yes. Then she wanted to ask him questions so she went through each member of the family by name asking if he loved them. Then with all the seriousness a two year old can muster, she stroked his face with her little hand, looked deeply into his eyes and asked, "Daddy, do you love your armpits?"

Santa's cookies Ho Ho Ho

Tonight, we tested the snickerdoodles we made for Santa. Then we set out Santa's cookies on the special Santa platter and milk in his special Christmas glass on the coffee table, lovingly placed the Christmas Quilt on the couch for him to snuggle in and set off to brush teeth and jump quickly into bed. I was in the boys' room reading Polar Express and Paul was brushing Emma's teeth. Suddenly Paul came in and informed me that Jenna had been dunking Santa's cookies in Santa's milk and frantically eating them. When he asked, "What are you doing?" she answered with a grin, "I eating Santa's cookies, ho ho ho!"

My baby turned two yesterday!

I can't believe Jenna is two already. In the past I have not been a particularly sentimental person when it come to my children, but there really is something about your last. Jenna is our sunshine. As you can see by her pictures, she is almost always happy and smiling. She is also our little monkey and climbs on everything. She has already had stitches once and has had many other close calls. She is very sensitive to others' feelings and is quick to try to comfort them. Jenna is so much a part of our family dynamics and her personality has blessed us all. We love her very much! Happy Birthday baby!

We had a fun little party. Of course, Jenna chose "chocolack" cake! She such an addict already. She was so excited to open her presents. She loved the fun toys, rocking chair, quilt form Grandma and Grandpa B, and "If you Take a Mouse to the Movies" complete with large stuffed mouse from Grandma and Grandpa Huntington. What a fun evening focused on our little one.

DIY project - Jenna's chair

Over at A Soft Place to Land, Kimba is having a great giveaway so I decided to enter with the project I am trying to finish up for Jenna's b-day. I bought an unfinished chair at Michaels with my 50% off coupon (gotta love those). Sorry, didn't take a before picture. I sanded, and sanded, and sanded! They say they are pre-sanded but don't believe them. They have not been sanded nearly enough. I painted 2 coats of white and then began painting the back slats and seat slats with pink. This is what it looks like so far:

The blue tape is still on because I had plans to paint the arm rests and the rest of the seat slats yellow (the girls' room is yellow) and then mod podge some butterflies and or flowers on the back and maybe the seat. Now that I look at it, I wonder if I should forgo the yellow and just put on the pictures. What do you think? Would the yellow be too much?

Update: Here is the final look. I printed the butterflies on vellum to give them a little depth. I think it turned out cute even if the yellow is a little brighter than I wanted.

I am looking forward to seeing all the great things everyone else is doing over at the DIY party. I love to see the new things Kimba is doing and my "wanna do" craft link list is full of her ideas! Check it out!

Update 2: She loves the chair!

Living small and trying to laugh

I have decided that I need some therapy. I checked out on my blogging and find that I have been missing the humor and perspective that comes from writing about it all. We are so grateful to my parents for being willing to subject themselves and their home to our family. In the last few weeks we have had many incidents that have required tolerance and patience.

Not long after we moved in, our goldfish had found a place on the wide windowsill in the kids' bedroom. Yes, you read that right, bedroom, singular. All four kids are in one room. If that isn't a recipe for mayhem and disaster, I don't know what is. Anyway, back to this particular fateful day, the fishbowl... and Jenna. I was in the shower in my race against the toddler. Its always the challenge of the morning to shower before Jenna loses interest in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (Hot dog , hot dog, hot diggety dog!) I had just stepped out of the shower when Jordan burst in yelling "Emergency!" Assuming it was an emergency of the potty type, I was about to lecture about privacy and respect, when he babbled something about fish flopping on the floor. Grabbing a robe I sprinted to the room amidst yelling and beheld Christian with one goldfish in hand, another flopping feebly on the carpet and much to my dismay, an entire fishowl full of water soaking into the carpet. Jenna had dumped the entire bowl onto the carpet. We rescued the fish, I managed to get dressed, and then we began the 2 day process of cleaning up the carpet. It required pulling up the carpet, a carpet cleaner, a large fan, and plenty of rags! Luckily I had changed the water the day before so the smell was minimal.

My parents were very understanding and I found new gratitude for the fact that they have many stories of the things my brothers and sisters did. Of course, none of the stories were about me because I was the model child! Needless to say, the fishbowl has found a new home on the computer desk, out of toddler reach, and Thunder and Lightning seem happy and content. So all was well in our little abode for at least 2 or 3 minutes.

Stay tuned for our next assault on home and happiness....

Some cuteness amid the chaos

One of Emma's primary teachers is getting married and this will be her last Sunday. The other teacher had such a cute idea! They are having a little wedding shower for her at the end of class and Emma was asked to fill out this sheet. I had to save a copy for her, for when she gets married. (Unfortunately it seems to download blue?)

First piggy tails! So cute!

Photos from our staycation

Christian Playing Chess at the Treehouse Museum. He is really very good!



Jordan the musician! Playing insturments at Treehouse museum.



Our Pretty Princesses playing dress up. One of our princesses tends to be a little rough and tumble. Can you tell which one?



We went the the Festival of the American West up in Wellsville. It was a blast!!




We loved holding the ducks and bunnies! And being held by THE bunny himself!



Holding turtles....


and snakes... Oh my!
(I have tried 4 times to get this picture turned right. You'll just have to look at it sideways!)

The highlight of the day was the Mutton Busting!! We cheered, screamed, and laughed as both Christian and Jordan gave it a try.



Jordan Christian

We did a couple of other things that I don't have photos for. We went to Fat Catz in Ogden on the same day as the Treehouse museum. Unfortunately, Jenna had an enourmous diaper blowout in the restaurant we went to for lunch and my mind forgot we even had a camera. I was focused on the smell that didn't leave us for the rest of the day. Anyway, after lunch and clean up, we went upstairs and watched some people do the indoor skydiving. It looked like a blast but a little pricey for this trip. Paul had the chance to do it with a work group and said it was great! Then, Paul and the kids had fun in the arcade while Jenna and I went to the toddler play area.
On another day, we also drove down to Sandy in order to see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D at the IMAX. The kids loved it! Paul and I thought it was great too.

Over all our staycation was a success! We were able to spend a lot of quality time as a family with lower stress on us and our wallet. We would recommend it to anyone with more limited time and resources.

Don't get me wrong, we will be pulling off a couple of big trips this year as well.

Jenna has been indoctrinated

Jenna has officially become a seafood lovin' Bruderer. As many of you know, Paul is violently allergic to any bone fish but not crustaceans or other seafood without a skeleton. We eat these kinds often and in large quantities. Our kids love crab, shrimp, calamari, lobster, scallops, etc. Jordan and Emma are a little pickier but Christian loves it all.

As part of our stay-cation, we went to see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D out at Jordan Commons and so decided to go to one of our favorite restaurants, Joe's Crab Shack. We couldn't resist ordering some calamari because we like it so much. Jenna LOVED it! She loved it so much she would throw her head back and Mmmmm very loudly every time we would give her some. She also loves crab and shrimp too! Jordan said he liked it until we told him is was squid. He said he still liked it but... didn''t want any more. Emma didn't even want the plate that the calamari was sitting on! :)

Jenna's at it again!

This afternoon, Jenna fell against the side of the coffee table and lost a chunk out of her bottom lip. I took her into the doctor and after much trauma for her and for me, they put in one stitch so that it will heal better and cleaner.

She was very upset during the process but after a short nap and a popsicle, was as happy as ever. Jenna is such a mild tempered, cheerful child! She amazes me and is a real blessing to our family.
We were discussing the fact that we have four children and this is only the second time we have had to have stitches and no broken bones! That's pretty amazing. Not that we haven't had accidents, like this one, and this one, and many more that I have yet to write about such as when Christian decided to get out of the tub by himself, stood on the edge and slipped splitting his lip open. Or when Jordan got his pinky slammed in the door at the church and popped the nail right out of the nail bed. Or, or, or....

I guess we better be knocking on wood!!

Jenna's following in big sister's shoe-prints

Jenna is taking after her big sister. She spends all day putting on everyone's shoes and walking around in them. She usually spends the majority of the day with one of Emma's sparkly silver shoes on. I guess one is sufficient and Emma's are small enough to still be able to walk around. (Emma wears a size 6 and Jenna wears about 4½). I am wondering how these girls ended up with the shoe gene, of which I am completely devoid. I guess mine is just dormant. I even tried to talk Paul into finding me some shoes the other day because the ones I have, either have holes or the soles are coming off! How pathetic is that?
Anyway, this little hobby of Jenna's is really messing with our mornings. She tends to put on whatever shoe she comes upon, and then leaves it somewhere else in the house, often the most unlikely places. Many mornings, as the carpool sits honking in the driveway, the whole family is frantically searching for one misplaced shoe.

Last Sunday was a Jenna day...

Mommy: "Jenna, lets go have a bath" and then the phone rang!

Yes, you guessed it! That is one of Christian's hat looms. Don't know how she got it on but we couldn't get it off without a generous amount of conditioner and pulling off her superglue scab (dang it!)!

Needless to say, she's stuck with a scar and we were late for church!

Fellow rednecks, go green!

You know you're a "green" redneck when you create snowpants for your toddler from recyclable plastic bags! supplies:

• 1 large plastic shopping bag


• duct tape (I used clear packing tape but on reflection, duct tape would be more in keeping with the redneck persona.)


• 2 quart sized bags

Cut up the middle of the bag from the bottom and use duct tape to create an inside seam for the legs. Cut holes for their feet. If your kid doesn't have boots, then use the duct tape to stick the small bags on the bottom, sticking the "legs" inside.

To keep them warm, put them in long underwear with or without bum flap (non-redneck translation - thermals) . Aint she a cute little stinker?then sweats, (shoes if you aint got boots) and finally, your most beautifulest, home-crafted snow pants using the handles over the shoulders as straps. Top with a coat and mittens and they're ready to play.

Jenna really wanted to play outside with the other kids and we are trying to hold out until Christmas hoping Santa will bring new snow clothes, so.... I got creative. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the ziploc bags would be so slippery. She ended up face down in the snow and that was the end of her snow day!