Halloween 2015

Friends, family, random Internet people..... I present to you:

Halloween 2015

In no particular order

Megan - Preteen Girl with Attitude who doesn't like Halloween

Kate - Minnie Mouse

William - Mickey Mouse

Travis - Goofy

Jared - Frankenstein's Monster

Not pictured: Anna - Tired Mom

William woke up from his nap after I had done Jared's hair and makeup. It scared him so badly he cried for about 20 minutes and refused to put on his costume. But once we got to the church and he saw all of the other kids were dressed up (and that people were handing out candy) he calmed down.

Jared thought it was the coolest thing that our Bishop was dressed as Frankenstein's Monster as well. 

Kate kept doing the "I Love You" sign, giving people hugs, and blowing kisses after she got candy.  

Kate insisted on posing with our friend Lauryn (dressed as Mary Poppins) but before I could take a picture, William wormed his way in to the grouping. Little Photo Bomber!

Percy and Frankenstein took a break from Candy Collecting to pose for a photo.

These two are actually from Kate's preschool Halloween party. How did she get so cute?

Classic Crazyface Katelyn. 

Valentine's Day 2014 Post #2

The kids had a great Valentine's Day too.

Megan and Jared both made Valentines for their classmates and friends.

And Kate and William got in the spirit by being especially cute and snuggley.

The End of an Era

Today is the day that Kate gave up her pacifiers. We've been talking about it for a while, and this morning we just decided to go for it. She carried them outside and put them in the big garbage can, and in a little while the garbage men will come and take them away for ever.

She was rather nonchalant about the whole thing. No tears (At least on her part. I might have gotten a little teary-eyed. She's growing up so fast! This is one of the last links to her babyhood. Or maybe it's allergies. Yeah, it's allergies. Yup), She just tossed them in, and said, "I have a treat now, okay? I eat some meh-nem-in-ehms? (M&Ms) And watch Paw Patrol?"

Megan and Jared were also paci kids, but William hasn't ever been interested. He has been a thumb sucker from the start. Now that Kate is done with them, we are 100% paci free.

(Ask me how I feel about all this at nap time when she freaks and has a complete meltdown...)

Kate's Quilt

Okay, I just have to brag a little. It's my blog, I'm allowed to do that, right?

Okay, here goes......

I finished Kate's quilt.

..... (crickets) ......

Did you hear me? I said I FINISHED Kate's quilt. 


Yes, that's right. It is DONE! I finished it! It's bound and it's wrapped and it's on top of the entertainment center with all the other gifts. (What? Isn't that where normal people store their Christmas presents?) I am amazing, y'all. Simply amazing.

Thanks to Charlotte for teaching me to sew (okay, she taught me to sew-ish. I can't actually claim to sew...) And thanks to Jen for helping me actually quilt it. (And for the excuses to ignore our kids parent from a distance and eat ice cream.) And to Holly and Alison for not laughing (too loudly) at me when I said I was making a quilt And for the advice on how to bind it. And thanks especially to the super talented Syndee Nuckles and Angie Briggs from ScrapGirls.com for their darling scrapbooking collections Hoot and Annie and Young At Heart which I based all of the owls and mushrooms and flowers on. Scrapbooking products aren't just for scrapbooks, people. :D

Grandpa Val's Cabin and the Roberts Reunion

We went up to my dad's cabin for a reunion with my siblings while we were in Utah. Everyone had a lot of fun. I remember when my dad first bought that property. I thought he was CRAZY! But 15 years later, I'm finally seeing his vision.

 Sara is one of my favorite people on the planet. It's so cool seeing her grow up. William and Kate absolutely adore her.

I love this picture of my handsome husband. I'm glad that he got to come for part of our trip.

Travis let Jared get his hair cut in a "fauxhawk" and Jared was pretty excited to pose for the camera every time he styled it.

Absolute proof that I was there too (because you can't fake a background in Photoshop or anything, right? No really. I was there. I was! I promise!)

All the cousins loved being together. They were a wild bunch but I'm glad they got along so well.

Auntie Charlotte gave William his firsts graham cracker while we were having s'mores one evening. He hasn't been interested in eating babyfood at all, but he LOVED gumming that cracker.

 Kate loved climbing on everything in sight. And jumping off. And climbing back up. And jumping. And climbing. And jumping (I'm sure you get the picture!)

The older cousins opted to sleep out in a tent instead of in the crowded cabin. They were good sports about letting Kate help them put it up.

Rebecca, David, and Megan in the old teepee. 

Kate really had fun with the big boys. Here's Ben spinning her around while she shrieked and laughed.

And here's Josh tossing her up in the air while she shrieked and laughed.

I actually caught one of her quiet moments on camera. It only lasted a few seconds and then she was off again.

The Great Texas to Utah Migration, Part 1 (The Great Applesauce Explosion and The Bloody Tongue Biting Incident)

Warning: Long, long, long-long-looong blog post ahead.

Yesterday the kids and I flew to Utah. Four kids. And me. And a gazillion bags and backpacks and a diaper bag the size of Rhode Island. With a layover in Denver. During naptime.

Yes, I have changed my middle name to Crazy. Anna Crazy Mansfield. It seemed appropriate.

Travis took the morning off to help us to the airport. He helped us get all of our suitcases checked and our boarding passes printed and walked us to Security. And then he left. He could have gotten a boarding pass and walked us to the gate, but I was all like "No, I can handle it. I'm going to have to do it alone in Denver and in Salt Lake, so I might as well do it now too. You go on to work, honey. It'll be fine."

That's the last time I'll ever utter such stupidity. If I ever act like I can handle it all, ever ever again, y'all have permission to whack me up side the head.

So, Travis left us waiting in line at Security. Security is a lot of shuffling along, waiting in line, cross-your-eyes boredom. Until you get to the front of the line, and then it's a lot of crazy madness, trying to get everything and everyone through the various x-ray machines and scanners without holding up the line and without forgetting anything or losing anyone. We had with us: two big kids who enjoy fighting with each other (they must enjoy it or they wouldn't do it so often, right?) two backpacks, one laptop bag, with a laptop that had to be removed (or dropped by Jared...), one ginormous diaper bag, one camera bag, one carseat, one baby (who must be removed from the carseat and held while shuffling everything else down to the xray machine), one toddler with a propensity for running away, and one monkey-back-pack-leash thingy to keep her from running away. Whew! I'm getting a headache just writing all of this!

So, we get up to the front. And everyone takes off their shoes and starts helping me load things into bins. And Kate starts freaking out because she doesn't have a clue what's going on. And she isn't happy about having to get out of the stroller. Or having to take off her monkey (truth be told, I wasn't happy about that either - did I mention she likes to run away?). She's in full out tantrum mode. So I gave Megan an applesauce pouch thingy that Kate loves and told her to go stand to the side while I dealt with everything else. Um, yeah....That didn't work so well. We are forever more referring to this as The Great Applesauce Explosion of 2013. It resulted in me carrying a sticky, thrashing two year old through security. There may have been some applause when we finally left. A TSA worker may have started weeping with joy. I know there was some rubbernecking from people in other lanes - you know like when you are on the freeway and you see a gruesome wreck off to the side and you slow way down so you can stare in fascinated horror at the carnage? Yeah. It was like that.

We finally made it to our gate, about 45 minutes before boarding.We staked out a row of chairs in the corner. Kate was happy again by then and wanted to explore, so Megan took a hold of her leash (don't judge me - I used to think those toddler leashes were horrible, but after Kate, now I think they are rockin'-awesome!) and let her roam. All was peaceful for about 15 minutes. Until Kate tripped on her shoe, faceplanted on the tile, bit her tongue, and was carried back to me gushing blood.I had another clean shirt for Kate to wear, but not for Megan. She had to spend the rest of the day in a shirt covered in blood, boogers, and chewed up goldfish. She's such a good big sister. She didn't even complain.

Totally another one of those awesome rubbernecker moments, with bystanders stunned by the blood bath. Actually, everyone around us was really nice. Multiple people offered to run and get some ice or a popsicle, no one accused me of being a negligent mother.

So there you have it. That was the first leg of our journey. The actual plane ride to Denver was a a piece of cake. Megan slept, Kate slept, Jared sat across the aisle and talked some nice lady's ear off. William sat on my lap and babbled. Easy-peasy.

Little did I know that that was just the calm before the storm. Tune in next time to hear the rest of the story.

Shh - It's Kate again

Good afternoon everyone! Mom is asleep on the couch. She thinks I'm napping in my crib, but really I climbed out and am updating all of you on my recent cuteness. There's quite a lot of it, so hang on to your seats and here we go!

I have recently become quite the little fashionista. Here is a sampling of my new looks:

Tinkerbell pajamas and oversized red shoes is so in right now!

What? All the cool kids are wearing potty seats on their heads. I promise. You should try it. It's life changing.

  Every girl needs a pair of star shaped neon green sunglasses, a cape, and a tutu. Really.

Really really.

Oh, and purple bracelets. They totally round out the look, don't you think?

Aside from fashion, I have recently also gotten more interested in food. For example, did you know that ripe tomatoes, sitting on the counter waiting for mom to chop them up for dinner taste better than just about anything else? Just grab one and take a big bite. Yum! And then offer to share. It's the polite thing to do.

Eating sugar straight out of the canister is also pretty high on my list. I don't know why mom was so upset - I was using a spoon.

But best of all, cold pizza and fruit snacks is the best breakfast around. I don't know why more restaurants don't offer this combination. Mmmmmmm!

Just to show that I am not ALL about clothes and food, here are some of my current activities. I spend as much time as possible in my swing, whenever I can convince someone to push me.

 

And I like to jump off everything. Danger? I laugh in the face of danger. Bwa-ha-ha-ha!

When mom starts talking about bedtime, I run right over and fetch a pile of books to read to daddy. It's the best way to stall spend time with daddy. My current favorites are "Red Hat, Green Hat," "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," "King Bidgood's in the Bathtub," and "No David." (Yes, I know that mom said that book was banned forever from our house, but I found it and you'll never get it away from me again! Besides, even if you hide it, I've got the whole thing memorized. I don't need it to remind me to yell "BE QUIET!" during family prayer. Or "STOP THAT THIS INSTANT!" when ever someone does something that displeases me.)

Well folks, I guess that just about wraps this edition up. 'Til next time!

Katelyn out!