Ghosts for Christmas?

So the other day we drove by this house that had just been toilet papered and so I said to Lainey, "Look at that house" and she says to me, "They have ghosts in their trees!" Later that day when we drove back by the house she says to me, "Where did the ghosts go? They took them down."

Malia's haircut...

So I realized that the writing on Malia's haircut page isn't the easiest to read...so here is what it says:
Dear SANTA,
Please bring me a new haircut to fix the one that my big sister gave me! love, malia
p.s. the sooner the better anddon’t bring my sister any presents!

Dear Malia,
Go see teacher Kris from church and she will help you out! Be a good girl and keep the scissors away from your sister! love, SANTA

Malia's haircut on Wednesday was not a planned one, it came courtesy of her sister who decided to try and cut it while I was wrestling down my 1 year old nephew who was putting toilet paper and toys down the toilet. And by the time I discovered Malia, Lainey had fled the scene and left the scissors in Malia's hands...I stayed so calm (thank you Love and Logic) took Malia to her room and then when I began to talk with her she says to me, "Lainey did it first".

We are so thankful to have our good hairstylist friend Kris who is the girls nursery teacher who came to our rescue!

Even though I wasn't too happy with Lainey, I love Malia's new haircut and I think it looks so cute on her!

Hope you are all well...this week has definitely been a lot slower than the last! Thank goodness.

To see pictures bigger...

Some of you may not be aware but if you click on the pictures they will come up bigger, just thought I would share that piece of info, in case you want to see any of my pictures better, or read what is written on the page.

A Very BUSY Week

So here is a quick update of our past week via photos....we were all so exhuasted by the time Sunday came around that everyone took NAPS at the same time, including the parents! That has never happened before!

MONDAY - went to see lights with friends for FHE

TUESDAY - made gingerbread houses

WEDNESDAY - Malia got a haircut

Friday - Helped at our old ward's Christmas party that my parents and sisters were in charge of

SATURDAY - Our ward's Christmas Party that I was in charge of...A Night in Zarahemla, lots of work, fun, and I must say it was an AWESOME night but boy am I glad it is over!

It's here!

I just heard the rain and had to let the dog into the garage. We have been hearing all week now that a huge storm is coming, I wonder if it will really live up to everything they say it's going to be. They were certainly right about the waves on Wednesday.

A huge swell came in on Wednesday and we went to the beach with about half the town, to watch the waves. We even got to see a lifeguard jump off the pier to save some "brave" or should we say "stupid" soul who thought it would be fun to try and surf in it. It was pretty cool to see the waves come one right after another and to see them so big. Apparently my brother in law even tried to brave them in an area where the surf is generally milder and "saw his life flash before him" or at least that is what I was told. Most of the pier was closed off and the waves literally were hitting the top of the pier. I have never seen them that high that I can remember. Here is a photo from that day, I need to get my mom's pictures as her's are much better. Along with all the people at the beach there were also several news stations and helicopters hoovering over the beach that morning.

She did it!

Today Lyndie took 4 steps all on her own! And I even have a witness. We were at school today and she was standing by me and I just had this feeling that she was going to do it, and very quietly I whispered to my sister, "Chels watch" and she took 4 steps before her wobbly little legs gave out on her! I am not sure I am ready for three runners, he already crawls fast enough!

I survived!

Today I watched my friend's two kids who are 3 and 1 along with my own 3! Talk about busy! I even took all 5 of them to our parent/child preschool class we go to, there was a substitute today and when I walked in she looked at me with this crazy, perplexed look on her face and said, "Are they all yours?" It was a great moment. I should have just humored the poor lady and said, "Why of course!" She was a very cool sub and brought her guitar to play while we sang. It inspired me to get mine out and call up my old neighbor and see if she could teach me to play it, I almost made the call tonight even but thought it might be too late. I don't need to know how to do anything fancy, just strum a few chords so we can sing Ensey Weensy Spider, Wheels on the Bus, BINGO, etc...together! My kids would love it! Besides it would help me sound better when I sang! Back to the 5 children they were all so good that I can't complain. They came at 6:30am and I had them until 2pm. Their mom got to go to a taping of the Ellen Show and it was one of the 12 days of Christmas Giveaway Days....lucky her, she got $1200 worth of new clothes! We played on the trampoline, went to the park after school and did no housework! Which is why I am still up! But Lainey only had one very "little" meltdown today so I am happy!

This is a picture of Maggie, the one year old, feeding Lyndie, it was so cute to watch her sharing cheerios with her. Lyndie was in heaven, although she did have a bit of a confused look on her face when she saw someone else in her chair!

Doesn't Santa come to your house on the first too?

Conversation between Justin and I the other night regarding the girls and Christmas:

Me: Well here are the things we have for the girls, that we've picked up over the year as well as the stuff you got from Shelley (a woman he was working for that gave us bags full of things that her 3 girls had outgrown)

Justin: Okay, but I really want to get the girls a trampoline.

Me: A trampoline? (with a shocked look on my face since I know there is no money for a trampoline) Uh...we don't have money for a trampoline.

Justin: Well, let's just look on craigs list, I have seen them for free.

Me: Free? Are you sure? I don't believe you, but I'll look.

At which point I get on the computer and look, and did actually see some that were free, somewhat shocked. I email about 8 people not really expecting any responses, since all the posts were over a week old and I got no responses.

But a few days later I decide to look again and a post has just been added, call after 3:30pm it says. And guess what? I was the lucky first caller!!!!

So Santa made an early stop at our house since it was just way too heavy for his sleigh, i.e. Daddy's work truck and Daddy even saw his sleigh fly over our house or at least that's what he told the girls when we were out on Saturday afternoon.

Santa left a Santa stuffed toy of himself as well as a note right inside our front door and the girls were so excited to find it. They ran all over the house looking for the "thing" he had left him and finally Lainey spotted it in the backyard. We have had so much fun on it already. Lyndie even loves to go on it with us. We've had another warm streak which makes it nice to be outside on it but they say the rain is coming this weekend which I don't mind as it come so infrequently here and the girls are at that perfect age to go for walks in the rain.

Last time it rained Lainey decided to ride her bike in the rain, I think she was a little surprised when I told her to go ahead and play in it...

Doesn't she look so grown up in this picture? Somedays I can't believe that I have an almost 4 year old...where do my days and weeks and months go? And she is such a determined child!!!We are having really serious clothes issues these days....definitely another post!

My luck doesn't stop with the trampoline, on Sunday I got an email saying that I had won the free certificate to a Love and Logic parenting seminar that I really wanted to attend that was being given away. I was so excited! And then last night I talked to the man that is presenting the seminar and he said we don't even have to pay the difference so that Justin can come too!

Lyndie has just about got the whole walking thing down! She stands on her own now and holds onto furniture and gets wherever she wants to be.

Malia has been honing in on her mothering skills lately, oh how she loves her baby dolls. I love to watch her play with them. The other night she got out one of Lyndie's bottles for them and some of Lyndie's food, at least she said it was for her babies...I think she ate it instead. My poor daughter thinks that every store is a thrift store....does that tell you where we spend our time and buy things at....the other day when we were there she found a baby and a stroller and proceed to push it around the whole store trying to convince me that that she needed them. When I told her we already had a stroller and baby at home she said to me, "But not this color stroller and not this baby."

I have stayed up much later than I planned...I need to get to sleep before my sleeping baby wakes me up!