vitamins, attics, and old clothes

So having 3 kids at home all day, every day there are bound to be a few adventures here and there. Honestly, I wish I could have my eyes on each of them at every single moment so I make sure that nothing bad happens, but that is just too impossible. So I do my best and quite often I fall short. Like when I was feeding Brynn a few weeks ago (Molly was at dance so she couldn't help) and Stockton snuck upstairs. Calling him back was futile since he doesn't listen to me anyway. When Brynn was done I went up to check on him. I found him with an empty jar of Flintstones gummy vitamins. He had opened it somehow and finished them off...I don't know how many he ate but I would guess close to 50. Poison control said he would be fine. And other than an upset tummy (he threw up once) he was fine. Thankfully.

Another adventure: one night after we had put the kids to bed, Justin got in the attic for something. I needed something as well and since I wasn't sure exactly which bin it was in I climbed up to look for it. As soon as I was in (Justin still being there) the door shut behind me. "Please say that we can open that door from in here," I said to Justin. "Nope." Uh-oh. I started panicking, especially when we heard Stockton get up and start wandering around the house. Who knows what that kid could be getting in to. The attic was cold, too. We worked on getting it open for 5 minutes or so with no luck. Justin says, "Oh I have my phone and it gets reception." So we called a neighbor to help. They were on their way home from the store, they said, and would come over as soon as they got home. Since my fingers are skinnier I kept sticking them under the door. I could only lift to door an inch or so and we couldn't find anything to put under it to pry it open. After a few more minutes, though, we found a ribbon that did the trick. We were out!! Stockton hadn't done too much damage. Thankfully.

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It's been fun pulling out Molly's baby clothes for Brynn. Some things seem like they were hardly worn and now we get to use them again with Brynn. Like this pink coat...

Molly

Dec 2006

2 1/2 months old

Brynn

Nov 2011

8 1/2 months old

Molly was never big, but Brynn is just enough smaller that she is fitting in all of Molly's old clothes, despite the fact that they were born in opposite seasons.

November

I guess I better get November and Thanksgiving posted before Christmas...

Nov. 1-
We made paper bag turkeys. Aren't they cute?

We liked them so much that we made a big one and added "thankful feathers" throughout the month.

Nov. 11-

Veteran's Day. Justin had the day off so we went to the Bean Museum.

Nov. 14-

We were in Ogden for a funeral. Lucky us-not about the funeral, those are never lucky-my family had planned a pizza and bowling night so we got to go!

Nov. 20-

We've never paid Molly money for doing chores. Then we went to Disneyland and she picked out a Jasmine piggy bank. For a while she did all sorts of {extra} chores and I gave her a coin each time. Truthfully, it was hard for her to part with 10% of that hard-earned money, but she made the right decision and handed her envelope over to the bishop at tithing settlement.

Nov. 24-

Thanksgiving! Such a great holiday that is often overlooked because of the one that follows. We were with the Goodriches this year, although we didn't go to Vernal/Tridell for the first time ever. I will admit, it was nice not being at the church although that was the only time we ever saw some of Justin's cousins. Grandma and Grandpa had a new toy-a parachute. Can you see how much Stockton is enjoying it? He loved running underneath it.

Luke and Stockton.

More family pics

The original six.

+ four

+ ten

More of those ten. Lucky them to have such awesome grandparents!

And here is our little family.

Fall photos

Sometimes being a mom is tough. Some days are long, exhausting, and frustrating. Does anyone else have those days, or is it just me? Most days are good, though, with the happy times far outnumbering the crazy times. Or maybe I'm just learning to accept, embrace even, the craziness. I am learning and growing...stretching....so much these days. Life is good and I often find myself counting my blessings. My list always begins with 4 certain people...

Molly, 5 years

Stockton, 2 years

Brynn, 7 months

There were so many cute ones it was hard to choose which to post!!

Molly's a pro at pictures now. She loved posing and kept asking the photographer to take more pictures. Stockton was a pain in the you-know-what. He wasn't going to let anyone "pose" him so all pictures of him are pretty candid. I think the photographer did an awesome job at capturing his personality. Some of his pictures make me laugh out loud. Brynn was good but a little shy and she did not like wearing that hat.

We tried to get some of all three of them but that was a joke! It was at the very end and everyone was done. Stockton was being a complete goof.

There were a few other good ones that belong in a "random" category...

And since Justin was there to help me, we decided to try for a family picture. This is the best one we got.

This was just the beginning. We got together with my family for more pictures the week after these were taken. I haven't seen them yet but they should be coming soon!