Santa!

Santa Claus came to our house for a brief visit with the kids last night. Baylee was delighted! Rigby and Bryce took a minute to warm up to him but once he started handing out candy they decided he must be alright! :)

Merry Christmas From Baylee

In case you were wondering, the things hanging from the Christmas tree are ornaments. :)

Gingerbread Houses

Okay, they were really graham cracker houses, but they were fun just the same. We made these for family home evening on Monday night.


Look! I found a piece of candy!Do you want some Daddy?Okay, I'll just eat it myself then.

After we put the kids to bed Clint and I stayed up and made our own masterpieces.

Here is mine:
Clint's would have been much cooler but we ran out of time and supplies. We were up until midnight making these!

Dinner with Bryce

Just in case you were wondering what great entertainment you would get if you could watch Bryce eat green beans, here's a little sample for you. Love this little guy!!

Oh Rigby

Rigby, sporting the cut above his eye that he received after running into Grandma and Grandpa's granite counter top last night.

Rigby is quite the handful these days. To put it simply, he finds every way imaginable to intentionally annoy anyone he can. Apparently this is hilarious to him. Nobody else seems to see the humor. If he makes someone cry it's all the more enjoyable for him. If I yell and growl at him he either laughs or feigns a guilty sadness and then continues on as he was before. Most of the time I find him very difficult to manage. He can be so cute but those moments are very few and far between right now. I'm trying very hard to be patient with him. Some days are better than others and some days are downright disastrous. I've been talking to him a lot today about how we show each other that we love each other. I think sometimes he means his annoying teasing as a sign of affection. He couldn't wait for Baylee to get home from school and as soon as she did he started right in pulling on her shirt and getting in her face. So far, telling him, "If you love some one you try to make them happy, not sad" has temporarily halted his actions every time. I'll keep that up as long as it works!

Are all boys like this at this age? If so, I'm really in for it aren't I? I'm just hoping that a difficult child means a lovely teenager. Could I be so blessed? :)

The Cat is Out of the Bag

We were successful in keeping my pregnancy a secret from all of Clint's family until today. Clint's dad and brothers came down last night and spent the night at our house so they could all attend the BYU game together today. I wore a big sweatshirt and (amazingly enough) nobody noticed my belly. It was a secret until Baylee spilled the beans to her Uncle Justin this morning that there was a baby in my tummy. We almost made it to Thanksgiving! So close. It was a fun little secret for a while. :)

P.S. We're keeping the gender a surprise this time!

Coming January 2010

These are the final samples before production starts! Hopefully I will have a basement full of diapers and be launching my new website by the first of the year. I can hardly contain my excitement! I know, you feel it too. What could be more exciting than diapers???

Home Improvements

We've been busy!! Yesterday we got the carpets cleaned, so we had to move everything out...
...and put it back...
...and rearrange the decorations a little.
Do you remember this room?It stayed that way for 1 year and now it's back to this!
Clint has finished (for the most part) the bathroom and we had our plumber come install the faucet, toilet, and shower fixtures.
Let's not forget our helpful little ones. Baylee and Rigby made a valiant effort to make their beds. :)
And Bryce, well... Bryce wasn't helpful at all. He just wants to be held all the time. But he looked cute doing it!
And I finished painting the castle!! YAY!!! FinallY!

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

Baylee and Rigby are at the table eating lunch and I can hear them shouting this:

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Catch a foot by a tiger’s toe. If he hollers you will know! Eeny, meeny, miny, moe!

Happy Halloween!

Kindergarten Halloween Parade

It's the Oh-S0-Exciting Halloween parade through the school for the Kindergartners. LOL. Baylee was SO excited to wear her costume to school today. First a snow day and then this?? It's been an exciting week for her!

Garner Kidisms

The children frequently sneak into our closet and marvel over a small drawer containing mounds of Clint's loose change collected over the years. The other day Baylee was riding in Daddy's car when she asked, "Are we going to stop at McDonald's on the way home!?"
Clint: "No, not today."
Baylee: "But why not? I'm hungry and I want McDonald's."
Clint: "It costs lots of money to eat at McDonald's."
Baylee: "But Daddy, you HAVE lots of money. I've seen it in your drawer!"

After Rigby threw away his tuna-fish sandwich today and tried to trick me into thinking he'd eaten it so he could get some fruit snacks, I told him it was time for bed. He was extremely upset and started sobbing, sending huge alligator tears rolling down his cheeks. He sat on his bed and I laid him down. His cries got more frantic as he shouted, "It's going to get on my pillow!" (his tears). So I calmly told him, "Well, stop crying then." He gave it a good shot but was unsuccessful at controlling his emotions. He slapped his hands to his cheeks to catch the falling tears and said, "It's still doing it!!"

Every night at bedtime Baylee and Rigby request different kinds of hugs and kisses. For example, last night Rigby asked for a crocodile hug and a Nemo kiss. Baylee asked for a bear hug and a dinosaur kiss. Clint and I have to get very creative in our interpretations of these. We have to be dramatic with it because if it's not up to par we have to do it again. :)

P.S. Since Chira asked: A crocodile hug is where you slap your arms together a couple times (like a huge crocodile mouth) and then go in for the kill with the huge crocodile mouth surrounding your child. LOL. A dinosaur kiss consists of you growling and pretending you're going to take a bite out of your child's cheek only to leave them with a kiss instead. It's highly technical, you have to be a very experienced, and skilled parent to master these things. =P