Happy 4th Birthday, Maycie!

June 26th, 2009

I can't believe my little Maycie is 4. I remember the day she was born, dreamily holding my sweet baby, 7lbs 4oz. She was such an angelic baby and don't ask me why, but we called her Bugaboo or Bugs for short. As an infant I would bring her to Primary to help me teach the children songs. She was the "Maycie Meter". If they sang well she would literally bounce up and down in my arms grinning at the childrens' music. To this day the Primary children still talk about the "Maycie Meter". As a toddler we called her "MOD" which was short for "Master of disaster". It seemed she was always destroying something, whether it was my new leather couch with a sharpie marker or cabinets with a sharpie or cutting clothing or tearing books. It was difficult to get angry at such an angelic face and she looked so innocent. Now she's my fearless heartwarmer who loves to pick me flowers and dresses up as "bat-dog" or calls herself "danger". Well, whatever she is called or whatever she is doing she is our Maycie girl and I can't imagine our home without her.

Wake-up Birthday Girl!

Maycie's birthday request. Scooby-Doo movies and a Scooby-Doo dog.

Carrying on the birthday tradition from my childhood...
Breakfast in bed. Breakfast of choice: Lucky Charms, of course!

Party Time!

Our new favorite party game: popping treat filled balloons.

Scooby Scooby-Doo!!!

Make a wish.

Polly Pockets. Fun for kids with lots of tiny parts for mom to pick up.

Looking cool.

Pinata time. I think we went through everyone at least 3 times before it finally broke.

A Summer Day with Cousins

A visit from the Shurtliff cousins. And this is how the day goes...

Every good day begins with a good breakfast - cherrios in this case.


Followed by a highly nutritious chocolate marshmallow cookie.

Next, some fun in the sun with a healthy dose of rough housing.

Of course, a refreshing snack of suckers (three, mind you)...

and ice cream.

At last, we wind down with a bedtime book.
Good night!

Moment of Insanity

Nine kids. Same house. One mom. This is called insanity. Also know as helping two friends out at once. I love my friends. When in need we are always there for each other. I have counted on them countless times for much needed breaks from my kids. They have even watched my kids on overnighters. That's friendship or as I call them, my North Carolina family. Here I am doing a little payback and took on 6 kids (one refused to get in the picture) in addition to my 3. Yes, that equals 9. It was nuts, but if you don't worry about what the kids are destroying, punctured pools, stained carpet or off the chart the noise level, it's just fine. Since I spent most of the day doing damage clean-up and control I might think twice about
taking on the many at once again.

Safety Town

This year, Addie got to participate in Safety Town, which is a program put on by our local police department for uprising kindergartners. The school gym is set up like a little village with working traffic lights, stop signs, roads and buildings. She learned all about gun safety, stranger danger, bike safety and traffic safety. Don't forget your helmet!

Holy Mice!

I love kids. Their minds work so simply. Tonight during our Family Home Evening lesson we were talking about the Holy Ghost. I asked the children who spoke to us in a still, small voice. They all looked thoughtful for a moment then Addie timidly said, "Mice?"

Temper-tantrum gone right

Alex, screaming and pointing to a neighbor boy's hat: "Mom, I want hat." More screaming and pulling at me.
Mom: "No, Alex. That is not your hat."
Alex, screaming even louder: "HAAAAAAAAAT!"
Mom: "No, Alex. No hat."
Alex, more screaming and pulling at me. "WHAAAAAAA!"
Mom, calmly but sternly: "Alex, do you need to go to your room?"
Alex, in a pouty voice: "NO!"
Mom: "Then please stop screaming."
Alex, with a happy smile on his face: "Okay, mom."

THE END. Seriously!

Kids say funny things

Kids always say such funny things. As we lie in bed at night Rob and I love to talk about the funny things the kids have said that day. Then he asks me if I've written them down yet. I've forgotten so many of them, but here's a few I can think of right now.

Addie: "Dad, why do you have two chins and most people just have one?" (There's motivation for a diet).

Addie and Maycie playing dogs (their favorite make believe game)- Addie: "My name is Sparkle Works". Maycie: "My name is Danger". (Get an idea of their personalities).

Maycie: "Mom, I believe in Heavenly Father and I believe in you, too."

Cute moments: Every time I take Maycie to the bathroom during church she asks me to do a finger puppet show over the bathroom stall door while she "goes". I try to limit it to two so we're not there all day.



I'll jot down more as I think of them.

Splish Splash!

Rub-a-dub-dub. Three kids in a tub.

Even the rain couldn't stop these three from having fun in the water. In fact, being in pajamas and splashing in the rain makes it all the more fun.

This is what they did after playing in the rain all morning then warming up with a cup of hot chocolate.

The Cat Came Back!

Where there's a will, there's a way. And I must say Addie really did will this cat here. She's wanted a pet so badly and we've been pretty firm about saying no, so she finally took matters into her own hands. For the last couple months Addie's been "hunting" for a cat in the woods behind our house. I figured it was pretty harmless. No cat was going to let her catch it. However, two weeks ago she surprised me by bringing a cat home. I didn't think much of it. I figured if we didn't feed it, it would go away. But, like the song my dad sang us as children, "the cat came back the very next day" and the next day and the next despite the loving abuse the kids doled out on it. It was the sweetest natured cat, just lounging on the back patio and letting the kids drag it every where and basking in the attention. The kids named it "Tiger" and it occupied most of their time every day. Finally after about a week, we broke down and bought it some cat food after I had found a couple of "kills" it had brought home from hunting. It continued to eat (a lot), lounge and tolerate the kids. I had even called around to see about getting it shots and neutered. As long as it didn't come in the house, I guess we could keep it. However, Addie fixed that. She decided to take it for a walk in the stroller. Half way through the walk it jumped out and ran into the woods. That was three days ago and we haven't seen it since. They great thing is, I think it gave the kids just the "pet fix" they needed. They say they miss "Tiger", but there isn't the non stop tears I thought there would be and there hasn't been begging for anymore pets - yet. That was the most painless pet experience I've ever had and I've had a pretty lengthy pet past.

Splash into Summer!

We enjoyed a beautiful Saturday at Lake Norman beach. The water was a little murky due to a huge rain storm the day before, but the kids didn't mind. They splashed in the water while mom and dad looked on, relaxing and reading books.