I heart . . .

THIS GUY!

Let me tell you a little about me . . .

I have difficulties falling asleep. It has much to do with the fact that my brain does not have an "off" switch. Also, the fact that I tend to worry about things . . . things past, things present, and even things future that may or may not actually happen. sigh.

I once had a full blown panic attack, complete with accelerated heart rate and hyperventilation, while trying to fall asleep one night, over thoughts of what in the world I would do if my mini-van plunged into a large body of water and sank. With me and my children in it. ? Where, anywhere near me, is there a large enough body of water that I could possibly plunge into? This should not be a worry of mine, yet there I was, PANICKING about it. Again, sigh.

To combat this and other such IRRATIONAL thoughts, I've taken to "pretending" myself to sleep! *cuck-oo*

This means that, to occupy my mind and not allow it to wander to such dark places, I imagine myself in a different life scenario. Now, this does not mean that I'm in any way not content with my current life situation . . . it is simply a tool I use to prevent ending up in the loony bin compliments of a wandering mind.

These "different life scenarios" often include living in New York. As a stylish, classy New York citizen (and that, my friends, just proves how far fetched these "pretending" sessions have to be! The word classy, stylish and myself are not mentioned in the same sentence under normal circumstances!) meeting other stylish, classy New Yorkers. Including, but not limited to, Isaac Mizrahi. This guy is a HOOT! I'd love to spend an evening over dinner with him. Fascinating.

I feel another good night's sleep coming on ;)

FREE . . .

or 3 !

Tomato, Tu mah toe.

a nutshell . . .

Moving Tommy and Joey to their new room means Anna and Sara

also get to make a move!

First night in the new bunkbeds.

(It was not as hard as I thought it would be to move my last baby out of a crib! Not even one single tear was shed. That's progress . . . .)

Anna turned 7 . . .teen. ;)

And, because I still have influence, it was a donut cake again!

It was SO FUN to watch her open her presents. SHE WAS THRILLED.

Completely and genuinely thrilled! With EVERYTHING!

We got her a pretty new dress, and because we can, got Sara a twinner dress!

Anna got to open both, then give the little one to Sara. And they both wanted, immediately, to wear them!

Valentine's Day:

My funny Valentine! And, quite frankly, the only really good thing about that wretched day!

Tommy's soccer team had a tournament in St. George President's Day weekend. And, OF COURSE, it was the one weekend that the weather was bad ;)

I've never been to St. George - still- and am kinda glad that the girls got to stay home!

I do intend to make it there someday, though. :)

Tommy Turned Twelve.

unbelievable.

Because T.R. was taking everyone down to my brother and sister in law's house later that day (I had the second of two weddings to do flowers for, and Tommy had a merit badge pow wow in Provo early the next morning. So dear of dears, T.R., took all the kids. And dears of dears Robert and Rachel {mostly Rachel!} hosted them all. THANK YOU, THANK YOU!)

we celebrated in the morning. This meant ICE CREAM CAKE FOR BREAKFAST!!

How cool am I? Letting my children eat ice cream cake for breakfast!!

They all informed me that they never wanted ice cream cake for breakfast again ;)

Tommy and his loot. Not pictured is the camping backpack/sleeping bag/tent combo. For scout camps. I have a child old enough to go to scout camp. NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

His favorite gift (besides the camping stuff...) was the cash!!

I do not recall giving him permission to turn 12. And it's a little upsetting.

And finally:

would you please check out the head of hair on this young lady.

I grew up with, and continue to have, the worst hair. EVER. Day after day of bad hair days.

AND LOOK WHAT SHE GOT!! I hadn't even brushed it yet in this picture!

Further proof that Heavenly Father does love us - - AND has a sense of humor!

Lately . . .

We've been up to some things - -

some things that took WAY LONGER than originally planned.

Darn you, HGTV. Darn you for making me believe that a room transformation can

happen in a reasonable amount of time.

I could've had a BABY in the time it took us to move Tommy and Joey into their new room.

((*SHUDDER*))

But now it's done - and they've officially moved in - and now on to the next room.

See ya in nine months :P

Tommy won 2nd place in the DISTRICT Science Fair!

I will refrain from inserting numerous "nerd" jokes

'cause dang, I'm kinda proud!!

and, well, let's face it. This kid's gonna be rich one day.

And momma needs a new pair of shoes! ;)

B is for bathroom . . .

I DESPISE cleaning the bathroom. (who doesn't? I know, I know.) But I think I've done it. I've come up with a solution to my current method, which is "putting it off and putting it off until it's an even more undesirable task". I've devised a plan that helps me clean the bathroom to a "T" without having to spend hours at a time... it shall henceforth be called "Cleaning by the Letters", and it goes something like this:

Monday: Mirrors

Tuesday: Toilets

Wednesday: Walls/Window

Thursday: Tub/Shower

Friday: Floors

Saturday: Sinks

Genius, right?! I haven't decided if this makes it better or worse, since my least favorite chore will now have to happen DAILY! But, I'll take ten minutes a day over hours and hours of talking myself into just doing it, and then hours of doing it!! And this way, at least PART of the bathrooms will be clean whenever my parents come over!!

The sweet life . . .

Haunted . . .

Sara likes to "revisit" Halloween.

It it not unusual to have a Spooky Green Spider costume

running around our house, filled by a cute little girl!

However - it becomes really frightening when it is, instead, your

oldest boy sausage stuffed into said costume!

(tired of simply stepping over the discarded spider skin, he decided to don it!)