The Browny Bunch

Today after the girls picked up their room, I went in and did my version of cleaning and organizing. I got their wardrobes and toy boxes looking great. I think I took out Chloe's trash can to empty it 5 (or maybe more) times! Was I this bad when I was a kid? Anyway, it made me realize that this would be the perfect day to post a new word, along with it's definition...

NOUGATOCITY: A heightened yet fleeting state of accomplishment that makes you realize how unbelievably unmotivated you normally are.

(Brad found this inside the wrapper of a Snickers bar several weeks ago and it has been on our fridge ever since. I love it!)

Why do I get so upset when sleep schedules are disrupted???? I know why! Because it messes EVERYTHING up!!!

Aaron woke up this morning just ahead of 5 a.m. and of course, so did Kyle. Ugh! I had some errands planned for today. They are now postponed due to crazy nap schedules and grumpy (really grumpy) 3 year-olds.

Kyle was supposed to go to preschool. But he had a meltdown when our friend came to pick him up. I debated taking him late (I needed to feed Aaron and dry my hair still) but realized he'd probably throw another fit if I tried to drop him off. So here we are at home instead. I had really been looking forward to an hour and a half of just me and Aaron.

Brad had gotten up early this morning so that he could get home early. So I had been awake from the alarm when Aaron woke up, but I was also really comfortable in my bed and looking forward to another 1 1/2 hours of sleep. Brad tried to help with Aaron so that I could get Kyle to stop crying. But of course, this delayed him leaving for work. Eventually I gave up and just got up with both boys so that he could leave. Plus I was just laying there next to Kyle wide awake at this point. So while Brad can still get home earlier than normal, it won't be as early as we had hoped.

I tried to take a short nap this morning after the girls were off to school since Aaron was back in bed at that point. No such luck. Kyle came in to use my bathroom about 10 minutes in (right as I was falling asleep). Then Aaron woke up about 10 minutes after that (right as I was falling asleep again). Grrrr! Kyle went in and "played" with Aaron. That was nice of him and it worked for about another 15 minutes. But instead of just getting up and getting in the shower I stayed in bed (I think I have an addiction). Of course, the alarm went off just after I had fallen asleep for the 3rd time. I did get my shower, but Aaron was very fussy by the time I got out. And really, who can blame him? At that point he was tired of being in his crib, he REALLY needed a diaper change, and he was hungry.

After the diaper change and getting Aaron dressed, I hurried to print out a map of our neighborhood for Kyle to take to preschool. Yes, this is when I thought he would be going. So there went another 5-10 minutes down the drain.

And then, of course, we have the melt down trying to get Kyle into my friend's van. I know she understands since she has 3 kids of her own, but still! We're standing there for 5 minutes, in the snow, being late for preschool trying to convince Kyle that he can take a 2 minute ride down the road to his friend's house. All for nothing!

I know this is really all trivial stuff and that I need to be more flexible on days like this, but I just can't help feeling so frustrated about it! So that's my pity party for the day!

Sorry Ash, but I had to steal this pic from your blog. It just cracked me up!

That is, if you really like the smell of lavender scented baby powder... You can tell he knows what he did was NOT okay...After vacuuming up the mess, I realized my vacuum was totally clogged with powder. (The powder container had been about 3/4 full!) So then I proceeded to take the vacuum almost completely apart to clean it out. I knew I would need to do the filters, but it needed a more thorough job than that. I also finally got around to cleaning off the brush - it was tangled with hair and carpet. Gross!

Brad and I were sitting up here just a little while ago, enjoying the peace and quiet of a house where all the kids are in bed. Then Brad's head perks up in that way where I know he's listening to a sound that he is trying to discern. I started listening too, and soon we could both hear a faint, high-pitched howl - coming from the girls' room.

Brad goes down to investigate/tell them to be quiet and comes back up with this report...
"Sarah was in her bed singing Angels We Have Heard on High. She was singing the 'glorias' and Chloe was providing the dog accompaniment."

Don't you all have kids who sing hymns in their beds while the other pretends to be a dog howling along??

Our Primary had it's Quarterly Activity Day yesterday. We did a talent show where all the kids performed some sort of talent with their class. It was great! My favorite talent was the Sunbeam class (3-4 year olds) who were all dressed up in costumes and dress-up clothes and sang a variation of "Wheels on the Bus". They sang the normal first verse, then sang:
The dancers on the bus go dance, dance, dance (1 girl in a tutu and heels)
The princesses on the bus go spin, spin, spin (3 girls in frou frou)
The super heroes on the bus go fly, fly, fly (3 boys as Batman, Spiderman, and Buzz Lightyear and 1 too-shy boy off stage as a Storm Trooper)
The knight and dragon on the bus are strong, strong, strong (2 boys in knight and dragon)
So cute!! Kudos to Marie for thinking up such a cute idea for the kids!

As a presidency we were informed by one of our teachers that we should perform a talent as well. She was right! So we dressed up as a family (I was the baby - my kids loved my "whale spout" ponytail) and sang a song. I wrote it up to the tune of "Smiles" - you know, "If you chance to meet a frown, do not let it stay. Quickly turn it upside down and smile that frown away!" If you don't know the tune and want to hear it, click on this link: http://www.lds.org/churchmusic/detailmusicPlayer/index.html?searchlanguage=1&searchcollection=2&searchseqstart=267&searchsubseqstart=a&searchseqend=267&searchsubseqend=a

Because the theme in Primary this year is My Eternal Family, I wrote these lyrics:

"We came to earth from noble birth, to a family, Where we learn all of us have responsibilities.

In our church and in our home, we can learn what's true. Jesus Christ has paved the way and shown us what to do.

If we are baptized and good, trying hard each day, Listening to prophets who can teach us all the way.

Strengthening our fam'lies by love and service too. Going to the temple is what God wants us to do.

Fam'lies can be eternal. This we known is true. And it's what we want for each and ev'ry one of you!"

Today in Sarah's class they were experimenting with and learning about magnets. As she was telling us about it during dinner, we decided we should conduct our own experiment. Here is our control test...It is one of the magnets for our baby locks in our kitchen. It is a strong magnet.

Last year we moved the girls downstairs. It's a large room so that they could each have their own half and not feel so crowded. Shortly the move they wanted to know if they could get new bedding so that they could have their "dream" rooms. At first I was reluctant because I liked the bedding they had and I liked that it matched. But then I realized that they are getting older, needing their own space, and would love to have new rooms. We decided to let each of them pick out their favorite bedding and then the fun took off from there. Sarah wanted aqua and green dots; Chloe wanted hot pink and zebra stripes. Hmmm... sounds like an interesting combination. But it turned out really cute!

This is what their room looks like as you stand in the doorway. You can see where one side ends and the other begins...
This is Sarah's side. She even helped pick out her dark brown curtains.

We've been back from our trip to Utah for a few days now. But really, I don't feel like we're back. It is taking what feels like an eternity to get back into our routine. The Christmas decorations are still all up (that's price I pay for leaving here the day after), the washing machine is still broken, there's plenty of things I could and should be doing for Primary, the whole house needs cleaning, I STILL haven't gone grocery or Costco shopping, the list goes on and on.

The girls are back in school. Although, on Monday there was a 2 hour snow delay because of all the snow that fell Sunday afternoon/evening. Since then, we've been in nearly nonstop torrential rain. Lucky for us, we don't live where there is flooding, but elsewhere there is flooding, and avalanches, and road closures. Brad was saying that because of I-5 flooding south of us and the passes being closed to the east of us that we are stuck here. There's always Canada though! ha ha

At least we are all back in our own beds. We're all sleeping much better, especially the boys, and I am so thankful for that. I'm also thankful to Ashley who did a few loads of laundry for me today.

To those of you whose blogs I read, I've loved catching up with all that you've been doing. Sorry I haven't had time to comment on all of them! Hopefully within a week I'll feel more like I'm in the swing of things again! Bear with me...