Negotiations

Hallee lost another tooth the other day and right before bed I saw her writing this note to leave under her pillow...

Translation: I want $10 for my (tooth) because Im running out of money and my friend got $10. Thank you.

The tooth fairy responded..

FIVE BUCKS!!!! Who gets five bucks??? And even more so, what kid gets TEN BUCKS for a tooth?? Don't worry. I left a note for that dang tooth fairy myself!

12 HOURS

12 hours. That's how long I slept Saturday night. And I am not even ashamed to admit it. In fact, I deserved it if I say so myself. I wish it would have been 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep but it was actually interrupted TWICE from two different children. Oh well. It was 12 hours none the less.
I feel like I have been swimming with my head barely above water for the past month. Actually, over a month. It seems like it started back before Halloween with all the parties and the school carnival and it hasn't slowed down ever since. Throw in a girls shopping weekend, Hope's birthday, a seven day trip to Logan, a Christmas Enrichment (I mean activity), and my competition and I have had one heck of a month. My poor kids and husband have been totally neglected and Hope reminded me yesterday that I promised I would be nice again once my competition was over. (Whoops!) But we all survived and as of Saturday all the major events are over. Now it's time to blog. (Well, that and finish a few last minute Christmas shopping, clean my house that has been neglected for a really really long time, address and send out Christmas cards, deliver neighbor gifts....ah crud.)
So stay tuned. I will try to get caught up a bit this week.

THE BIG 5!

Is there any such thing as a birthday anymore? It seems to me that they are turning more into birthweeks or birthmonths. Hope's birthday celebration would definitely fall into the latter categories. It seems like she started receiving birthday cards and presents in the mail a good week and a half before her big day. She was ELATED to have mail addressed to her!

One of her good friends was going to be out of town for her birthday party so we had a little sleepover with Elle and Grace on the actual day of her birthday.

A week later we had her birthday party. Since the girl is obsessed with gum (and you have no idea how intense this obsession is) I decided to use it as the theme of the party. Troy kept telling me to "just keep it simple." Simple? I'm sorry. I'm not familiar with that term.




We played "Bubble Gum, Bubble Gum, in a dish..."

I taught them the "Bazoka, Zooka, Bubble Gum" song and dance...

We played "Find the gumballs"....
Did a little Hullabaloo (I know it's not bubble gum related but give me a break. I've gotta keep nine five year olds entertained for two hours :)

And what party would be complete without a pinata! I wish you could hear the sarcasm in my voice right now. I hate pinatas. Okay. That's a little too strong but seriously it's a death wish. I am a nervous wreck the entire time that someone is going to go home with a few less teeth. I tried to convince Hope not to do one this year but she wouldn't let it go. I even told her I couldn't find one (hey, it's true. One store didn't have any so that counts right?) She voiced her concerns to Grandma Susu in Arizona who generously offered to ship one right out to us. I had to remind her of the secret "mom" code. :) But ya. Hope got the dang pinata. And the kids went home with an assortment of gum. I'm sure their parents were thrilled!

Not only did they get gum from the pinata but they each took home their very own gumball machine and a bag full of gumballs. I know. I'm a bad bad friend. Sorry to all of you who have been digging gum out of your carpet for the past few weeks.

And major props to Troy who was assigned the task of decorating the birthday cake. Not too bad hey?

Happy FIFTH birthday Hopers!! We love your spunk and sass and your ability to make us laugh at ALL TIMES!! You are one of a kind and we love you to pieces!

I think one of my favorite things about this time of year is our GIRLS SHOPPING WEEKEND with my mom, my sister and my two sister-in-laws. We eat, shop, laugh and shop some more. It is so much fun!
Because of Adree's back injury she had to be in a wheelchair. We laughed every time we looked at her. For some reason, it never got old.
She didn't help the situation when she tried to preserve her hair from the snow. I mean come on, how could we not laugh.

It got even funnier when she got the motorized wheelchair in Target. We always knew where she was when we heard the back up BEEP-BEEP-BEEP. I can't even count how many time she got herself trapped in between a row of racks and knocked down half the clothes trying to get herself out.
Breakfast of Champions....a diet coke and a hot chocolate!

I made the mistake of telling my sister in law Kristie about the new hottest toy of the season. That was pretty much all it took for her to think she needed one. She drug my other sister-in-law Rachel and I to Walmart at midnight to see if any came in on the shipment.

When we didn't have any luck there she made us get up at 7:00 to go to Target so we would be there when the doors opened. When we pulled up I noticed a bunch of people sitting in their cars. I knew they could only be there for one reason so we hurried and jumped out of the car and got to the doors first. Once they unlocked them we were in the lead so I thought we could keep things mellow and under control. Ya right. We walked about five steps before we could hear someone running in from outside. Krisite looks at me in panic and yells "RUN!!!!" And the race was on. Yep. Grown women running for their lives all the way through Target with store employees laughing at us all the way. Only to get to the back and have the employee tell us they didn't get any in. YA COULD HAVE TOLD US THAT AT THE DOOR!!!!

Oh. The fun we have.