Crazy Busy

It's that time of year again. I am officially in my "crazy busy" phase of the holidays. I have a list of projects and activities that absolutely must happen before midnight Christmas Eve. That is less than 10 days from today - eight days to be exact!!! The holidays just wouldn't be the holidays if there wasn't so much to do. And somehow - even though it seems impossible right now - it will all get done, because it always does...somehow.

I wish I had more time to blog these days, because there has been a lot to blog about. I am going to try to briefly write about a few of the happenings in the Smiley world. Here it goes -

Thanks to Aaron, Brian and I were able to go to Body Worlds free of charge! It was awesome!!! I can't say enough about it. I would HIGHLY recommend going, you won't be disappointed. It is totally and completely worth the $22 - yes we would have paid if we hadn't been lucky enough to score free tickets. Go. Seriously, go.

The Utes STOMPED BYU with a 48-24 win!! WOOHOO! Great game. Great party.

Thanksgiving is hands down my #1 favorite day of the entire year. Why do I love this holiday so much you ask? Well, because it is a simple holiday. It is not commercialized like so many other holidays. You don't have to go to a bunch of Thanksgiving parties. You don't have to spend a lot of $. You don't have to buy costumes. You don't have to run around all day to different events. It is all about spending time with your family, eating good food, and counting your blessings. Plus, it smells fantastic! It was a great day and I have so much to be grateful for. I am truly blessed. Life is good. No, life is wonderful.

I finally went to see Twilight with my sister-in-law Stacey. We may have been the last Twilight fans to see the movie;) Thanks to all the negative reviews that I had heard/read before hand, I had very low expectations. Low expectations are great because you are never disappointed. Turns out, I loved it! The only negative thing I have to say - Edward. He's growing on me, but still. With all the "Edward" talk, the other characters have been overlooked. There were some pretty great picks, like Jacob - perfect! They nailed him. Mike Newton was a good pick too.

Karl & Paula hosted another great annual Lifferth family Christmas party. I love my family. The only problem with having such a large family is that I never get to visit with everyone - there are just too many bodies. But, I wouldn't have it any other way. Santa made a surprise visit - Ashlyn and Trent were not amused. Maybe next year.

We went to the Festival of Trees. It was crazy and crowded, but it was fun. My favorite part? The glass blown tree - beautiful.

I finished my first semester of school!! One down...many more to go. But the first step is always the hardest, and now that I have jumped in, I know that I can and WILL finish this time. I haven't ever before been as excited and dedicated to my schooling as I am at this point in my life - it makes me happy.

Brian and I decided that every year at Christmastime, we will take our kids to the movies and go all out with popcorn, drinks, candy, the works. So, we took Ashlyn (Trent opted out) to see Madagascar 2. We had the entire theatre to ourselves. Cute flick. Ashlyn had a great time. Mission accomplished.

We had our annual No-Kids-Allowed party with my parents and siblings. It was so incredibly quiet. So quiet in fact that Brian took the liberty of pounding on the piano keys to remind us how noisy it usually is with nine kids running around. We very much enjoyed the peaceful dinner and uninterupted games. It was great.

Brian and I also decided to take our little family out to dinner every year at Christmastime. This year we decided to go to the Mayan, which turned out to be a perfect choice. Ashlyn was enthraled with the atmosphere, she got a kick out of the divers, and she actually ate 3/4 of her dinner. Success! If you haven't been to the Mayan in awhile, they have changed the menu and show - both are an improvement.

And last but not least, we filled up our car last night. It was completely empty. I never imagined I'd see these numbers again. The picture speaks for itself -

Happy Holidays everyone!!

Backfired

I walked into the bathroom today to find Ashlyn rapidly unrolling the toilet paper. "Ashlyn! What are you doing?!" To which she replied, "Take a picture of me Mommy!" Crap.

Pretty Please?

Dear Professors,

I would like to be excused from taking my final exams. I have after all, gotten A's on all my exams and homework thus far. It seems only fair that I be rewarded for my good behavior and dedication. Couldn't you just take the average of my four previous exams? Please? Pretty please? I have a LOT to do before the 25th of this month and would hate to spend another week studying. Really.

Thank you for the consideration.

-Jamie

Following Suit

So, I'm gonna go ahead and join the "private" bandwagon. I have actually thought about it a lot. And it's not necessarily that I think some creepy guy is going to stalk my blog and cause harm to my family. It's that I don't like the idea of people from my past who I have no contact with anymore, keeping up with my life through my blog and not knowing it. And no, I don't think I (or my blog) is so popular that there are a bunch of people out there keeping up with my comings and goings. But, you never know. I would just hate to run into someone from high school or an old co-worker, someone who I haven't seen or talked to in years, and have them begin to tell me all about my life. So, I am just going to put a stop to that possibility. If you happen to be one of "those" people, now is your chance to come clean and let me know. I really don't mind if people are looking at my blog, I just want to know who is. Plus, putting a stop to any potential creepy stalkers is a good thing too.

So, there you go. I will be going private on December 20th. Leave me a comment with your email (comments will, of course, be blocked), or email me @ jamerlou@gmail.com. Have a great day :)

Belle-A-Roo

Ashlyn was born with quite the personality. Seriously. She is such a smart and funny girl, and she constantly keeps us laughing. Here are a few things she has said and done in the past few months:

One day I told Ashlyn that her cousin Madi was coming over the next day. Ashlyn was thrilled with the news and replied, "Oh! Madi is my very favorite friend. She is soooo strong."

After a long day of working in the yard, Brian came inside and said, "Man, I am sore!" To which Ashlyn responded, "You not sore Daddy, you just havin' a bad day."

Ashlyn loves movies, and she is always doing and saying things that she has picked up from her favorite flicks. A couple examples:

• One day, I noticed that the back of Ashlyn's neck and shirt was all wet and brown - chocolate milk. Huh? How did it get back there? Later, I saw her take her sippy cup, take a drink and then she shook out a few drops in one hand and proceeded to rub it all over the back of her neck. Well, that's weird. And then it dawned on me - she picked up the habit from Spirit. There is a scene in the movie where the Army general takes a swig from his canteen, then dumps some water in his hand and rubs the back of his neck. It is amazing what kids will notice and mimic.
  
• Driving in the car one day, Ashlyn is pretty quite and then asks, "Daddy, are you my conscience?" (Finding Nemo)
  

Ashlyn, being a typical kid, loves cereal. The other day as Brian was pouring her a bowl, he had apparently given her too much. She exclaimed, "WHOA! Easy man!"

Ashlyn loves to call her daddy when he is at work. One day, when she was on the phone with her dad, he asked her what she was doing and she replied, "Just hangin' with mommy."

After running some errands one afternoon, we arrived home and Ashlyn was quite tired and kept insisting that I carry her up the stairs, because, "It's too hard for me."

When Ashlyn noticed Trent crawling towards her room one day, she panicked, ran past him and slammed the door shut. When I asked why he couldn't go into her room she said, "Because he's dangerous!"

And my personal favorite - Up until now, I havn't been too private with my kids. Well, that has changed. When I got out of the shower the other day, Ashlyn came into the bathroom and gave me quizzical look, cocked her head to the side, paused for a moment, and then said, "You are...interesting." Okay then!

Sometimes it's hard to believe she is only 2 1/2. I love my girl!

Zoomania

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!

Trent really was a happy guy for his birthday celebration. The problem was that he had a late nap and had just woken up right before the party started, so he was a little sensitive at first. But after a few minutes, and some hugs and kisses, he was his normal happy self.

We started off the party by having the kids make paper sack elephant puppets and playing a bean bag toss game.

Then we had dinner - pizza, salad, and fruit. I used a white table cloth and put down strips of black crepe paper (zebra stripes) and had a bucket of peanuts on the table as well.

After dinner we played the classic game of eating donuts off a string. We called it "giraffe stretch" because the kids had to stretch their necks like a giraffe to reach the donuts.

And then it was on to presents and Trent got SPOILED!

I love Trent's expression in this picture -

Watch out! There were some wild animals hanging around.

I made lion cupcakes for the guests and a monkey cake for Trenters.

Trent did NOT disappoint when it came to having his cake and eating it too! He really gave us quite a good show. The cake was not at all recognizable by the time he was finished with it.


The kids all got bags of "ZOO food" which included: Monkey Poo (a.k.a. whoppers), Elephant Snax (a.k.a. circus peanuts), Gator Grub (a.k.a. goldfish crackers), and a box of animal crackers. And I made these favors out of Trent's baby food jars for the adults -

Thanks so much to everyone for coming to celebrate Trent's first year! We appreciate all the great gifts, which were greatly needed. Now Trent will be the best-dressed kid on the block with the best toys! And also a very special thanks to Monica for taking all the great photos. I didn't want to have to worry about taking pics during the party, so I asked Monica to do it for me and she did a GREAT job!

Lucky Day

Today is Trent's 1st Birthday! To commemorate this momentous occasion, I decided to let Trent do something extra special:





I love the look of hesitation in his eyes when he turns to look at me. He is definitely wondering why I am not telling him "no" like a do multiple times a day. The only problem with letting him do this today is that he is going to wonder why I am telling him "no" again tomorrow.

We have a fun "zoo party" planned for tonight with all of Trents' grandparents, cousins, uncles and aunts - except for Stacey, and she will be greatly missed. I will write all about the party later.

I love you Trent and can NOT believe how fast one year can pass by!

All Grown Up

I gave Trent his second 1st haircut last night. I say second, because I guess his first "official" haircut was when we shaved off his tail. But, since I actually had to cut hair off his entire head and not just a patch in the back, I'd say this actually counts as his first haircut.

Before:

During (he was not amused):

And then he'd had enough:

After:

Why does giving a baby a haircut make them suddenly look so old?
Goodbye baby, hello toddler:

Halloween 2008

FEATURING:

One rough, tough biker babe -

And, the cutest scarecrow EVER!! -

Happy Haunting :)

Never A Dull Moment

Life with a (almost) one-year-old and a two-year-old can be interesting. Case in point: my day today.

Some days just don't go as planned and today was a prime example. The plan was to make sugar cookies with Ashlyn and take them to Brian's workplace. Turns out, Ashlyn wasn't really in the mood to bake this morning. This might not have been a bad thing, since she tends to slow things down a bit. She frosted ONE cookie and she was done.

I finished the cookies, cleaned up a bit and was about to put the kids in a bath when I made a startling discovery. Trent had locked, or rather, had barricaded himself in the bathroom! He was just in the kitchen with me two minutes before, how did this happen?

Now, if you are confused as to what I mean by "barricaded", let me draw you a mental picture. Trent had gone into the bathroom, closed the door, and opened a drawer, making it impossible for me to open the door from the outside. Got it?

My first course of action was to try to get Trent to close the drawer. That didn't go over very well. He's 11 1/2 months and doesn't follow directions. But, boy did I try. After a few times of trying calmly, I started getting desperate and began yelling, "TRENT, CLOSE THE DRAWER!" This alerted Ashlyn and she came a runnin'. She began repeating everything I said and did. Yelling only made matters worse, because Trent didn't understand why mommy was getting angry, and he began to cry. Great.

The second course of action was to get a wire hanger, bend it into and "L", wedge it under the door, and try to close the drawer. After trying that a couple times and getting NOWHERE, I called Brian.

Me: Um, Trent is locked in the bathroom.
Brian: So, just pick the lock.
Me: No, you don't understand, he is in the bathroom with the door closed and the drawer open.
Brian: Oh, that's not good. Get a wire hanger and-
Me: I'm already doing that.

After giving me a few pointers, I tell Brian I will try some more and call him back. Poor Trent just doesn't understand why instead of rescuing him, I am shoving wire hangers at him. Then I call Aaron since he now lives 2 minutes away, and tell him that I could really use his help. I explain the situation and he says he will be right over. Aaron gives the hanger-under-the-door method a couple tries and we quickly realize that is not going to work. I call Brian again and tell him to come home.

The third course of action is to try to get into the bathroom through the window. So, we pull the ladder out and Aaron takes apart the window. Trent is crying even harder by now and I am beginging to worry that he has somehow hurt himself. I don't keep any cleaners in the bathroom, so I know he is not ingesting anything harmful, but I am worried that he has hit his head, or poked himself in the eye with a bobby pin, or somehow cut himself.

As soon as Aaron gets the window open and says, "Hey Trent buddy", Trent immediately calms down and stops crying. Aaron thinks the whole thing is pretty humorous and snaps a photo, for posterity.

Notice all the hangers? That was Ashlyn's attempt at helping.

By the time Aaron saves the day and gets through the window, Trent had been in the bathroom for 1 1/2 hours, and had been crying for at least an hour! Poor guy. He quickly recovered once he was held and smothered with hugs and kisses.

Brian arrived just after Trent was rescued. After thanking Aaron for coming to my aid, and giving Trent a few more kisses, he took the cookies and headed back to work.

Here are my unsuccessful tools -

Aaron putting the window back together -

Next on our home improvement list: child locks on the bathroom drawers. Today does not need to be repeated, EVER!

Slackerville

I have been seriously slacking in the blogging department lately. And I feel as though I should apologize for not keeping up with the comings and goings of my fellow bloggers. I am afraid that school has taken a nasty hold on any free time I used to have, and I am therefore, just not as able to keep up with my favorite blogs like I used to. So, sorry everyone. I will try to do better, but I’m not making any promises. With that being said, I hope you enjoy a few new posts from me as I try to play catch-up.

Have You Heard The News?

I regret to inform you – unless you already heard – that Mother’s Cookie Co. has declared bankruptcy and has closed its doors for good. So, so, so very sad. What is this world going to do without the infamous Circus Animal cookies? It just doesn’t seem right that my kids will grow up without the frosted shortbread animal-shaped cookies with sprinkles on top. Sigh. We paid homage to the great cookie company tonight by indulging. Good bye Circus Animals.

Sitter Swap

My siblings and I have started a babysitting/date night swap. We each suffer through one night of chaos in exchange for three nights of peace. With the rising cost of babysitters, it is a great way to save some cash and still spend one-on-one time with your spouse.

It was our turn to have all the kids on Friday, and although it was a bit hectic for me and Brian, the kids had a blast. Since the weather was nice, they were able to run around outside for awhile before it got dark. Then we had dinner, read Halloween books, made a pumpkin man, watched the classic “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”, and made these cute marshmallow jack-o-lanterns:

If you want to make them, here's how: Take one large marshmallow and put it on a stick. Melt 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips with 1/4 teaspoon oil and dye orange. Take a green miniature marshmallow and roll it between thumb and fingers for form a stem. Roll marshmallow in orange chocolate and place stem on top. Lay pumpkin on wax paper and add the face using miniature chocolate chips. Refrigerate to set. It is super easy and the kids had a lot of fun making them and consuming them :)

Farm Country

Brian and I recently took the kids to the Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point and a good time was had by all.

• Price of 2 adult admissions = $7.00
• Price of 2 under two admissions = FREE
• Price of ice cream cones afterward = $3.74
• Total for 3 hours of fun = $10.74

Can't beat that! Ashlyn and Trent both had such a great time. It was so fun to watch them and see their genuine excitement, especially Trent since he was seeing some of the animals for the first time. Here are some pics:

Trent's expressions were priceless - good thing I caught a few on camera.

Thanksgiving dinner anyone?

Or is it Turducken you crave?