what da heck?

pace and i are playing a great game. i'm in the office on the computer. looking at blogs, emails, etc. pace is in the family room playing hide and seek with himself, and me. this is how we play. he hides under a cushion on the couch and calls out "where is me?". then i make a wild guess (while still sitting at the computer) as to where he might be (the pool, on the fridge, at school, to name a few). then pace says "i right here!!!" (surprise). then i say "what da heck?". if i take too long to say my part he prompts me with my lines. we've been playing for about 15 minutes. it's the best game ever. we're both happy. i think we'll play it every day.

a bunch of stuff

so i've collected enough different random pictures that i finally feel like it's worth sitting down and documenting things. i think i need to go back to posting every couple of days. it's way less strenuous.

anyway........

this is how i found liesel and pace watching a movie the other day. i'm not sure what prompted liesel to situate herself like this. at least pace looks comfy, even though he's technically not allowed to take the cushions off the couch..........

our pool is finally warm enough to swim in. well, not for me, but the kids and loren have braved it several times. i am fully waiting until it feels like bath water before i get in. we have a ways to go.
we went to tampa last weekend for liesel's dr's appointments. we decided to make a family vacation out of it, and spent the weekend doing fun things. we went to the tampa zoo, which was great. it had all these little roller coasters and rides that you could go on. we got the unlimited ride passes and the kids had a blast. it wasn't crowded at all, so they would get off a roller coaster and get right back on it. we did manage to see a few animals, too. the kids also loved playing in the water. in fact, the zoo was such a big hit that we spent all day saturday there, and then while liesel and i were at the dr's on monday, loren took the other kids back for some more fun.
on sunday, in an effort to remember that it was the sabbath (always tricky when you're stuck in a hotel), we went to honeymoon island and did some easy nature paths and stuck our feet in the gulf of mexico. a first for all of us! pace experienced some technical difficulties on the little walk--he is not a fan of sand in his shoes, and he was wearing these half-sandals-half-tennis-shoe shoes without socks. i finally made liesel give him her socks, but that still didn't work. we eventually let him go barefoot, which solved all the problems. apparently, running on rocks/sand/pine needles is better than a little sand in the shoes. we saw some great (and slimy) sea creatures.
okay, so not the most exciting post ever, but it's late, i'm tired, and i'm pregnant (almost 14 weeks). that should count for something, right?

because i just sat down for a minute to check my email

i'm going to blog. but i really don't have anything to say, now that i'm here. except that pace has turned in to a beast. all of my children do that when they are almost three. 2-year-olds are easy for me. 3-year-olds are another story. he is still cute. but the cuteness is mixed in with a lot of stinkyness. he is also learning how to be sneaky, which is actually one of the cuter parts of his stinkyness, because he always confesses. here are two of the conversations we had this week:

pace: "mom, i was in the office."

me: "okay"

pace: "with the door shut"

me: "hmmm" (this is suspicious)

pace: "i was drinking a juice box" (not allowed at 8:30 in the morning). "i was hiding."

pace: "mom, you go ahead and go upstairs. go to bed."

me: "what are you going to do?"

pace: "i just stay down here and eat lots of raisins. i be okay."

he does not like it at all if he thinks i'm mad at him. he'll say "no, mom. i not mad at you. i loves you." and then, of course, i can't be mad at him anymore. i'd say it's a pretty good thing he came with some built-in cuteness defense systems. he'd be in serious trouble otherwise. as it is, i finally set up a play pen in the living room, where he can spend his frequent stay-here-till-you-can-be-happy moments. i was tired of carrying him up to his bed.

sigh.

let's see. is there anything else i've been doing besides putting pace in time-out?

oh, yes. liesel and gwyneth and i went to see "wicked" in miami for their birthday. we got all dressed up and had such a fun night. loren spoiled us all. first, by getting us the tickets, and then by letting us buy new clothes so we could be extra fancy.

uh oh. pace just discovered i'm on the computer. time to get off.

happy st. patrick's day! are you having fun wearing green?

sometimes it's fun being a mom

i must have been in a really good mood this week because i thought that everything my kids did was super funny. for example, we were eating dinner and gretchen told us a story about when her primary teacher didn't obey her mom and she got hurt. i said something like "uh oh, i hope she learned to obey her mom after that." this is the conversation we had after that:

gretchen: "yep. like when i ran away."

me: "oh, when did you run away?"

g: "when i was 4. we lived in virginia. i still had my dora bike."

me: "did you run away on the dora bike?"

g: "yep"

me: "where was i when you ran away?"

g: "gone. daddy was home."

liesel: "i used to run away all the time."

me: "oh really?"

liesel: "yep. i kept a little bag packed."

this conversation struck me as so funny. it seems as if there's a lot of running away in my family that i had no idea about.

here's what the rest of the week looked like. nothing spectacular. i just like my kids.

pace is still in guitar-man mode. this morning as soon as the kids left for school he asked me to turn on music so he could jam. he specified which song he wanted, then said "oh, this song's cool. it's rock n' roll." did i teach him about rock n' roll? no. i did not. he has his very own guitar pick that he insists on using. sometimes he plays the guitar with one hand and a drum with the other. when loren gets home from work, he and pace jam together for a few minutes. it makes me swoon with love for my two boys. today pace asked me to jam with him. that's something i'd never been asked to do before. i took it as a great compliment.

gretchen gave the family a "how to be fancy" lesson.

i caught the kids playing play-do together. i love it.

gwyneth drafted a list of rules that she posted on the fridge:

THE RULES

WEEKDAYS

1. Get out of bed when Gwyneth wakes you up.

2. Come down only with your shoes and clothes on with your backpack.

3. Eat if the oatmeal is ready too eat, eat it. If the oatmeal is not ready to eat, help Gwyneth or Liesel with your lunch or with the dishwasher.

4. As soon as you’re done eating, you can drink your smoothie, brush your teeth, and brush your hair.

5. When everyone is done with everything then we will say prayers and leave for school.

6. Remember homework and such.

OTHER RULES

1. No yelling at pace or making him yell.

2. Pick up five things in the playroom if you hit someone on purpose.

3. Practice piano.

JOBS

WEEKDAYS

Gwyneth:

Get up, take a shower, get dressed, go down stairs, make oatmeal, make Madeline’s, Gretchen’s, and my lunch, eat the Oatmeal, then drink my smoothie, brush teeth and hair, get backpack ready for school (See rules 4 and 5).

Liesel:

Get out of bed, take a shower, get dressed, go downstairs, do the dishwasher, make lunch, make the smoothie, and eat oatmeal.

After that, brush your hair and teeth, and then get your backpack ready for school.

Madeline:

Get out of bed, get dressed (see rule 2), come down stairs (see rule 3), (see rules 4 and 5). Get your backpack ready.

Gretchen:

Get up, get dressed (see rule 2), come down stairs (see rule 3), (see rules 4and 5).

MOST IMPORTINTLY HURRY UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

this was gretchen's response:

thak you geyneth I love you I will get up before you wake me up I love you varry much I will moneday

virginia girls in florida

a little bit of virginia came to florida last week. six of my bff's (i have ALWAYS wanted to use bff in something) came to visit me. we had a delightfully wonderful time. it was just what my january needed. i seriously have the best group of friends ever. moving every couple of years would be so much better if i could just take my friends from each place with me. i have had to do a lot of shopping this week to get over my girl-time withdrawal symptoms.

here are some highlights:

we went out to dinner and down to miami for a girls' night out.

pace loved the only child with 7 women. he called my friends "the kids" and was almost as sad as i was to see them leave

beach time!

i love cute pregnant people in great hats

it was great to catch up on my beach time
sadly, pace ate my sucker lips, so i was not able to be in this picture

pace asked me if he could give this alligator a hug

the everglades

we tried to get pace to get out of the picture. didn't happen.

ellie was the only one brave enough to get in my pool. it was freezing!!! she deserves some sort of prize for this.

thanks for a great visit, girls! i miss you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

drum roll, please

my pictures are all hung up. mostly. the ones that aren't hung up have a very good excuse to be lying around un-hung because they are waiting for me to paint the bathroom that they go in. the painted-in-fake-wood-paneling bathroom. i'll tackle it next week. if i write it here, i might actually do it.

so, ANYWAY, all my pictures are hung, which is why i'm finally posting pictures of my house. i know you've been waiting. well, my mom's been waiting, even if you haven't. and my mom deserves to get whatever she wants, since she's the one who flew out here and hung most of the pictures.

i'm actually liking this house a lot. who knew? minus the faux wood bathroom, of course. i've been so busy being an unpacking-hanging-decorating-rearranging-project woman, i don't know what i used to do with myself. good thing i've got that bathroom left. i actually get a lot of crazy energy when i move and get to set up a new house. which is good, because i get to do it again in 18 months. should i cry now or save it for later?

enjoy.

oh brother. my iphoto is not working right. or maybe i'm not working it right. whatever. i'm going to have to do this in collages. sigh. this might be more stressful than actually moving.

okay.

here's the backyard:

my room:
madeline and gretchy's room; the playroom; liesel and gwyneth's room; and the entry-way
living room:
"library":
newly refinished table and kitchen:
family room:
office:
oh, here's one of the kitchen that actually worked with iphoto. i should have done a before/after photo of the kitchen. you would enjoy (mocking, laughing, and cringing at) the lovely paintings of fruit on the walls. one grouping seriously looked like cinderella's pumpkin coach. a before-picture of the table would be nice, too. in fact, the table-refinishing totally deserves its very own post. instead, let's just sum it up by saying that it took about a week too long to do and an intimate acquaintance with home depot that i could have done without. it would NEVER have gotten done if my mom hadn't been here to help me. i am pleased with the final results, though. phew.
and one of the family room, too.

general catch-up

have you ever had so much to post that you find you can't post any of it? that's what's been happening with me. more and more events and cute/interesting/fun things kept happening and blogging about it got more and more overwhelming. which is silly, of course, since first of all, i like blogging, and second of all, anything with a name like "blog" should obviously not be stressed over. anyway.......... i have learned a valuable lesson. blog about one event at a time. and don't move at christmas. AND i know i shouldn't start sentences with 'and'. but (or 'but')..............too bad.

here we go.

gretchen turned 6 dec. 21st. she had a "fancy nancy" party. it was splendiferously fabulous. occasionally, i find myself using some of fancy nancy's words. they are fun to say. gretchy had a great day--i'm glad i can still please my 6-year-old.

gretchen's birthday was a big day for pace, too. he finally figured out how to do "thumbs up". he also got to reenact the blowing out of the candles several times. i think we relit them 6 times. which was great, 'cause gretchy turned 6. totally fitting.
a couple of days before christmas a bunch of families in our ward went camping at a local campground (this was before the FREEZING COLD spell we are having right now). we opted out of an overnight stay, and just went for the evening. the campground is like 10 minutes from our house. perfect. the highlight of the evening was when a bird flew over pace and did its business on his head. he thought it was so cool. i guess he figured it added to the toughness of his camping adventure. don't worry, i took a couple of pictures and washed it off. there's a limit to the amount of coolness i can stand. the picture of the girls with their hands over their heads was taken after the bird incident. another flock of birds flew over as i was taking the picture. they were not taking any risks.
christmas was great. i loved every bit of it. pace got a guitar. he and loren jam on their guitars now. yes, pace even uses the word 'jam'. (real example: "i can't go to bed, mom. i jam with dad.") liesel and gwyneth got the percy jackson books. all 3 of us read all 5 of them in the next 5 days. i love fighting with my 10-year-olds about whether or not it's my turn for the book. i usually win, 'cause i'm the mom. loren stayed out of the fray and just started reading them today.
liesel and gwyneth did a photo shoot with some of their friends (who very sadly moved to missouri last week).
before the FREEZING COLD hit us, we spent a morning at a park in our neighborhood. the kids loved it. loren loved it, too. we played tag and did races through an obstacle course. great fun. i warned loren there would be pictures of him playing on my blog. he was okay with that.

other highlights/adventures:

1. doing fireworks on new years' eve. it's like we got 2 fourth of july celebrations.

2. riding my bike behind an old man on a bike. he was shirtless, had a beer gut, and was wearing bermuda shorts. only in florida. i passed him as quickly as i could.

3. watching the original star wars movies a billion times (loren bought them for the kids). pace LOVES to sing the theme song. his world is now filled with bad guys, light sabers, etc.

4. pace learning how to use scissors. nothing is safe.

5. pace learning how to whisper. finally! church is much, much better now.

6. the FREEZING COLD of the last week. the kids loved it. i did not. working out at 6 in the morning is way, way harder when you know it's going to be cold outside.