All About Mom

I've been tagged by my friend Cami, so this next post is mostly about me and not my cute kids... feel free to skip it if you're not interested. And no, there won't be any pictures because I'm just not as cute as they are.

1. What were you doing 10 years ago? Serving a mission in the Canary Islands - although it really doesn't seem like it's been that long.

2. Five Things on my To-Do List Today

• Find cotton sleeping gloves
• Take kids to the library
• Wash A's backpack
• Search online for new mold for our crayon maker
• Pull weeds in backyard

3. What snacks I enjoy

• dark, dark chocolate
• cheese
• herbal tea

4. What would I do if I were to suddenly be a Billionaire?

• Pay off student loans and mortgage
• Set up substantial savings account
• Set up college funds for my kids
• Send my parents on a mission
• Travel with my husband - maybe we'll let the kids come along too :)

5. Three Bad Habits

• Going to bed too late - what's the point of going to bed when you have to get up every three hours?
• Yelling at my kids - unfortunately, it happens...
• Eating too much chocolate as a way of coping with the tough days.

6. Five Places I've lived

• Monkton Ridge, Vermont
• Houston, Texas
• Provo, Utah
• Canary Islands, Spain
• Austin, Texas

7. Five Jobs I've had

• Bank Teller
• Business Manager for a Flooring Store
• Business Manager for a nonprofit housing developer
• Mystery Shopper
• Mom, Mom, Mom

8. Five Things People (other than Andrew) Don't Know About Me

• I am incapable of following a recipe as written. I love to cook, but I'm always changing recipes just a little to make them more to my liking, whether it's substituting some ingredients for others, cutting the sugar or salt, eliminating some of the fat, or just adding a few spices to make things more exciting.
• I'm always up for trying new things... like rock climbing one month after Peter was born - I must admit there was a moment when I thought I would be stuck to that cliff forever as I seemed unable to move either up or down, but I pushed past it and conquered Enchanted Rock (or at least one small part of it)... hmm, what should I try next?
• I don't particularly like sugar - not that I don't like sweet things, but I want the sugar to enhance the flavor, not overpower it. When I'm cooking, I usually end up cutting the amount of sugar called for in half and no one notices the difference.
• I studied Chemistry as an undergrad and was seriously considering doing graduate studies in Forensics before I met A. This was way before the popularity of CSI shows, but somewhere along the line I decided it would be too morbid and depressing to do that kind of work on a day to day basis. So I went to business school instead.
• I have a really hard time just sitting still and doing nothing - even to watch something on TV. I'm constantly up and down taking care of little chores and projects. I'll sit down for a few minutes only to remember something else I've been meaning to do, so I'll hop up and do it. It drives my husband crazy!

Well, that's everything you never wanted to know about me :) It's now my turn to tag some wonderful friends, so I choose.... Lisa, Corrine, Melissa, Tara, and anyone else who thinks this sounds like fun (it actually was kind of neat to have to list all these little quirks that I don't usually think about).

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny was smart enough to visit the kids at Grandma's house this year! While we were at church, he came and hid the eggs we decorated yesterday (although there was some debate about whether he might have just eaten them instead).

We are so grateful for this time of year when we have a special opportunity to remember the rebirth that our Heavenly Father has made possible for us through His Son, Jesus Christ. We hope you all had a wonderful experience this Easter season. We would like to share our testimony about the resurrection of Jesus Christ through this video. Enjoy!

Fun with Grandma & Papa

We were lucky enough to be able to spend this weekend in Houston with Grandma and Papa. We took advantage of free babysitting to go to the temple on Friday and spent most of Saturday at the zoo. Such fun! Such excitement! Leah kept us on track so we wouldn't forget to see any of the animals - here are a few of the highlights.


The most requested animals on this trip!



Riding the carousel after a long day


Taking a break with Grandma and Lisa

Master of the House

Here he is sitting on his throne, content in the knowledge that he has all of us wrapped around his little fingers...

I thought these Bumbo chairs were a bit unnecessary until a friend let me borrow hers - Peter loves it! He can actually look around and see what we're doing better than in the bouncy chair. It does give his neck a bit of a workout though so right now it's only good for short stretches.

And now for his latest trick... Peter has discovered his voice and is using it to mimic the shrieks that he hears all day from his siblings:

As you can see, he is most vocal when he thinks he is being ignored - notice he gets really quiet once he sees me with the camera... tricky boy!

Another One Bites the Dust...

Leah has done it again. Our little daredevil unfortunately doesn't have the greatest sense of balance (something she inherited from me - Sorry Leah!). Today at the park she managed to collide with one of the rocking toys on the playground. Of course, since it's Spring Break here in Austin, Leah's dentist is on vacation and his on call partner is WAY out in Lakeline (far west Austin). Rather than driving out there with a screaming child in rush hour traffic, I took her to my wonderful dentist just to make sure no major damage had been done because I must say it looked pretty bad to me and there was an awful lot of blood.

I'll spare you the gory pictures, but the consensus was that she mostly banged the soft tissue above the tooth and cut her lip. We'll find out next week if any lasting damage was done - once the swelling goes down. So we may just have a toothless wonder for the next few years :) But kudos to my boys for being so good while we ran all over town to get her taken care of! It's those small things that can make all the difference.