Everyday Stuff - Jan 2013 Edition

We enjoyed a little more time with Suz and her family before they left at the beginning
of January. It was sad to say goodbye :-(

Why shovel snow when you can rake it, sweep it, or scoop it up with a dust pan?
I guess there are some perks to the snow being so powdery.

Our ward playgroup went to Krispy Kreme recently, and the kids loved watching the doughnuts
being made.   And did you know they give you free doughnuts if you receive the official tour?
Sweet.

When Ben took Cat to the store to choose some new snow boots, these are the ones she liked
best.  Thankfully, she'd changed her mind by the time we returned to purchase the boots.

Jack really doesn't like the automatic carwash.  He completely freaked out last time I took him through a
car wash, but that was over a year ago.  I decided to try again, and this time he handled it much better.  But
he asks me frequently now if this is the day we'll go through the car wash again.  No, buddy.  We'll wait a
while.  And maybe I'll even go when you're not in the car.

Inside out bathing suit, stretchy pants, snow boots, Cat's hat, Cat's sunglasses,
and Ben's lanyard from a recent conference.

Oh, how he loves tomatoes.  We started seeing the yellow ones in the stores lately
and, wow, does he devour them.

For FHE a few weeks ago, I told the kids we needed to fill up these boxes with toys because we have too many toys.
Jack and Cat did a great job and surprised me with how many things they were willing to get rid of.  (The brownies waiting in the kitchen for our FHE treat might have given them extra incentive to fill the boxes?)  Eliza, however,
wanted to take things out of the boxes because they were hers.  I love how she ended up wearing Jack's camo pajamas (still not sure how that happened..?) with Cat's Dorothy costume, and filling up Cat's cowgirl purse with random
toys that would otherwise have been given away.

Eliza really wanted to help me shovel snow last week. 

The fact that we were all sans coats is a testament to how cold it had been.  On this day, 

the temperature was a balmy 36 (or so).

Jack's Monster Truck Extravaganza

Encore performance.

While sorting some donations to the MBASA clothing exchange, I came across this Realtree
brand baby sleeper.  I emailed the picture to Ben and asked him (jokingly!) if we should keep it for little man,
and he replied "Definitely!" I haven't asked him if he was joking, because I'm not sure I
want to know the answer ;-)  I put it in the "give away" pile...  Besides, what if the baby falls
asleep in the forest and we never found him again??

This is another item I found while sorting the donations for the clothing exchange. It was exactly
Eliza's size but my honest reaction when I first saw it was, "Wow. That's the ugliest jacket I've ever
seen."  But Ben didn't think it was too bad, and it began to grow on me a little.  Cat saw it accidentally
one day and just oohed and awed over it, so I had to give it to Eliza.  And she LOVES it.  Really, she could
use a new jacket anyway, and it has faux fur, so why in the world did I hesitate?  It's from a quality children's
store, so now I'm starting to question my own taste in fashion... I guess I'm just a little too conservative for
the rest of my family.

Jack wearing one of his snow boots and one of Cat's brown boots.
I didn't notice until we arrived at Target.
And then he posed.
Love this kid.

I guess Eliza has been paying attention to Cat's cup-stacking.

FHE - Cat told us the story of Nephi getting the brass plates from Laban, then we acted it out.
Cat assigned Eliza to be Sariah, but Eliza really thought Nephi (Jack) needed help killing

Laban (Ben).  I like when she wrapped the sword around Ben's head.

Then Eliza took it upon herself to be Zoram.  She is quite versatile.

I frequently need to wake Eliza up from her nap to go pick Jack and Cat up from school.
But she doesn't usually fall asleep again in the car...

Krispy Kreme, again!  When I took the little ones to KK for playgroup, I saw that they
give kids a free doughnut for each A (or equivalent) on their report card.  So, Cat treated us to
doughnuts one Saturday. Thanks, Cat!  Oh, and congrats on getting such good grades, too.

Eliza was kind enough to share her snow with Daddy.

I was taking pictures of some sewing projects one day and Eliza requested that
I photograph her teddy bear.

:-) 

Monkey Trap

It's hard to tell how implicating the evidence in this picture is, but this is what I found on
the couch after Cat reported that Jack and Eliza had opened a package of pepperonis
and were eating them... So much for double pepperoni pizza that night.

We had 3 siblings over to play one Saturday and the older 2 were getting a bit rambunctious with my older 2.  I decided to let them have their fun, but to see if the younger girls, both age 2,  wanted to get away from the noise and craziness.  I pulled everything out of the bottom of Jack's closet, closed the blinds, and plugged a lamp in nearby.  Then I gave them each a few books to look at while sitting in the closet with the lamp on.  They loved it!  And they enjoyed the quiet until the big kids discovered them about 10 minutes later and took over the hide out.  Oh well.  Better than nothing, right?

Cat was practicing her spelling by tracing the words in a cookie sheet of cornmeal.
Eliza wanted a turn when Cat was finished and I really should have taken a picture,
because her outfit was so messy it had to stay in the kitchen when Eliza went to the bath. 

Poser.

At Costco, buying a couple of the large plastic containers of tomatoes wasn't enough.
He wanted the entire box.

One day Eliza managed to put on a Build-a-Bear jacket. 

It reminded me of the "Fat Guy in a Little Coat" scene from Tommy Boy,

so I showed her the clip on YouTube.  Here is Eliza's version.