Where do babies come from?

Please feel free to share with your children at the appropriate time.
( You might want to change wine to ice cream or any other Mormon vice of your choice)

From my dear friend Vince.

"Mark said that you (Carrie) perhaps had some interest in an excerpt from an email I sent to Jason explaining where babies come from. Here it is:"

...Good news - I can help you. You are indeed correct; I am more experienced, so let me start at the beginning: When a mommy and daddy love each other very much, and they want to show each other just how much they love one another, they decide to make a baby. First, daddy takes mommy to a fancy restaurant and orders a bottle of mid-priced wine (not too cheap or mommy won't drink enough to lose her inhibitions; not too expensive or daddy will just be paying way too much for mommy to end up drunk, passed-out, and useless later in the evening). Then, daddy and mommy go home, where daddy tells mommy how beautiful she looks. He doesn't mention the ten extra pounds he doesn't remember marrying. They head off into the bedroom where they go through a ritual called "making love". Making love is where daddy kisses mommy just enough until he can put his beanstalk into mommy's flower pot. Daddy wiggles his beanstalk around until the baby seeds come out and get planted in mommy's tummy. Afterwards, daddy falls fast asleep, while mommy lies awake staring at the ceiling or reading from a catalog. Over the next nine months, the baby seeds grow into a full baby and whammo - a new baby arrives!....

All I want for Christmas.

Is my idiot husband home safe.

This is Mark's idea of a shortcut to work.




Two hours later and owing my dad's tow truck driver hundreds of dollars in bagels and carwashes he made it to work.
( You might be our Superman but, that's a Honda Accord not a Hero Mobile)

Anyone want an adorable three year old?

Anna is on my naughty list. How can one child be so agreeable, likable, and just all around a pleasant child, be such a thorn in my side?
Tuesday morning Anna said to me,
" I want you to be a nice mommy today."
"Okay" I smile at her and give her a big hug.
An hour later I tell her for the umpteenth time to stop jumping on my bed and come get her hair done or I am taking away a Barbie. The jumping stops she turns and says, with her hands on her hips,
"I TOLD you to be a nice mommy today!"
AHHH, Discipline the difference between "a nice mommy" and "a mean one."
Friday, Anna decides that a the new floor is missing a pathway and takes it upon herself to draw a path with a black crayon from the garage door, through the kitchen, through the living room into my bedroom across the carpet to the bathroom. I am sure this pathway will save valuable seconds for anyone on a potty emergency. AHHHHH. (How many times do I have to tell her crayons are for paper, not walls, floors, sisters or furniture.)So anyway I tell her she cannot sit by Micah on the special Christmas Blanket in the Primary Christmas Nativity. The waterworks start to roll. I feel horrible and don't want to have discipline her so I give in a little and tell her she has to wipe it all up and has to be super good the rest of the evening. Then Anna turns on her charms. She turns into a total angel. So I let her sit by buddies Micah and Ava.
So what does she do today, she finds a marker (technically not a crayon) and colors all over her arms.
I keep repeating to myself she is three, she is three. I hope we both survive 2 more months until she turns 4.

Jane Austen Quotes

I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.

My idea of good company is the company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.

Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.


My sore throats are always worse than anyone's.

Sit down

She squats,



She stands.

The weekend from Hell part 2

"but I'm beginning to feel it in my heart. I feel... thin. Sort of stretched, like... butter scraped over too much bread. "
-Lord of the Rings
(I bet you thought I only knew Jane Austen quotes)

I need to update my title to the weeks from Hell.
Anyway a few days into the floor replacement our installer ended up in the hospital.(bad luck loves to follow me). Anyway he sent a back up whom worked nights so we were displaced a few more days at my mom's house. In the meantime, I was in charge of hosting the Stake Baptism today, making a part of the primary presidency presents and this month I get to do sharing time.
Anyway as I have said we survived and I am beginning to love the dust that has coated my entire house from knocking out the tile. We still have to put the baseboards back on and buy some rugs but, it looks awesome.


Mark, meanwhile, is onto his next project, it arrived on Friday.
Luckily, the kids were not included.

Although the instructions state an Adult Helper is required, Mark has enlisted Anna.

We're moving...

back into our house. I am so excited, the floors are done and they are amazing. Thanks Tamera, Rachel, Nathan, Marianne, and Marianne's Papa for all the help. Oh yeah, thanks mom and dad for not kicking us to the curb.
Pictures and tours to be given at a a later date.
Please remove your shoes :)

I am thankful...

that my mom and dad let us stay at their house since mine is unlivable.

Seriously,

I am thankful that brave ancestors that left England for a better life and religious freedom. I am glad their actions in turn brought us to this great country where Heavenly Father could restore his gospel to the earth. I am grateful for faithful prophets, especially Joseph Smith whom helped restore the Lord's church. I am grateful for faithful ancestors who heard the message of the restored gospel, obtained a testimony and followed its teaching. I am grateful for a loving and supportive family that bless me everyday. I am grateful for wonderful friends that read my ramblings and still like me even though most the time I am a little off my rocker. I am thankful for so much, my beautiful daughters and husband. I am also thankful for my trials that help me to grow and become a better person.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The weekend from Hell continues. Part 1

So I thought I would blog about how bad my weekend was but, it seems to have spilled over into the week.

Lets start at the beginning
Friday 12:01 a.m. I stay up, way to late, to watch a movie based on a book I dislike (note to self follow your instinct and stay home next time).
Friday 3:00 a.m. I am so mad I went to the movie I can't sleep and start crying over every little trial in my life. ( poor, cute Mark waited up for me and had to listen to my sobs)
Friday 7:30 a.m. Get Emma and Anna up for school, half awake drive them to school, get back home, hoping to take a morning nap with Adelie.
Friday 9:45 a.m. Adelie wakes up from her nap refreshed, I meanwhile have wasted my nap time on watching Thursday nights Grey's Anatomy (my guilty pleasure). Anyway nap time failed.

Friday night make a trip to Lowe's with the girls and Mark to buy demolition equipment to remove old carpet for new wood floors.

Friday 9:00 p.m. Start demolition, move furniture, rip carpet up , remove carpet pad staples and tack strips. (the new floors are being started on Monday). The plan at this point is to spend Saturday tearing out the kitchen tile floor.


Friday 11:45 p.m. Mark checks email before going to bed to find it that the installer is behind schedule and is delayed a week. ( Nice, no flooring and a 10 month old crawling baby and I am cooking Thanksgiving dinner at my house).

To Be Continued

Proposition 8

I just found this link on a friends blog and thought the article was great. It made me really sad to see some of the images of people protesting at the temple. I pray for the Church and its leaders and members, I am afraid times are just going to get harder for us, not easier.

http://meridianmagazine.com/ideas/081110hate.html

Lost Things Continued

Well I found my ipod charger and I've even found a lost Rock Band connector and I found the lost Honda Key, too bad it was after it went through the shredder.


Note to self: Just give up!

Happy Veterans Day

"Remember the old soldiers, God Bless"
-Lt. Col (RET) Hank Vader

A few years ago Mark's dad left us that message on Veterans day. It is so random because Hank doesn't call us very much but he wanted to remind of all the soldiers (or maybe just him???). I think of it and it makes me chuckle.
Anyway I just finished some scrapbook pages and had to share.

The Land of Lost Things

With three girls of course I have seen the new Tinkerbell movie. In the movie Tinkerbell finds lost things to tinker together new gadgets to help the fairies with bringing about Spring ( I know way more information than you needed). Anyway I have a list of lost things and every once in awhile they will reappear( yeah!!) My silverware reappeared from Target. My keys reappeared out of the silverware drawer after being missing for two months. Well, yesterday in a mad search for a single key to Mark's Honda I found my ipod shuffle.


Random, I know, it has only been missing for a month and a half. My running has suffered because it is to hard to run without my tunes. Anyway, the real kicker now is that I might have thrown away my ipod docking station in a mad cleaning spree. I cannot win. Mark might have to go buy me a new one at the Apple Store, (the Apple Store is his happy place so I am sure he will have one for me tonight).

GO UTES!

Well done Runnin' Utes!

My little Helpers

I love my children, even when they glue scavenger hunt clues to the walls.
Help! How do I get the glue stuck paper off without ruining the paint?

Oh by the way, I found the silverware thief, apparently, Target has missed me and in order to get back at me it took all my silverware and has been selling it to other people. Luckily ,I have spent my monthly quota there so we are back on good terms and it let me have some new silverware for only $5.99 for a six pack. ( Don't ever piss off Target, who knows what it might take next.)

The Halloween Fairy

The Halloween Fairy showed up at our house dressed as the UPS guy. The lens on our camera broke months ago and few weeks we ordered a new one.
On Halloween the lens showed up. I am so excited to be able to shoot some pictures again.



Anna was sick most of the day. She dressed up in her "Boo" shirt to go to preschool.


Anna knows how to work it. She rode in the stroller to Trick-or-Treat on our street. At some houses, she actually got the candy brought to her.


The Snow Princess. She left Mark and I in the dust when we went out with her.


I don't know what is up with Addie's crazy look but, she was an adorable Kitty.



Mark dressed up as a "Stud Muffin". Oh wait, "My Stud Muffin".

My Adelie

My sister always complains that since she is the 5th child she has no baby pictures. I actually noticed that after the first two ( me and my brother) the baby pictures are pretty scarce. I am trying not to let Adelie be forgotten.

Adelie 9 months old.

Where, oh where, has my silverware gone?

I have decided that the sock monster that is invading Tammy's house has sent its cousin the silverware monster to my house. One would think that silverware is pretty hard to loose, not at my house. So about a year ago I noticed every time I bought yogurt I would start missing spoons. Well I caught the Spoon Monster (Anna) and have sufficiently informed her (threatened her) that the silver spoons we use with our yogurt are not disposable. So that does not explain where my forks and knives are. I am down to about 5 forks and 3 knives. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? This is ridiculous. If I find the culprit I'll let you know. I just don't know where they have all gone. Maybe the sock monster is holding them hostage??

Adelie Update

Have I told you lately how cute my little Adelie is.
I just had to update you on her latest accomplishment.
First, she has her two k9 teeth ( I don't know what the correct term is) and is still missing her top center teeth. Vampire for Halloween? I think so.
Second, she crawls/bear walks, she goes everywhere.
She claps, it is so cute.
She says what sounds like "Hi"
She loves her sister, she giggles all the time at them and gets sad when they leave for school or to play.
She pulls herself up on things, when she pulls herself up in her crib Emma says she is "One ornery critter and needs to get out."
She gets a hold of the wipes and loves to pull them out, but today as she was pulling them out she was giggling to herself.
What a Doll.

Oh and, her and I went shopping today and both had to get new shoes. Woo-hoo new shoes! I love having little girls.

Why my husband sucks...

I've been noticing on blogs that how women like to gush over their companion, how great or handsome he is. Well as to buck another trend, I am going to tell you why my husband sucks. It is called an Oreo Cheesecake. For some reason he had to make it on Sunday. He is the devil. I am sure there is sugar in Oreo's and that cream cheese is not good for the diet. Mark told the Crapo's that he got the 1/3 more fat kind of cream cheese. He stated he had to have a doctors note to get the especially sinful cream cheese. It was delicous and terrible all at the same time. As I weighed in for the Biggest Loser contest this week I noticed that my small sampling caused a significant weight gain. Damn you Vader! ( I am sure my own weakness had nothing to do with it, I am positive I can blame this week totally on Mark)

On another note, Mark and I were discussing Life Insurance and the policies we each had. I stated that we only had enough on me to cover a funeral (not to be morbid but this gets funny). To which Mark responded he need to raise the amount. I thought, oh he might need to take time off and stay with the kids for awhile and not work. Well not quiet, he responded " I am going to need a dating fund when you are gone." What?? I then asked him why he couldn't just use our budgeted dating fund. He said " I am going to need to Woo her, so I am going to need much more than what we spend." That is why I love him, he always make me laugh ( but sometimes I do cry inside, just a little).

Love it/Hate it

When I was in college (Go Utes!), I use to listen to a radio station that on Wednesday mornings would do a list of "Things that must go." For years I have missed out listening to this program because I am usually still in in bed. However, since Emma and Anna have started to go to school in the mornings I have once again been able to listen. This segment always cracks me up. I remember when I was first hooked, the DJ said "People who use there fingers to make air quotes have got to go." Anyway the other day Melissa did a love it hate list, so I stole some of her love/hate things and have added my own.

Let's call this the LOVE/HATE game (stolen from Melissa's blog) Play along with me at home...

RULES: You either have to LOVE IT or HATE IT. No in between.

Let's start with an easy one:

• SQUEEZE CHEESE - Hate it, Dairy in a can are you serious?

• THE PHRASE "ALL BECAUSE TWO PEOPLE FELL IN LOVE" - HATE it!! Sorry - too cheesy, almost like cheese in a can.(isn't it really all because two people had sex?)
  

• VINYL PEOPLE STICKERS ON REAR WINDOWS OF SUV'S CHRONICALLY THE FAMILY TREE INCLUDING THE PETS - I have to agree with Melissa Hate it but, Mark and I want to a get a set either with a polygamist family with multiple wives or one where either the mom or dad has been visible scrapped off with a key.

• THE PHRASE "IT IS WHAT IT IS" - Hate it but, I don't completely understand when you would ever use it.

• SISTERS-IN-LAWS- No Comment

• SISTERS- Love her.
  

• TEENAGERS IN "LOVE" - Check with me in 8 years or so.

• Shake it by Metro Station- Love it!!!!!!

• THE TWILIGHT SERIES - Hate it (sorry everyone)

• SATURDAY FOOTBALL - Love it only in RED. Go Utes

• Blogs that have music players-HATE IT,DOUBLE HATE, why in the heck would I want to listen to your crappy music, I have itunes and I don't need your blog blaring at me when I check out your blog. If you have one, take it off or I will stop checking out your blog.(sorrry this one has been bugging me for a long time)

• The political views of Hollywood Celebrities- Hate it, entertain me but otherwise your opinion means nothing to me.

• Bajio's Pineapple Shrimp Salad- Love it

Chocolate Pudding Fondue

So I took a brief hiatus last night from the no sugar rule for my own sanity( and my children's safety). Emma found the cutest children's cook book. It had simple recipes like hard boiled eggs and cracker and cheese sandwiches. In the book they had a recipe for chocolate pudding fondue. We made it last night for a treat and I couldn't resist. We took bananas and marshmallows and dipped in my fondue pot that was full of chocolate pudding. It was nummy. Mark and I shared the bananas and the girls went for the marshmallows. I asked Mark if he wanted me to cut up another banana and he said " I'm good." to which Anna responded with a her fifth large marshmallow shoved in her mouth "I'm not good." I am glad she is going to Carl's Jr. instead of college, I am hoping they will feed her there. I don't think I am going to be able to afford to feed her much longer.

Running, No Sugar, Biggest Loser and Primary Program

Besides taking care of my three girls,

• I've been doing a little running (I just got back from a run and feel great).

• I've been off sugar for over a week and am falling apart.

• Some friends started a biggest loser contest and I am determined to win (or come in a close fifth ( just trying to keep it real).

• And finally, I am in charge of the Primary Program that is in a month and I am trying to be organized and not stressed out.

And by the way Adelie is teething, she is getting her top 4 teeth all at once (oh joy).

By the way, I use parenthesis a lot in my writing is that annoying?

Camping with Vince: Scrapbook

Here are the finished pages. Let me know what you think.

Poor Adelie

Who would dare splash mud all over the cutest baby in the world?



Her dad of course.

We love to go on adventures on my mother-in-law's Polaris Ranger (nicknamed Stripey).
I drove for awhile and went gingerly through the puddles. Mark doesn't know what gingerly means, I think, he thinks we are referring to the hottie on Gilligan's Island. So that's why we are all covered in mud.

Camping with Vince and Julie

In August Mark's friend Vince and his girlfriend Julie came into town from Philly. We went camping in the Motorhome with them. We had a great time. I was just sitting down to scrapbook the pictures but, they are so cute, I had to share.
Oh, side story. I was talking to my mom about Vince and she asked if he ever got married. Before I could say anything Emma piped up
"No, Vince is waiting for me to get big to marry."
Sorry Julie. Emma has had a crush on Vince forever.

Julie and Emma (Julie had two little shadows( Emma and Anna) everywher she went.)

Ann, Adelie, Vince, and Emma

Anna in Heaven, a s'more in her hand and surrounded by chocolate.

"Go Eagles."
Mark and I are not Eagle fans but, Uncle Vince taught the girls the finer points of teasing their parents. Thanks for the cute cheerleading outfits.