Libby's birthday

Happy Birthday, Libby! You are brave and daring. You are smart and creative. You love to draw and play make believe games. You are talented in so many areas but especially shine in your reading abilities and creative areas - like piano and art. You are such a fun person to be around - you are always organizing games and taking care of everyone - your brother and sister barely know what to do with themselves when you're not around to entertain us all! We have had a fun year. Here are some of my favourite quotes from you this year!

Mom:"Cadie, get back to bed!"

Libby: "Mommy, is it more important to sleep or to be nice to your kids?"

Libby: "MMmm, I hope they have a snackateria here!"

Libby: "These eggs are too slobbery"

Libby:"Whaaahhh" (real tears)

Daddy:"Where does it hurt?"

Libby:"Nowhere" (while sobbing)

Daddy: "Then why are you crying?"

Libby: "I don't even know"

Mom: "If you clean up all your toys we can bake cookies together!"

Libby: "I appreciate your cookies, Mom, but I appreciate playing with my toys even more."

While playing a pitch game on the piano

Mom: "Wow, you are getting every single note right - are you cheating?"

Libby "heehee, YES! I've played these notes before!"

(she wasn't cheating)

Libby: "Cadie, please be quiet, I'm trying to sleep!"

Cadie "No!"

Libby: "Cadie! Come over here so I can give you a hit!"

Libby got a stamp at ballet class if she had good behaviour.

Mom: "No stamp today?"

Libby: "I just couldn't listen to my teacher because of all the ear wax in my ears."

Mom: "Guess what's for dinner?"

Libby: "COOKIES!!! HOOORAY!!!"

Mom: "Uhhh, no... actually..."

Libby: "I think I'm allergic to poo."

Mom: "no, you're really not."

Libby "YES I am, I cough everytime I smell it!"

After spinning around and around

Libby: "OH NO! The TV is falling!! Quick!!! GRAB IT!!"

Mom: "If you don't clean up your toys I am taking away your computer time."

Libby: "If you make me clean my toys I'm taking away your scriptures!"

Mom: "?Why did you bite me!?"

Libby: "Oh that. That was just your punishment for saying no to me."

Here is a picture of you after I found you hiding behind the chair in the piano room cutting your own hair with my sewing scissors. I evened it out before this picture - I should have taken a before and after shot...

Yes, despite all these quotes, you are usually a sweet, loving, responsible girl who is learning how to be obedient!

You also had a great 6th birthday party.

You decided months ago that you wanted a beach party. When we got to the final planning stage and you realized that we couldn't actually GO to the REAL beach you were devastated so I improvised and brought the beach to our house.

Here are your beach sandal invitations:

You had a cute sandcastle cakeand decorated sandals to give out in your goodie bags. You put leis on your friends when they arrived and then the main event - swimming in our bedroom.

Oh if you only knew how stressful this was for Daddy, you'd appreciate how much we love you!

Here are the cupcakes for you to bring to your class for your birthday:

We were also lucky enough to have family over for dinner and presents and games on your actual birthday, which was so much fun, too!

We love you so much, Libby!

cadie's almost birthday

Cadie! I can't believe you are almost four! You've been waiting to be four for so long now because you always want to be as big and as old as your older sister! Sweet Cadie, you are my darling girl. A few days ago you and your siblings were eating pudding. You are so observant. You noticed that I wasn't eating any. You are so generous and kind. You then offered me some of your chocolate pudding even though I know that would have been a big sacrifice for you! Ever since you were a baby and started smiling you have been so kind to people - always looking to make others happy. You are also super smart and such a hard worker - already starting to learn how to read and you are amazing on the piano! Your favorite song to play these days is "gallop pony."

You also have a goofy side to you - you like to make people laugh! You are friendly and will often single people out in a crowd who most need your smile. You chat it up with complete strangers and always tell everyone that they are beautiful. I don't think Heavenly Father could have sent me a sweeter child! I love you, happy birthday!

Here's your monkey cake for your jungle safari party.

Here are your cupcakes to bring to joy school on your birthday.

Cadie quotes throughout the year:

(at trail appliances)

"WOW, look at all those laundriers"

(at YW opening exercises - right after the prayer)

"Yay, now do you get the snack?"

mom: "what snack?"

Cadie:"you know, the bread and the water?"

(almost everyday)

"Mommy, tell me a story about when I was a little girl!"

We were at my parents house one day and a cheerleader who was also there randomly did a crazy back flip twist thing. Everyone gasped and said "wow" - except Cadie. She calmly took center stage (middle of the room) and said "now watch ME!" She closed her eyes and jumped about an inch off the ground. Everyone clapped and said "wow" for her, too.

"But Mommy! I only pushed him really gentle!"

(in her sleep)

"Owwww, I just bumped into a car!"

"I'm so mad at her!" (after she peed down the vent in Libby's room)

(at the grocery store, helping me pick out some brown eggs for breakfast)

"Look mommy, those chickens must have laid chocolate eggs!"

Cadie: "I don't want to snuggle next to Libby."

mom: "why?"

Cadie: "Her's stinky."

Mom: "that's not a kind thing to say, you need to apologize to Libby"

Cadie: "No. Her's stinky like a camel."

Mom:" How would even know??"

Cadie: "Tha's what a camel smells like. Like Libby"

Libby:" cut, cut, cut. There mom, I cut off your head."

Mom: "What! Now I can't even play with you anymore?"

Cadie: "Sure you can, you just hafto close your eyes and be dead while we play."

Cadie: "i want mine in a bowl."

Mom: "what do you say?"

Cadie: "Do you want a piece of me?"

Libby: "When I grow up I want to have 6 kids. NO, 8! NO, 18!

Cadie: "When I grow up I want to have kids in my tummy, too! Only I want mine to be dinosaur babies!"

actual conversation between them: Cadie: "Shooshwa"

Libby: "Yes, that's where the barns live."

Cadie: "No, that's Crabnobia."

Libby: "Oh, right."

(after she wet the bed in the middle of the night)

"but, but I don't even remember going in the ocean?"

"MMm, I love windchives!"

"when is it my turn on the bahcuter?"

(when startled)

"oh, mommy! I thought you were a little peacock for a second there!"

Mom: "Time to clean up the basement!"

Cadie: "But MOM, it's pitch-boring!"

this and that

Another long over due post with nothing BIG to write about but so many fun things. The kids are getting big. Especially David - he's talking quite a bit more now but it's still pretty hard to understand him. He always does the cutest "yeah!" when you understand what he's trying to say though!

The girls got to have friends sleep over. Here they are watching movies with popcorn.

Here they are not sleeping.

We've had fun in the snow making snow men, snow angels and skating - I can't believe how much my kids love skating!

We've also been doing a lot of dog-sitting lately. Tigger came prancing downstairs in one of Libby's dresses and my necklace one afternoon and I can honestly say I didn't even blink an eye!

The girls threw their own new years eve party this year - invited friends over last minute and had a great time getting rid of extra christmas candy!

Corey's grandma made them identical shirts for christmas-every time they wear them they get all goofy and dance around copying each other!

Stay posted - I'll be doing birthday posts in a few days! :)

mish-mash

this post is all over the place. I want to remember so many fun things! We are getting ready for christmas in a few days - the kids have worked hard around the house to earn money to buy each other presents this year and are really excited about their gifts.

We had 2 lovely Christmas recitals for my piano students - I never got any pictures of Cadie - or Cadie and Libby playing their duet which i would have loved, but I got this cute photo of 5 of my sweet little girls enjoying treats after playing so beautifully.

We have done the usual christmas stuff this year:

gingerbread house (thanks to a sweet friend of mine) christmas lights drive, decorating the tree (which gets re-done almost every day - they LOVE taking the ornaments off, playing with them and then putting them back on - usually with a few creative additions - I have found everything from hair elastics to toilet paper rolls adorning our tree) carolling, nativity play and christmas movies. We have also been enjoying too many sweets this year!

I took pictures of the kids on produce day because I have given up on making dinner on those days - the kids are so excited to see all the fresh fruit and vegetables in the bin I can't resist saying "go nuts" - here they are devouring raw zucchini, tomatoes, grapes and apples. Yummy dinner...

Funny things - we had our christmas program in church and corey wasn't attending that day so the kids had to sit with another family while I played the piano - I came back after the program to overhear a young woman telling Cadie "It's time for nursery. Shall we?" (offering her hand to go) Cadie replied haughtily: "My name is NOT Shallwe, it's Cadie." Another not so funny experience that Libby will one day kill me for putting on here - after baths most nights my kids get hyper. I give them baths as part of their bedtime routine to help calm them down and relax before bed. I should give up. Bath time is their favourite part of the day. I can't remember how it started but they play this silly game with each other after they get out of the tub - I wrap them in a towel and they immediately plop on the floor all curled up under the towel - the next kid out of the tub of course jumps onto the towel covered lump and sings "my boogie, my boogie, my boogie woogie woogie" (or if you're david - just the tune with random syllables) while bouncing on top of the poor lump. For some reason they love it - even the lumpy child. They even take turns! Anyway, a few nights ago Cadie was the lump and Libby was the singer/bouncer/boogie person. I was wrestling David out of the tub when I overheard Libby laughingly telling Cadie she's going to toot on her. Cadie does the anticipated shriek and wriggle which only eggs Libby on so she's holding down a laughing Cadie in order to toot on her when the laughter turns to dead silence - I turn around and Libby has accidentally POOPED on my floor. I was so not happy. I'm sure some day I'll laugh. She thought it was a toot. Turned out to be a poop. Some days I don't know why I get up in the morning! :)

straight to bed!

Well, for a few years now I have been acutely aware that my "task-oriented" tendencies need to be tempered for me to become a better mom. And I have been trying my very best to be more "relationship-oriented." I realized today I still have a long way to go! Every monday I try to clean the house - I find if I can get it all done then the rest of the week I can relax and focus more on building relationships rather than all of the little tasks that pile up that I have such a hard time NOT doing. So I bribed Libby today - I told her I would do her chores for her if she took care of David and Cadie for me so I could go into work mode and just get stuff done. She happily accepted. (she loves being the boss of cadie and david) So shortly after lunch I sent them upstairs to play while I mopped and vacuumed. I was pleasantly surprised at the occasional happy sound from the kids playing so well together upstairs when I went to clean my bathroom. Libby had stripped Cadie and David, bathed them (including shampooing their hair - there were remnants in Cadie's) gotten clean PJ's and books out for them, and was telling them she would read TWO bedtime stories to them for having such good behaviour. Haha, it's always a struggle for me to get them to bed but my five year old managed to do a great job of it - at one o'clock in the afternoon none-the-less! I went with it and let them stay in their PJ's for the rest of the day - despite strange looks from my piano students. We even had breakfast food for dinner!

Honest Cadie

We had a great time in Lethbridge this weekend - even though this is what I woke up to:

As Cadie was crawling into bed with us she shoved me aside and casually mentioned that she likes Daddy better than me. I gave her my saddest look and she conceded: "Oh don't worry Mommy, I'm sure Libby will like you."

broken or destroyed

So I want to make a list of everything Liberty has broken in the last month or so:

3 bottles of shampoo (on David's head or down the drain)

the curtain rod (playing superman)

her new school shoes (crayons)

laptop keys (?)

ipod dock ( extremely energetic freeze dance)

2 separate dents in new floor (both times bringing in large rocks from outside)

and the list goes on (selective memory loss) but her lack of remorse is very concerning. I talked with Corey about ways to get her to understand what she is doing as new things are destroyed daily around here. I like to use behaviour related consequences as time outs don't

usually work with her. I thought and thought and finally came up with a plan: I would give David and Cadie some money to buy a toy at the dollar store right

in front of her and tell them they earned this privilege for having good behaviour and taking good care of their things. She of course wouldn't get a new toy. And would have to watch them get one. Corey thought this was cruel and his exact words were: "she's going to resent you for the rest of your life." Nevertheless, I pushed forward with my plan, hoping to get through to her. Here's what happened: I gave the other two their loonies and talked to her in the dollar store, fully anticipating tears and a tantrum. Instead, she got a surprised look on her face and exclaimed: "Oh! I can't wait to see what David and Cadie buy! This is so exciting!" And you'd think by now I'd know not to leave her alone like ever, but I was actually so surprised to come downstairs after a diaper change to find this:

(what else are blue markers for anyway?)

So I decided to forgo all plans of housework I had for the rest of the day and we just played. And it was sooo wonderful. We turned a duvet cover into a dinosaur cave - all of us crawled in through the zipper and realized it was the perfect place to eat and

sleep and hide from the bigger dinosaurs. That somehow morphed into "beauty parlour" and I almost walked out the door for the evening session of stake conference looking like this!

And my bathroom that was going to get cleaned today ended up looking like this:

But my wise mother in law once told me that when she looks back, she wished she had spent less time cleaning and more time enjoying her kids when they were little, so I'm trying my best to learn from her wisdom!