Introducing...

...the newest member of our family...

Larry

Next time I try to convince myself that I should have been a hairstylist...someone please show me these pictures.
Libby WAS looking shabby. Jeff was complaining. I took matters into my own hands...and by matters, I mean scissors.

Apparently 15 months old babies don't enjoy getting trimmed up. She would NOT hold still and tried to grab the blasted scissors the whole time, so just get off my case, okay?
Hair cutting is clearly not a back-up job for me just in case Jeff ever ran off with Charlize Theron or something. Jeff is pissed...I mean ticked. (We don't say the "p" word at our house. )
I do realize I should be weeping for the lost femininity of my precious baby, but I can't stop cackling like a frigging hyena.
What a whack job. oops. Nothing a few weeks can't cure.

Here is what our sweet little LIBBY looked like just a few short weeks ago. Lovely tufts of wispy hair.
Jeff wouldn't allow Grace or Will to call her anything but Larry until she went to bed.
I'm still laughing, and Jeff is failing to see any humor in this. He's such a girl:)

He actually accused me of botching her noggin ON PURPOSE so I could put it on my blog.

As if :)

Winter Wonderland continuing coverage/righting a wrong

As previously mentioned, we spent last weekend holed up in a super HUGE cabin (seriously, this thing could sleep like 22 adults...) with Jeff's family. Is was a frigging riot. We were instructed to bring snow clothes. Hmmm. That DID pose a few problems.
#1. I live in the blasted desert
#2. Even I am too cheap to buy snow clothes for ONE weekend.

so...we improvised.

Exhibit A.
grace's snow "knickers" (as I fondly named them). These were left overs from our time before this desert existence. Grace was 3 1/2 when we left SLC and is now 7. Do the math. I've never seen snow pants inflict a wedgie before. She IS indeed also wearing her good black school boots. And no, she could not bend over.
Exhibit B.
Will wearing one of Jeff's old coats and sweatpants. He looked like a hobbit. or dwarf, or some other "smallish" being.
This picture cracked me up for some inexplicable reason. I'm a little slow on the uptake.
Our award winning snowman. 2nd place people. We weren't messing around. We were assigned the pirate theme.

The sleigh ride in the photo above elicited two very different responses from the spawn of my loins...
In Grace's defense, Will DID land on her face and her knickers were starting to chafe:) Will, on the other hand thought it was the best thing since ham.

On a side note, it has been brought to my attention that my spelling and word usage in a previous post was down right egregious. To those of you spelling aficionados out there (Steph and Sharla:), I make you only this promise:

I tara, do hereby solemnly swear to continue to misuse AND misspell big smart sounding words that I really have no business using, and slaughter the English language as we know it, from here until eternity.

That is a promise I intend to keep.

Oh, and bite me:)

It's a marshmellow world...

...everywhere but here.

Every kid should be able to do this:

We spent the weekend enjoying this awesomeness. Man I miss the snow. I miss winter. Not this suedo desert winter, WINTER winter.

More details and pics to come:)

Alrighty then. The next few posts are mainly for a few friends/family that had requested pictures of certain Christmas-sy decor items. Sorry it took me so long!

Tree without the lights on. We got a new tree this year that is so stinkin' FAT. The back of this wide load is totally empty. There will be no pics of the back:)

The words things I was telling you about:)

Okay. I am well aware of the fact that the "J" is missing from "JOY". The blasted thing won't stay up this year and I haven't figured out (tried) how to make it stay.

Just pretend I'm Jewish. "OY"

and that I am a Jew that celebrates Christmas.

whatever

Here are the rest...

This my all time favorite Christmas book. Love it. Makes me wheepy.

Way better than poo:)

How cute is this little guy?

And THIS beauty?

I couldn't get my picture to turn out of the the second one...but isn't she lovely? How did Nat know that I am an idiot when it comes to "mementos" and such? We didn't come home from Disney with anything "special" AGAIN this go round. Unless you count churros. And crappy toys. You were spot on Natalie!! We love these little beauties.

Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou:)

I love swapping. I love you Jori for setting in up:)

POOP SOUP

What a way to welcome the week. This morning, mere moments before I was about to get Libby out of the tub, she decided to do her business right there for all of us to admire. Not good. The worst part? It was soft. Rather non-clumpy for her. TMI? so be it.

I did learn something this morning though. Raisins, like corn, do not fully digest before making an appearance out the south pole. And they don't fit down the drain. Nothing like scooping floating squishy feces out of the tub with nothin but a paper plate and a dixie cup to say "hello" to Monday. Grace thought the plate "goodies" looked like cookie dough in apple juice, but when I offered to let her see if it tasted like it looked she bolted. Wuss.

The rest of the day sort of followed suit.
Nice.

Saving grace for the day? I just found a UPS delivery by my front door. I'm gonna go rip that sucker open RIGHT NOW and then get my cranky self in beddy-bye. I'm nearly giddy!!! Thanks in advance Nat. I better go charge my camera:)

Nighty night chick-a-dees:)

Hi

How the heck are you? It's been awhile. I've missed you :). Hope you all had a super turkey day. I know I did. So do my love handles. I really like pie. And rolls. nice.

I know life starts to get REALLY get crazy right about now so I figured it's best to keep a laugh on hand. This is by far my favorite commercial right now. It makes me snort EVERY darn time I see it. It's not on youtube so I couldn't put it directly on my blog, but click on the link and GO WATCH IT ANYWAY.

NOW.

Have a fabulous day people.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY GRACE:)

Grace all jazzed up to go to school in her "special birthday clothes". She is such a girl :)

Another Birthday has come and gone in our little dwelling. Grace turned the big SEVEN last Wednesday and I think that the day was a smashing success. No big party this year, just (surprise) Micky D's for breakfast, a trip to The Bear Mill, Baskin Robins, dinner at Samurai 21 (like Benni-hana, one of her favorites), and last but certainly not least, presents and cupcakes.

Grace was our "baby" f0r such a long time. I still think of her as our sweet little "baby Grace". Probably always will.

1st birthday party:)

Grace and her awesome naturally curly hair. It's all gone now :(

Grace all gussied up for a dance recital-age 5

Grace and Annie (who was nice enough to come along:) at the Bear Mill

The winner gift item of the year...A jump rope. She hasn't put that thing down. If only all gift giving was that easy. And cheap.

We love you gracie girl!

edited...

CRAP...how do I fix my scanned pictures? Anyone? I knew it couldn't be THAT easy...I may or may not be swearing right now. (s0rry Jones girls...I couldn't help myself)

edited AGAIN!

thanks for fixin me up Holly:)

Frick

I was feeding my kids breakfast this morning when Jeff came out of the bedroom and requested my presence in the bathroom. I needed to look at the toilet.

My first thought was ..."great...Jeff just "saved" me his own "creation" to check out and admire...AGAIN." BUT, he usually leaves those little treasures to discover at my own convenience. The look on his face quickly confirmed it. He certainly DID NOT have that sick, amused with himself look I have seen countless times before. Here's why...

that can't be good.

Yes, that is a cell phone in the toilet. A gift from our sweet Libby. Apparently I left MY cell phone on the floor by the toilet last night. Now, many of you are probably slightly disgusted by that notion, but get over yourselves. I "do my business" while one the phone ALL THE TIME. It's called "multi-tasking" people, and I happen to be the champion.

Here's the real kicker.

I was blogging this morning when the evil-do-er (libby) did her dastardly deed.

ooops. my bad.

actually, Grace left the bathroom door open, so I blamed her:)

TA DAAAA!!!

Kristin, me, and Camerlee in NYC

Two more SUPER FANTASTIC individuals have (FINALLY) joined our (not so) little community!! Camerlee and Kristin (aka...angel of pain, apron maker).Both awesome, both gorgeous, both FUN:), both insanely talented, and BOTH are girlies you're gonna wanna know. Trust me:)

Camerlee and Kristin at our Halloween street party filling their cake holes:)

Hop on over and give them a "holla"...

jen...you are the last one standing...hop to...

Come Again?

Another weekend, another set of (awesome) hotel guests. This go around it was my sister Steph (my WWF foe...who SO needs to be a blogger, but is way to anti-conformist to EVER succumb to the pressure...) ANYHOODLE...

Steph's little boy Nick (8) and my Will (9 1/2) are bosom buddies. (well...do boys have "bosoms"?...hmmm, man boobs...yes, but bosoms? I'm not exactly certain.) ANYHOO, they are best buddies and always have been. This weekend they made a shocking discovery. Here's how it went down...

Steph and I were busily preparing a delicious yet nutritious meal for our young charges when Steph noticed the boys giggling to them selves in the corner. Steph asks...

"What are you two giggling about?"

Will reaches across Steph and points to something in her purse. No, not a cell phone, and I-pod or a pack of gum...it is a tampon. He sheepishly giggling says to Steph...

"Those go in butts."

Nick, always one for accuracy, corrects Will with...

"NO...LADIES butts".

oh.

gotcha

thanks for feminine hygiene 101 boys:)

howdy

I have GOT to do this more often. By the time I get around to posting it is impossible recap EVERY detail...since I'm sure you were all waiting with baited breath for a detailed play-by-play of my every move:).

I have barely MENTIONED meeting up with Hayley and Heather...(and Holly of course...but that's a given:) and it was 2 weeks ago. Shameful. I seriously love these girls. Fun, beautiful, AWESOME people. OH, and I got all touchy feely with chuck:) Sorry if that makes you jealous Kristi:) I have one measly pic from our lunchy lunch. I wish they both lived closer.

Heather and Hayley. Hayley is ALWAYS right in the middle of the bubbies. She's a kid magnet:)

Last weekend the Hicken girls convened in SLC to rip up the town. (well, really it was just Saturday. Totally NOT long enough). We did get some power shopping in though, much to Steph's great pleasure. (ha). The winner food destination was...IKEA. whahuh? How pathetic. Su Casa was pukey, and The DoDo was definitely a NO GO. ick. The meatballs at IKEA were splendid, so all in all not a total loss.

This week was also the birthday celebration/baby extravaganza of one of the coolest people on the planet. I don't know why I have Farrah Faucet hair in this picture. It's puzzling. Happy Birthday and Happy Baby, Jen:)These pictures are totally irrelevant within the context of this post. She hasn't been equally represented here on Anyhoode lately so I thought it high time to slap her little mug up here again:)
k.

off to catch up on all of YOUR cool lives:)

Freaks and Geeks

So. I just got back from picking up dinner. Jeff was not home so, naturally, we got take-out. I've been wanting JimmyJohns all darn day long, and by golly, my #2 with cucumber totally hit the spot tonight. Not to mention the the two Jimmy Johns cookies I got "for the the kids" waiting for me in the bag. The only down side was the odd ball girl working the window. She kept staring at me. Studying me. She unnerved me so badly that as soon as I pulled away I did a booger check. Clean and clear. No hangers. Nothing. Nadda. Maybe she was trying to figure out if I've had beak enhancement surgery. I do have a grande snot collector. Whatever...

I forgot to post the highlight/lowlight of Halloween night, depending how you look at it.
We have a crazy busy street for trick-or-treaters. I was outside chatting up my neighbor when a group of adorable little ankle biters approached my door. I intercepted them by my little pillars where our fabulously carved creations were resting all a glow. Anyhoodle, one little one, around 4 or 5 I'd wager , says to me in his most sincere voice...

"your pumpkins are stupid"

I of course assume I have misunderstood the lad and tried to seek clarification.

"I'm sorry sweetie, what did you say?" I respond.

As I bend down to fully understand the little darling, he says...

"your pumpkins are stupid".

clear as day. no mistakes this time.

I bend in a bit closer to the wee-one and patiently respond...

"Oh...that wasn't very nice...your mask is stupid".

I immediately scanned the curb for a parent and high tailed it back inside.

Stupid little runt. He even got the GOOD full sizer candy.

Pumkins, Crazy Hair, and Goonies:)

whoowee. Life is darn busy. I know I'm preaching to the choir over here. but my word. A girl barely has time to catch her breath, let alone keep up with Days of Our Lives.

Sheesh.

Let's see. Recap. Company, piano recital, book club (which meant READING like mad woman instead of blogging last week), ward split, new calling, Halloween (parent) days at dance, street party, young women's singing thingy, meetings, blogging lunch, haunted house, crazy hair day, primary program, birthday parties, carving pumpkins, and a one year old that is a walking (crawling) disaster. Holy fun-ness batman.


scooping spoons are for sissiesWill likes to incorporate tooth picks into any and all projects possible. Not sure why, but it DOES look fierce, does it not?


I'm ashamed to admit that this year was our first attempt at carving pumpkins. Bad parents. Bad, bad, lazy parents. The kids loved it, so did Jeff actually, so it is one activity that is sure to repeat itself in years to come. Here are the results of that family night...


Jeff's pumpkin is below on the right. In the light it looked exactly like CHUNK from "The Goonies". Jeff did his best "CHUNK" interpretation next to the pumpkin, pulled a nerve in his neck while posing for the picture, was nearly in tears from the pain, I laughed myself silly, and Jeff banned me from posting the picture. Darn it. It was AWESOME:)

Here is CRAZY HAIR DAY. It was the best I could whip out. They both thought they rocked it so I guess it was a success:) Will DID rock the Elvis hard plastic wig. I confiscated candy he was smuggling up in there before he walked out the door . Nice try. More later...I'm hungry and I'd like to double fist my burrito. Not possible while typing :)