Classic Jenna

Jenna had two great comments today that made me laugh. I hope they are funny to others!

This morning we were discussing her upcoming birthday and I told her I want her to stay little. I asked her "What if I want you to stay four forever?"
Her reply: " Mom, everyone gets older. I want to see what it's like. I want to see how life will be happy when I am five." She's expecting something magical when she hits the big 5!


This afternoon I was raking all the dead under growth out of the lawn (not smart when it's almost 80 degrees) and was tired. I commented out loud that mommy is out of shape.

From her perch on the porch Jenna replied, "Nuh uh, Mom. You're still the same shape as always."

Unfortunately she's right!

Trying to smile

Little miss Lydia is practicing her smile! It's a very cute smile when she gets everything going the right direction and it is so fun to watch her moving her face, trying to figure out how her muscles work.

She is so precious! (I think so, anyway!)

These pictures were taken at Grandma Lou's in Moroni over Memorial Day weekend.

Come see!

Please visit my other blog- the crafty one. See custom-made boppy covers for sale. More items will be coming. Follow the "crafts for sale" link in my blog, blog blog section. Thanks for looking!

Garage sale success

We survived our yard sale this past weekend and I would call it a success. Not only did we sell all of the large items, we made some decent money. Overall, we made almost $800.

I thought I'd share some tips that made it work. Some are mine, some I learned other places.

Advertise- I have always thought signs were important- that's a no-brainer. Easy to read, easy to follow. Make them all the same color & look the same so people know they are following your signs. Last year I advertized on ksl.com & put a flier on the community board at Harmon's. I did both again, in addition to using craigslist.com. I had great response from both websites, with people emailing or calling with questions, and some people pulling up with maps they had printed from the internet. (What did we do before mapquest?)

Organize- We had items from 13 different families, so this was key. We set up zones for similar items, so people could tell what they were looking at. This brings me to my new favorite tip:

THE MAN TABLE! I saw this on Studio 5 a few days before our yard sale. Put a table full of guy things right in front so men will see it when they drive by. Women have a hard time convincing men to stop, but this grabs their interest. It was amazing to see this work! It wouldn't have been any more effective if we had a big sign that said "Men shop here." They naturally went there while the women went everywhere else.

We sold all kinds of crazy stuff off that table- a singing deer head, a singing lobster, a weed whacker, a hard hat, playing cards, a tackle box... Even movies and a hiking back pack that went unnoticed the first day were gone in a few minutes after I moved them to that table. Try it for yourselves!

Also, clothes are sometimes hard to get rid of. Hang the nicer ones so people can see what you have. When those sell, refill the hangers with others. We laid most of the clothes out (NEATLY FOLDED) on blankets on the grass so people weren't digging through piles. I always feel gross doing that with other peoples' stuff. Yuck!

We priced EVERYTHING so people didn't have to ask how much things cost.

We had a free/gratis box by the curb, which people would stop for and then buy other stuff.

We passed out shopping bags and boxes, which some poeple filled and then came back for another! It is easier to pick up lots of stuff if you have somewhere to put it!

Oh- one more-The Sweet Spot. On day two I set a card table over park of my flower bed that had been trampled the day before. This spot was on the way to where we were collecting money. I noticed that the table was a little empty, so I put things from another table there. Soon, they were gone too. People would grab the little things I put there on there way to pay- like candy bars in the checkout line at the grocery store! Find your "sweet spot" and keep it loaded!

There's a few things that worked for us. If you are feeling energetic enough to have a yard sale, good luck and have fun.

What a week!

This crazy week flew by! We are having garage sale mania & have spent the week getting ready for it. Today, the whole sale made $210, and I am hoping tomorrow will be eveb better. The weather is gorgeous, so we should have good traffic!

We also had kindergarten orientation on Wednesday. I can't believe Jenna is that old. She is so excited for school! We found out a friend from her preschool class this year will be in her class next year, so now she's even more excited. Next week is her preschool graduation, so that is adding to the excitement.

I can't believe how quickly they grow! Even my teeny baby doesn't seem so teeny any more. I wish I could hold her forever!!

Children's exhibit

On friday we went to the Church history museum to see the children's exhibit
"I am a Child of God." It was awesome! The whole thing is hands-on and amazing. The girls would have stayed all day if we had let them. If you are in the area and are looking for something to do, I would highly recommend it. It is free, air conditioned, and child-sized.

You could dress up like a character in the Nativity scene, build a temple with the blocks, walk the straight and narrow path while holding the iron rod, make a stained glass window, take care of a new baby in a hospital nursery, attend general conference, and much more. There are some pictures for you to see.

The exhibit is scheduled to be there until January of 2009, so hopefully you will have time to go.

It was great!

Payback's a...peanut

When I was three or four (I think), I pulled some of the little styrofoam beans out of a giant beanbag chair and put them up my nose. I remember being at the hospital to have them removed from my nostrils. My mom has never let me forget that.

Fast forward 25ish years. About 10:30 last night I was getting the baby into her pjs and wanting to put her bed. Tim was at Planning Commission. The two big girls were watching Robin Hood in the other room. Jenna came in hysterically crying and squealing. When she calmed down enough to tell me what was wrong, She said she had put a peanut in her nose.
"Which side?" I asked.

"Both."

Aarg!

The worst part was that she was crying so hard it was making her sniffle and I was afraid she would suck the peanuts up even higher!

I looked in and could see them way beyond reach, so I started getting everyone ready to leave for the ER. I briefly tried calling 911, but the phone screached with that lovely feedback noise. They called me back and I told the lady I was going to the ER, so nevermind.

I was frantically trying to reach Tim, but he was still in his meeting, so I called my mom and told her where we were going in case he called her looking for us. Off we went- four and two year old and 7 week old- to the ER. Luckily the double stroller was still in the van from our earlier trip to visit daddy.

Eventually Tim got my messages and called me. He came and got the other girls about 11:30 and then Jenna had a successful peanut-ectomy. I accidentally sent the camera home with him in the diaper bag, or I would have taken pictures. Holy cow- she found the biggest possible peanuts to shove up there! The doctor was amazed!

When they were done, they gave her stickers, and toys, and a popcicle. Thanks for reinforcing bad behavior!

We got home after midnight and Aubrey was still awake. What a day! Twenty hours after I got up, I hit my pillow and immediately unconcious.

So Mom, I got my paybacks for the bean incident. Is there any other bad karma I should be watching for?

30 1/2

Today is my hubby's bday, so the girls and I went to his work and suprised him with cake and balloons. It is also his co-worker's bday, so we put both names on the cake. I bought one of those things of decorating icing that kind of looks like a can of EZ Cheese with decorator tips. Easy enough, right. Whatever! I had to push so hard on the nozzle thing to get the icing out that I had hardly any control over where I was aiming. I would SO not recommend that thing for writing on cakes. The little tube of Cake Mate I usually buy is so much better! The flower tip was easier to use and made for a nice border, but writing was not good, much less when the 4 year old wanted to write Dad's name with it! I even scraped off "Happy" and started over. Luckily, it tastes ok or the whole thing would have been a washout!

Anyway, we had a great time suprising Daddy at work and showing the cute girls off to everyone. He works with such nice people and they are always so sweet to the girls when we go visit! He was a little embarrassed to have a fuss made over him, but he deserves some recognition. He is wonderful!

One bad thing about when his bday comes around is that my half birthday does, too. Yes, my family takes note of half birthdays. (We are a little wierd about bdays in general!) I feel old today!

In closing, what's with the 90s in May! Yikes!

Eaves dropping

I love to listen to the girls play and talk to eachother when they don't know I'm listening!
I heard Jenna telling Aubrey that Lydia and Makayla knew eachother before they were born because they were spirits in heaven before they were in their mommies' tummies. They had quite the little discussion about it! It's nice to know that they are hearing and learning something we say, because sometimes those ears don't work so well!

In other news, Jenna has tonsilitis. Since we saw nearly all of the cousins over the weekend, I thought I'd better let you know that she doesn't have anything contagious- just big, nasty tonsils! She's feeling a bit better today and is actually on a field trip to Wheeler Farm right now. (Yes, the Dr. said she could go if she felt like it)

There's our news for the day.

The other side...

Here's the BYU boppy cover. One side is the pattern, the other is plain navy blue. This is style is also available for $13, much to the dismay of my sewing machine. I think it had an allergic reaction to the fabric! Ü

I also made a cool fishing/hunting patterned cover. Pictures of that will come later. If you know anyone that might be interested, please pass the info on to them. Thanks!!

Aubrey's turn

It seems Aubrey is suddenly much more aware of her world, or atleast more expressive about what she sees around her. We were driving the rain today and said, "Mom, our car is SOAKED!" When we got home and parked in the garage, she came to the back of the van to help unload groceries. She looked down by her feet at the wet tire tracks and announced with excitement "Look, car footprints!" You'd think she had discovered gold! What a sweetheart!

I should make a whole seperate blog for the funny things my kids say. Maybe another time... Here's a good Jenna one- We were at my parents house on Sunday and she was outside looking at the garden. She kept saying, "Mom, look at the Barbara, look at the Barbara." That's my mom's name and she wasn't in the garden, so I wasn't sure what she was showing me. Then I saw it- the rhubarb!

Aubrey's new thing when she's mad is something she has borrowed from Jenna. When Jenna was mad, she used to say "It's not fair!" and fold her arms in disgust. Now when Aubrey's mad, she folds her little arms, makes a pouty face and declares, "It's too fair!" It's really hard not to laugh!!!