Some of the many faces of Ashlyn

Click on the collage to get a better look

"Life Happens"

That is what my friend Sharla said when I told her I couldn't go walking this morning because Dallin was getting stitches. And so it does. Bumps and cuts are part of life, especially for a toddler. Dallin tripped over Ashlyn's swing and hit his head on a kitchen chair on his way to the ground. Got a gash that "needed repair", as the nurse said, so he got 3 stitches. He is a brave boy. They wrapped him up like a mummy to make sure he kept his hands out of the way. My heart broke when they poked him with a needle right in his owie to numb it. He tried to not cry, pursing his lips so tight to hold it in. I almost passed out just watching. I can watch stuff like that on TV, but when it is my son and it's right there in front of me, it is totally different.

My mom said I shouldn't post about this right after I posted about Mason getting hurt at our house or someone might report me to the police as being abusive. Ha Ha. But it is a pretty big deal: first time Dallin has been admitted to a hospital.

A new love

When we decided to turn to the TV off most of the day we didn't know what to do with ourselves. Like I mentioned before, we read a ton, but we also do puzzles. LOTS of puzzles. We own probably 10 of them. Tuesdays is $0.88 day at the dollar store here, so today I am getting more.

This is what happens when we babysit

Poor Mason fell down a couple stairs and landed on his noggin while we were watching him. I am constantly amazed at how resilient kids are. And I didn't feel too bad since his parents fed Tanner something with peanut butter in it one time. ;)

"Children are made readers on the laps of their parents."— Emilie Buchwald

I couldn't be more happy with my boys' obsession with books these days. One of our new year's goals is to limit TV to 0-1 hour a day for the kids. In place of TV we get out the huge basket of books we have and read and read until I can't take it anymore. We also do a lot of puzzles. But they would read all day, especially Dallin, and the same book over and over again. He takes a book in the car, and he sleeps with them. It has taken some sacrifice of my time, but it has been so worth it. This morning--I was so proud--Tanner watched a show, then turned off the TV and said "We're done with TV", then he played with some boxes that we will use for moving. He said he was building a water dam. They seem to think more creatively and I feel like they play better together too lately, except in the stroller when we walk at the mall everyday; they tease relentlessly. I feel like a much better mom too since I am not doing my own thing all day while the TV babysits them.
If you don't read to your kids much, do it. It is so satisfying.

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go."

— Dr. Seuss, "I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!"

A fun read for Mormon Housewives, or those who enjoy their blogs

I came across this article called "Why I Can't Stop Reading Mormon Housewife Blogs" from a blog I follow, which happens to be mentioned in the article, and found it entertaining. A young atheist woman wrote it. Her guilty pleasure is reading blogs written by Mormon housewives. Don't bother reading the comments about the article at the end, most are negative, in fact you may find them offensive if you are LDS.

Here is how it starts:
At first glance, Naomi and Stacie and Stephanie and Liz appear to be members of the species known as the "Hipster Mommy Blogger," though perhaps a bit more cheerful and wholesome than most. They have bangs like Zooey Deschanel and closets full of cool vintage dresses. Their houses look like Anthropologie catalogs. Their kids look like Baby Gap models. Their husbands look like young graphic designers, all cute lumberjack shirts and square-framed glasses. They spend their days doing fun craft projects (vintage-y owl throw pillow! Recycled button earrings! Hand-stamped linen napkins!). They spend their weekends throwing big, whimsical dinner parties for their friends, all of whom have equally adorable kids and husbands. . .

Funny how she gets the stereotype right on, just from reading blogs.

I little bit of this, and a little bit of that

We got our computer back and it didn't cost us nearly as much as buying a new computer, so we are REALLY happy. We didn't lose too much from our hard drive when it crashed either. I've learned my lesson: BACK UP EVERYTHING. REGULARLY. I am ashamed to admit I even own an external hard drive; I just got lazy and didn't back anything up for a year.

I have a lot of blogging to catch up on. Here is a little bit of what we have been doing.
A little sledding

I little hair cutting. I cut mine too, but it isn't any different than last time.

I little, no, a lot of playing

A little photographing

And a whole lot of loving Ashlyn. She is so sweet. We love having her in our family.

Where have I been you ask?

Our computer's hard drive crashed, so we have been without a computer for almost 3 weeks! We should get it back soon. I am on a friend's computer right now. I have been checking email on Nate's iPod for the last couple weeks and just don't have much patience with it. It has been good for me to be without for a little while, but I am ready to have it back. I probably won't be blogging too much in the next month or so because we will be moving around the first of February.