Soy-Bomb

Here is Sawyer in daddy's baby outfit. We think he is kind of clown-y, so the jumper seems appropriate. His first word was "dadda" and now, "dad." He loves to say it over and over. When he sees daddy come in, he shouts, "da-da!" In the mornings he wakes up looking for "da-da." This is neat. Mama is just a harder word to say, or else if it was easy, he would be saying it because he definitely loves his mommy. Went sledding today, and daddy had to hold him on his lap the entire time - he was too afraid to go on a sled or to be in anyone else's arms. Tulie went down icy stairs in a saucer sled and also went over a jump until finally, she went so high, she hurt her bottom, saying, "Daddy, my bum hurts too much now." What a fun time to be in the snow with our kiddos.

Mindy has been busy with her photography, even making appointments with random people she meets in grocery stores, and then they become friends. She has a special gift that enables people to be attracted to her personality. She is doing so well with her business, and her pictures are amazing. She spends so much time editing them and making them just right - which means that I am often watching her work on the computer at night and playing lots of Guess Who and Connect Four with Oli and Tulie and fending off Sawyer from breaking the little doors on the Guess Who game. He is quite a handful. But glad he is our handful.

Missing you computer

Our computer is down temporarily and that has posted a dilemma in our home. Logan and I both do a lot of work on the computer and now we have had 5 days okay only 3 where we have to actually spend that time together. It's been really good actually. When we have a free minute instead of going to the computer we read a book or play a game. It's only been three days which says to me we need to back off the computer.
Logan sure has been a lot more supportive about our diet. We have been quit creative actually. Chicken parm, egg rolls, chicken and rice, fajitas. Plus he has stopped whining about not getting to eat his favorite foods. Poor boy has it so hard. However this morning he made bread. Gluten filllllled mind you. I was upset. Not at him, I want him to enjoy those things even if I can't. It just smelled soooo wonderful. He ate it with hot cocoa. MY favorite. I was sad. It's hard cuz I really really honestly don't want to take that from him but it just pulls at my heart strings, not so much my tummy when he eats umm. But he got me a new GF silly cook book for Christmas so we'll see what we can conjure up together.

"Once upon a time there was a little prince...who needed a friend."

"Good morning," said the fox.
"Good morning," the little prince answered politely...
"Who are you?" the little prince asked. "You're very pretty..."
"I'm a fox," the fox said.
"Come and play with me," the little prince proposed. "I'm feeling so sad."
"I can't play with you," the fox said. "I'm not tamed..."
"What does tamed mean?"...
"It's something that's been too often neglected. It means, 'to create ties'..."
"'To create ties'?"
"That's right," the fox said. "for me, you're only a little boy just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you have no need of me, either. For you, I'm only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, we'll need each other. You'll be the only boy in the world for me. I'll be the only fox in the world for you..." ... But if you tame me, my life will be filled with sunshine...
The fox fell silent and stared at the little prince for a long while. "Please...tame me!" he said.

Baby Viloet

This is Mariah's baby. I can't believe that she has another one. Ahhhh. I loved going to see the baby. And then I watched her nurse and I wanted to shoot myself. It brought back all the those awful memories of trying to nurse Sawyer and all the pain that goes with it. I know that I want to have one more... in about a hundred years. But trying to imagine having another one any time soon is craziness.

It's a fish eat fish kinda world

So we were changing out the water in the fish tank when Oliver's says to me, "Mom what is going on?" The two fish were either mating or one was eating the other. I think it was the latter of the two seeing as they were different types of fish. What a traumatic experience. Poor Oliver had a nervous breakdown. "Make it stop mom. Get him off of him." I got a spoon and tried to separate the two of them but by then the fish had stopped struggling and half of his head was gone. Logan nor I can look at the fish the same. In fact he makes me a little nervous these days. Really. Every time I look at him he gives me the heebie-jebies. Poor Oil so traumatic. I don't think he'll ever ask for another fish again.
Went to practice in the ward choir last night. It's amazing how awful I have gotten in my old age. Really I can't sing a tune anymore. Guess I'll just have to sing more then just in the shower.
We lost Tulie's glasses again. It has been a week and no sign of them! That makes 6 pairs in much less then a year...if Santa were only real.
Baby Sawyer... I LOVE that we have time alone together in the mornings. I love just tickling him and playing hide and go seek just the two of us.

Oh today

Tulie found the scissors again. I am not sure how the hell she does it. So they all three got haircuts. Oli cut his own hair and Tulie cut hers and Sawyers. And I did learn from the first three times... I have been putting the scissors on the top of the fridge, I blame Logan.
I made Logan brownies for his class today. That was sad. It was really tempting. I am so sick of Mexican food. We eat it 5x a week. Poor Logan, he doesn't complain.
I am so excited for the next phase of our lives. I can't wait to be able to buy my daughter a bike for Christmas without having to search the paper, the garbage dump and Craig's list. I can't wait to buy Logan an actual present for Christmas instead of making him things out of paper. I can't wait to have Logan home more then part of Saturday and Sunday.
I have loved this time in Ohio.. it has been so wonderful for our family. However I feel that we are kinda in limbo.. just waiting for the future to come. I can't stop dreaming of fenced in yards, a pay check, being close to home, the SUN. All sooo close!

Splendid

I was at the grocery store... an Amish store, to buy all the special flower I can't seam to find anywhere else, when I broke down again and cried. I hate spending 50 dollars on the same weight of flower I used to be able to buy for 3. I hate that I can't make half the things I used to. I hate that nothing taste the same. I hate that I can't go out to eat anywhere! I hate that going to my friends house to eat is such a burden on them. I hate that I can't go to the church functions to eat, I hate that I can't very easily partake of the sacrament. I hate that my daughter can't eat the treats that they have at school. I hate that the rest of my family has to suffer because of me. I hate that it is my gene that has made Tulie sick. I like calling Jace diseased...
Last night we made gingerbread men kinda. We ran out of our "special flower" so we had to run to the store half way through. Then we couldn't find the gingerbread stamp so we hand cut them out. They looked like they had been stretched. It was a sticky hard messsss. It was a lot of work! When we awoke we found that Tulie had snuck down sometime early in the morning and bitten an arm or a leg off of every gingerbread man there was. So we saved the three that looked the best, two of the three were missing legs. We had a little dough left over so we made a gingerbread house. Tulie ate a lot of candy.
Sawyer fell down the stairs today.... poor boy. He cried for a bout three seconds and was up and running again. And we have a lot of stairs.
Tulie killed Oli's fish. She fed them after being told not too. And then out of fear she dumped them down the sink. She was in big trouble!! It's kinda a funny story how we acquired the fish. We were at the craft store, hobby lobby, in a crazy busy line. Tulie had peed her pants and Sawyer wouldn't let me set him down when Oli reminded me that I told him that if he was a good boy he could pick out a toy and he had been a good boy so he wanted his toy. I said fine whatever pick it out. I didn't even look at the package that looked like pop rocks. It turned out to be a package of trilobite eggs. Just add water. And boom we had fish.
Decorated our tree this weekend. We got it from a tree farm not to far from our home. It's a little blue spruce. I LOVE it. Normally Logan picks them out but this year I was adamant that we get a slender tree that wouldn't consume our whole house like Logan likes to do. It is splendid.
We finished another season of 24. That makes three seasons in 2 weeks. I am so glad we don't have the others at our disposal. They are a little addicting.
I set a few goals for myself as far as advertising goes this week. This is the hard part about businesses. Excited and scared!!!
Tulie has a little groceries cart we take to the store with her that really helps our experience. She is a tuns better behaved with it. She just gathers the groceries I ask her to, as long as they aren't too heavy. She weighs each items and decides if it is to her liking and then follows me through the store. She also is admired by every other child in the store. She likes feeling so grown up.
Oli and daddy have been playing football a lot outside these days. Oliver knows the names of all the teams, who is playing who and who needs to lose so his team can progress. Poor Oliver is not used to losing and I have informed Logan that he needs to win every once in a while to help teach our little boy about good sportsmanship. That is not one of Oliver's strong traits. Today was Oliver's second time losing to Logan. He wasn't able to give a high five like they normally do, but a handshake was doable, amidst held back tears.
Some years Christmas is hard for me to get excited about. But this year the holiday season has already begun to be special and I am excited for that.