A Lesson On Giving

In one of those "At my wit's end" moments a couple weeks ago, I told Brooke she would not get any Christmas gifts until she earned them back one by one. She was behaving pretty badly, and I thought of the worst punishment I could in the heat of the moment. I rarely go back on my word, but tonight I just had to.

Some background:

Brooke has had a hard time with the incentive programs that work so well for my other kids. She just doesn't seem to care enough about earning or losing points so it doesn't work too well for me or her. Because she never earned more points the she lost, she never had any to redeem for money. This created a small problem when she wanted to get gifts for her sisters for Christmas. We came up with creative ideas of things she could make, but one of the things would've cost more to make than to purchase, so I made a deal with her. I would purchase the gift for her to give to Sophie in exchange for her keeping her room clean between then and Christmas day. No fighting. No whining. No excuses.

Today she didn't get it cleaned. She got distracted and just forgot. When I put them to bed, I pointed out to her that she hadn't held up her end of the bargain, so the deal was off. No gift for Brooke to give to Sophie.

She was devastated. But the girl has to learn that there are consequences to her actions (be aware that this is not the first time we've had this kind of problem - she is remarkably stubborn when she wants to be, and I feel a need to hold a firm line with her). I couldn't help but feel sympathy for her though. My mother heart wanted to cry out, "Never mind! You can still have it, just clean it up tomorrow!" My prison-warden mind wanted to cry out, "You buttered your bread, now sleep in it!"

When my heart and mind came to an understanding, I gave Brooke an option. A test of sorts. "Between now and Christmas, I will let you work to earn back EITHER your gift to give to Sophie, OR your Christmas presents." Without hesitation, with something between relief and desperation in her voice she answered, "I want to earn back Sophie's present!"

I think at that moment my mother heart silenced my warden mind on this one. How can I take from her the opportunity to give? Her ever-compassionate sister Janelle (after witnessing the entire exchange) begged me to let Brooke at least have the gift from her. I realized then how important it was for both of them, and all of us, to be on the giving end; that giving heartfelt gifts is a way that we show Christlike love for others. Brooke wasn't as concerned about missing out on her gifts, but they are representative of other people's love for her, and I shouldn't interfere with that in the name of discipline. Completely overcome by their remarkable displays of selflessness, for maybe the second time as their mother, I gave in.

I think I did the right thing.

Nonsense

Claire: Where's Dad?
Me: He's at work.
Claire: Which work?
Me: His work.
Claire: No. I mean, WHICH work?
Me: HIS work. DAD'S work. Dad's at his work.
Claire: Which dad?

I give up.

Should I Be Worried...

that my daughter begged to wear this to school today?

Ugly Christmas Sweater to the power of at least 3, maybe 4, with a reindeer head out the front and a reindeer butt (presumably belonging to the same reindeer) coming out the back.

(terrible picture quality, I know. The flash didn't go off and there's only so much photoshopping can do with too little light)

Merry Christmas to all! May your cocoa be hot, may your family be crazy, and of course, may your sweaters be ugly!

Well THAT'S Not Good Advertising..

I stumbled across a mom question/answer site in which a person had asked if the "My Baby Can Read" program was any good. From the following reply I'm thinking, probably not (unless baby's a genius and it's just mom who's an idiot)

Not So Smart Person - posted 6 days ago
I recommend the program 150% I had it used it luv’d it!!! Unfortunately it got stolen & I have to replace it!!! If u use it rite it is an amazing tool young minds especially in the first 3yrs r so eager to learn. Iv seen it used with a couple children and it really effects every aspect of their development, how they behave and handle them selves is amazing. My son is constantly learning and using the skills “My baby Can Read’ at hme & in the out side world. He new how to read Nose, mouth, teeth ECT new where they where on his face and other ppls face’s along with animals faces before 6mo. His vocab is very high thanx to the programs tools!! He loves the video’s books, flash cards he brings them to me. He helps other children learn and which way to read left 2 right, very cute.. U will here 4rm ppl that it’s a scam yadda, yadda, yadda but that’s because they dnt have it!! Some of the bad things ppl… who haven’t used the program. seem to always resort back to it’s just memorizing. Well sorry no it’s not just memorizing, and yes to a point memorizing can be a little harmful and that is because young brains are taking in so much input that they have to prune out other skills that they r not using and that’s where us as parents come in and support them by providing a balance so they are not pruning out skills they need. & really come on we all start of learning something by memory and then we build of it. Ppl say that it doesn’t teach phonics yes it does with r help try it and then say that phonics isn’t being taught!! Great program as long as us as parents us it correctly. Also I really recommend Leap Frog Letter Factory!! It really helped my son learn his ABC’s and their sounds.


I think I lost count of the grammatical, spelling, and other errors somewhere around 33 (ok, I counted obvious abbreviations, but they were annoying). Methinks she did not do that company any favors!

Stuff, etc.

A lot has been going on around here lately, but no one thing seems blog-worthy, so I decided to combine a bunch of tidbits together and maybe I'll end up with something substantial.

Eden - 10 months old today - she had another urology appointment and kidney ultrasound. Everything looks good, and she hasn't had any bladder infections for a while so we're hoping she's on her way to a healthy urinary tract!

Claire makes me laugh. Everyone is getting a version of this for Chrismas from her:

They're scraps of fabric taped together into animal shapes. This one is for Sophie. It's a giraffe - can't you tell? If you want one too, I can let her know and I'm sure she'd be happy to make more.



This is what I spent my morning doing with her:

I forgot how much fun it is to play with Barbies! My favorite was this:

We had a Ken that had lost his legs, so she decided it was Casey McAllister (which won't mean much to those of you who don't know him), and she put him in a wheelchair/stroller :) I sure hope that's not offensive...

At church a couple weeks ago Claire wanted to share her testimony -which she did- but I wish she'd done it the way she told it to me:

"I know Heavenly Father and Jesus love me... Oh! And Santa."

She had an eye appointment recently and there has not been any significant improvement in her eye alignment. She will probably be needing surgery again in January. Hopefully this time it will take.

Last week we accompanied Todd to Tillamook for the day. While he was in court we went to a Pioneer museum. It was pretty fascinating! I was quite impressed by all the things Claire had learned from Disney movies. In a display with old instruments I pointed out and told her about the mandolins. "Oh, like they play in Freaking Booty?" "Yeah, like that" (the scene where the servants or some people are getting drunk and falling asleep while the kings are arguing). Then later was a display of the evolution of washing machines. I showed her the washboard and tub and told her how they were used, but she already knew. "Like in 'The Little Mermaid' when Sebastian is stuck in the clothes they're washing?" Right again!

Brooke and Janelle have been taking an afterschool class called "Taiwan Buddies" where they learn about the culture, language and history of Taiwan. They are also going to get a chance to meet a student from Taiwan and communicate with them via Skype. Wow - isn't technology amazing? There was a limited number of students who got in so Janelle missed out until another kid dropped out and she was able to drop in.

Sophie just had her first band concert last night - definitely the best first year band I've ever heard play. It was pretty impressive what they've all learned in just a couple months, and they did a great job staying together as a band and all that.

I've run out of steam, and probably more importantly, money, on all my home improvement projects. But since it's Christmas time I would've had to take a break on it anyway. When I get a chance after the holidays I'd still like to put up crown molding, re-decorate the dining room and do all kinds of things in the family room. I got a bunch of fabric to do crafts with as well but my sewing machine broke and I can't get it fixed anywhere that doesn't charge more than it originally cost, so those projects are on hold too.

Two crying kids is my cue to go, so bye till later!

$2.99 Entertainment

We found the game Balderdash a few years ago at Goodwill ($2.99) and recently decided to give it a try with the kids thinking they might be old enough for it. It was amusing at times, impressive at other times (they fooled me more than once!), and overall a good entertainment investment. Some of the most memorable definitions made up by various family members were the following:

whisternefet - to let one fly at the dinner table
skimmington - the lovely town where they go skimming

calipee - to urinate in California

grimalkin - a legend in which there is a giant named Grimalkin

Macula - the dorky cousin of Dracula

pipsissewa - gome (she just made up a word!)
funkify - to bully by sticking one's face in the trash can
nictitate - the joy a wife gets from scrubbing the streaks out of her husband's underwear

hoitzitzillin- to stick one's finger so far up one's nose so as to touch one's brain

hodad - a couch that has been gassed on so many times that a distinctive plume of odor is released when it is sat upon

lycanthropy - the unique ability of the digestive system to sort feces according to vegetables [which skill Eden seems to have...she ate a soup with mixed vegetables and the following day had three poopy diapers, one with corn, one with carrots and one with peas! TMI, I know]

Tringle - a person who typically walks nude from the bathroom to the bedroom after a shower, an who has a firm set of buttocks [changed from the previous, less flattering definition, if you were so fortunate as to have read it before I changed it].

I love my family...Tringles and all!

Two Down, Still Going...

Garage door re-do is finished! (ok, it's ALMOST all the way finished - I still need two more handles for the second side, but True Value was sold out and I have to wait till more come in)

Before:

After:

Custom made hinges, made exclusively by me...out of paint stir sticks :)

(and front door is painted black to match, but it still needs some touch ups, so it's not photo ready)

One Down, A Bunch Still To Go

Bathroom is done! Well, except for the chair rail which will be done shortly, and the toilet tank lid that broke not 5 seconds after I took the "after" picture when the shelf above it fell (because my anchors didn't really anchor). But anyway, it's (mostly) done!

Before:

After:

Ooooooohhhhhh, Aaaaaaahhhh

Bee in My Bonnet

Whenever I feel the need to start a project (or twelve), I get sort of obsessed with it and everything else falls apart around me. Such is our life right now. We're scrounging every night for dinner and I haven't done the laundry in a while, but I've got a bee in my bonnet, as Todd likes to accuse me, and I want to complete all these ideas I have floating around in my head while I have the motivation to do it. I haven't completed all of them, but here are some before and afters of my plans, photoshopped with my limited skills to give me an idea of what it'll look like, and so I can sell the idea to my husband who would kind of prefer I leave everything alone so I have more time for him :) I'll post pictures of the finished projects if they don't turn out crappy and if I ever actually get them done.

Garage door as is:

Garage door makeover with contrast trim and gate hardware for the "carriage door" look. It's a trick finding hardware, particularly hinges, that will work since the door still needs to bend to go up and down. I'm thinking I may have to fake it with thin pieces of wood painted glossy black cut to the size I need. I hope it works!

Outdoor curb appeal: here is the house as is:

Outdoor makeover: Besides the garage door, we added window boxes, will need to replace the tree that died this summer and will need to do some minor landscaping.

or maybe with black doors? any opinions?

Bathroom (one step past "before" as I had already started to re-do the countertop before I took the picture)

Bathroom black and white makeover with black paint (I know, BLACK?! - but it's just paint, and I think I really like it), a chair rail with white on bottom and a zebra print rug which I plan on taking back from Todd's office.

Dining room as is:

I've decided it's time to lighten things up a little with a chair rail and frame moulding on the bottom of the wall and a light aqua color on the top. If I can find a salvage chandelier I can fix up I'd like to do that, and I have some orange-ish chair cushions I'm coveting right now, although they probably won't become a reality for a while as they don't fit into the super-cheap redo category.
This is a little project I did last week since I already had all the stuff I needed on hand and I was antsy to get something done. No before picture, but it was just a plain white door out to our garage, which just so happens to be where we keep our food storage, so it made sense to do this pantry chalkboard here:

and a close up:

In addition, we've been shampooing carpets, touching up trim throughout the house, repairing little things that happen with a pile of kids, and rearranging rooms (we kicked Claire out of the office, so it could just be an office again, and we gave her daybed to Sophie and turned Sophie's into a trundle bed for Claire.) Phew!

What I really need though, are some good ideas for this room:

I don't really love the wood wall or the brick hearth (or the mess, but you have to look past that) paint or don't paint....what to do???

Halloween 2010

Haven't got pictures of all of us yet, we're missing Wonder Woman and the Incredible Hulk (my camera battery died, so I have to get them from a friend who took some with her camera), but here are the kids in costume:

By Request: An Exposition on Dr. Laura

Many people know I have a love/hate relationship with Dr. Laura - 20% love, 80% hate. So when she announced she would go off the air as of 2011, my first thought was, "Good riddance!" and my second was, "What am I going to listen to while I'm driving?"

On the pro side, I think she is often sensible and has a straight-talk way about her that some idiots seem to need to figure out their miserable lives. On the con side, I think she is rude, condescending, annoying, hypocritical, screechy and seems more inclined to reiterate her point of the day than to actually listen to the caller's question. She has an uncanny way of asking her own questions that don't have anything to do with the person's problem, and spinning it in such a way that she can make a point that she is obsessed with making. She interrupts people without apology but reams you up and down if you interrupt her. Oh, and she loves to harass women for being too bossy and demanding towards their hardworking husbands, but somehow I just cannot see her as being a sweet compliant 50's housewife herself. More like a whip-wielding dominatrix. And a million other loathsome qualities.

But like thousands of others I had a conundrum and thought, "What the hey - I'll call her up and see what she thinks." I asked her how to help my husband make better food choices so he would live long and prosper. And she's a bit of a fat-ist, so I knew she'd have an opinion. Assuming that I had married a child with no abilities or will of his own she gave me the useless answer to, "just feed him healthy food." Of course she wouldn't afford me the opportunity to explain that her answer was unhelpful because my husband was actually a big boy who could go to the grocery store all by himself and had the free will to choose not to eat the healthy vegetables I served. She hangs up on people who veer away from the point she wants to make so the listeners don't get confused by relevant facts.

Just to torture myself, I called her another time when I was concerned that our little doggy wasn't getting as much attention from the kids as I thought she needed. I explained that we got the dog under the assumption that the kids would play with her all the time, but that oftentimes it felt like she wouldn't get the attention I expected the kids to give her (and being a mom of 4 at the time, I didn't feel like I could add doggy playtime to my to-do list). She told me I was a bad mother for getting a dog for little kids. I think she thought I expected them to take care of the vet appointments and training and walks. Again, she wasn't interested in understanding the situation, but did want to make a point that parents should not expect kids to be responsible for pets. (And in case you are a dog-lover who is worried about our pet, rest assured I take care of her needs, and under the threat of letting another family adopt her, the kids do better now too).

Again, thanks, Dr. Laura, for not listening and for giving me advice I cannot use.

Change that to 10% love, 90% hate. Still, if she called me up and invited me to brunch, I'd gratefully accept and be nothing but sweet and agreeable the whole time. What is wrong with me??

To Sleep or Not To Sleep

Sometimes it takes a while for the girls to settle down after I send them to bed (I'm sure no one else has this problem...). So we introduced a new rule in which for every five minutes after I've declared "lights out" that I hear them still up they lose 10 points (points being their incentive program, they gain points for good behavior and chores, lose them for bad behavior, and can cash them in for money or computer time). So last night I snuck down the hallway to try and catch them talking. I stood outside their door for a couple seconds, was just about to burst in and yell "Busted!" when I heard Janelle softly say, "I love you, Brookie" and Brooke answer, "I love you too." Awwwwww :) I tiptoed away, glad to have witnessed that sweet moment.

Good Mom or Stubborn Control Freak?

On our way up to visit my sister and parents in Washington earlier this week, one of my delightful children (who shall remain nameless to spare her pride) took issue with her sister for putting her feet up by her head. I KNOW this scenario has played out in hundreds of minivans numerous times, but I wonder how many ended up like we did.
Because culprit A had leaned her seat back, culprit B couldn't get comfortable without putting her feet anywhere that didn't offend culprit A. So I suggested culprit A and B switch seats, especially since A insisted there were a number of ways for B to be comfortable without putting her feet up. Culprit A was not excited by my ingenious plan, and refused to be moved. So I gave her a warning and told her I would pull over and she would have to get out of the car until she was ready to cooperate. I tried to make it very clear that such a "time out" did not have to be long at all, just long enough for her to be ready and willing to cooperate, but it was too late. She was already beyond reasoning.
But so what? I can be more stubborn too and I don't want to give in to contentious kids, so when I came to a Fred Meyer parking lot, I pulled in, got her out of the car, and locked the doors with the rest of us inside. She proceeded to bang both fists on the windows screaming, "Let me in!" over and over. Passersby proceeded to watch with concern, and (not one to waste time) I proceeded to feed the baby while we waited. This was at 8:59 am.
One odd, well-meaning fellow on a bike looked particularly disturbed by her scene. He asked me what was wrong, and I told him, "She's throwing a fit, and I can't let her in until she calms down and apologizes." Then without charging me, he offered a psychiatric evaluation of her, suggesting that she might have something known as "broken child-syndrome". "Uh, thanks, I'll look into it." Another man walked by and gave me his best "You're a bad mother" look.
At 10:04 the inevitable happened. A police car pulled up behind us and asked what was going on. "I was wondering when you might show up," I muttered. I explained the situation yet again, and fortunately he could see I was not crazy, just that I had a stubborn daughter. These things don't happen all that often, and they usually blow over a lot quicker, but that morning was a biggie! The cop seemed surprised that it had all started with an argument about feet (I don't think he has kids), and that it had lasted over an hour. The shock of having a policeman talk to her seemed to snap culprit A out of her rotten mood, and she was all kindness and consideration the rest of the time.
Am I doing the right thing? I never know. I'd call Dr. Laura and ask her opinion, but I can't stand her, and besides she already told me I was a bad mother (that's a whole other story).

And the Answer is...

Eggnog.
What?!
The explanation as it was told to me:
"You know because 'eggnog' sounds like 'ignore' and this guy is ignoring the other guy."
Duh.

Win Cookies!

If you can guess what I was supposed to be able to guess from this picture I will give you a dozen cookies of your choice (unless you live too far away, in which case you get a giant pile of nothing). The hint was: food
(Limit seventy times seven guesses, no immediate family members may participate or give clues, answer will be given in one week's time or less if I get impatient.)

Happy Stuff

Claire started preschool and she LOVES it!

As of Saturday I officially became a triathlete!!

Yesterday we had a "No more warts/Happy 1/2 b-day" party for Sophie (she's had this viral wart thing going on for over 2 yrs and they finally all ran their course and are gone for good! and it just happened to be her 1/2 birthday so I made 1/2 a cake to celebrate)

The girls were so excited about the impromptu party that they made this sweet powerpoint slideshow for me - and it wasn't even mother's day OR my birthday!

It's A Miracle!

I never thought I'd hear my Brooke (of all my kids) say it, but she did. I asked her and Janelle to clean up their room, and set a timer, informing them that when it went off I would be going through with a garbage bag and they wouldn't have a say in what I threw away if they didn't have it cleaned up. When the timer went, Brooke ran in to me and breathlessly asked if she could keep cleaning "just a little longer??" My brain went through the scenario of all the different answers I could have given her, and I decided that the best way for me to get what I wanted was to go ahead and let her have at it! Feigning reluctance, I answered, "Yes, you can keep cleaning, but when you stop it's my turn." I later learned that their version of cleaning largely consisted of shoving things to the edges, but hey, they definitely put some effort into it. Yay Brooke and Janelle!

Tosser vs. Keeper Wars

Can a "Throw-it-away-we'll-never-miss-it" kinda gal find long-lasting happiness with a hoarder? I contend that the homefront is MY sphere so I should have more control over its state of being. My husband disagrees. He thinks I should work around his "piles" without so much as thinking about moving or sorting through them. If I were to completely submit, make no mistake, our house would be one giant pile within a week. I can't live with that, so I've spent the last 13 years trying to keep the piles at a minimum with a variety of techniques designed to keep the peace. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

We have an 18 gallon bin labeled "Todd's Ugly Clothes" They are several years old and several sizes too small, but heaven forbid I donate it to the fashion-unconcious, thinner men of the world. Another 18 gallon bin holds old tapes and cd's, most of which feature rock stars/drag queens with questionable sounding song titles. In a day of mp3's, do we really need to keep those?? Two footlockers, 3 desk drawers and at least 2 more 18 gallon bins hold a collection of valueless football and baseball cards on the off-chance that someday we have a son who gets a thrill from gigantic worthless collections. Add to that old textbooks from college, more board games than even a fully-committed geek can play, and rotting, moldy memorabilia, and you get a sense of the issue.

The problem is he wants to keep everything around with a half-committed intention of getting around to dealing with it at an undetermined time in the future. As a result, I'll find mail from 2003 cluttering up my desk. Some things I KNOW he would never miss, never even think of again, but if he knows that I tossed them without his having gone through them first, we would most certainly go through the argument that has become almost ritual in our house:
"What happened to the stuff that was right here?"
"It got cleaned up. What do you need?"
"I need you to stop cleaning it up."
"I can't leave it there forever!"
"Just leave it until I take care of it. Don't touch it if it's not yours."
"There are 6 other people living in this house; we can't live with your piles!"
and so on...

I'm not a neat-nick, and I couldn't be one even if I wanted to with all the opposing forces sharing my turf, but there is a certain level of disorganization that I can comfortably live with and function in. It is my claim that since I have the responsibility of maintaining and running the home, I should make the call on its state of being. I know and love my fair share of keepers, and the state of being in anyone else's house causes me zero anxiety whatsoever. Actually I probably like keepers more than tossers because I think they tend to be the easygoing, non-anal, fun types. Keeper or Tosser, the homemaker should be able to define their space. It's their turf, after all, and they should be able to run it in a way that THEY function best in.

I love my keeper, but don't know if I can live with his piles. At whatever your comfort level is, how do you deal with a partner who counterracts your attempts to live comfortably in your own home? And do you have a truck I can secretly borrow to make a trip to the dump?

Old Maid Madness

Less Than Helpful

When I have the kids help with chores, I don't expect perfection, but I was nonetheless a little surprised to see that Sophie hung up Todd's dress clothes like this:

(pants inside out hanging sideways by the waistband)

(shirt with sleeves stuck inside)

My Girls

Pictures taken by Julia Shinkle. Thanks Julia - I love them!

Things That Made Me Laugh Today

-When I was making "bikini/macchini/nocchini/yuckini/zucchini" bread today, Claire asked me if she could lick the "beatles"

-A dark-haired dad at the park mentioned to us that when he was little, he used to have light blond hair like Claire. I asked Claire if she wanted her hair to be the same or different when she got older. She answered, "When I grow up I want dark green hair."

-Claire wanted to play a game with the adults, but I told her she should play with the other little kids because old people are boring. She replied, "You're old, but you're not boring."

(beware: this is rated PG-13)
-I called Todd at work and told him I'd made his favorite thing, shepherd's pie, for dinner. He got very excited until I clarified that I had made it with green beans (which he hates), not corn the way he likes it. His response? "That's like saying to me, 'I really want to have sex tonight!!!.......but not with you.'"

Bumps and Stings and a Hundred Other Things

Saturday evening things got exciting (bad exciting) at our house and haven't slowed down since. Claire was tipping a bar stool back and forth and it fell on her big toe, splitting it open under the nail bed. (When I told my dad, he asked, "What was she doing at the bar?" Just chillaxin' after a long day I guess.) Her toe looked dreadfully unnatural so we gave Todd a call, interrupting his golf game (that's how serious it was!) and told him to meet us at the ER. After a good long wait, the dr. saw her and determined that she would need to be sedated and have her toe numbed while he cut most of her toenail off and stitched the skin back together. Yuck! Her eyes were open while she was sedated and the dr. told me people often have hallucinations on this particular drug. When she came out of it I wanted to know what she'd experienced. She told me something about giraffes in a special closet :) So she's got her toe wrapped up and has been off her feet with her bad foot propped up since then.

Sunday afternoon we drove down to Eugene to pick up Janelle who'd been visiting Grandma and Grandpa Bevans for the week. We got home around midnight and I fell asleep almost instantly only to partially wake up a short time later to hear Janelle complaining about her hand hurting. I told her to show me in the morning and went back to sleep without so much as opening my eyes. She showed me first thing the next morning and her hand was swollen up so much it looked like one of those latex gloves filled with water. I took her down to the dr. right away, but she'd never been a patient there so the nurse didn't even come out and look at it. Instead the receptionist made an appt for us at 2pm. Her hand wasn't getting worse, and it wasn't hurting very bad, so I patiently waited the day out. Todd thought I should've taken her to the ER right away, but I wasn't worried enough to consider it an emergency. Besides, I had Claire laid up with her injury and the baby, and spending hours in the ER didn't sound like a good plan. When we finally saw the dr. she told us to take Janelle to the ER. Grrrr. I had to call Todd and tell him he was right (and to come home as soon as possible). I took Janelle and Eden and spent 2 1/2 more hours waiting in the ER. Finally we saw a dr. and he looked at it briefly and told us it was just a local reaction from a wasp most likely, that it was not infected and needed no treatment other than being raised to reduce swelling. That was a colossal waste of time! I had to call Todd immediately and inform him that I was right after all.

And to top it all off, today (after a follow-up appt for Claire's toe) we had to take Eden up to Portland to see a urology specialist. She has been diagnosed with bladder reflux which makes her more susceptible to kidney infections if she gets a bladder infection. This will be an ongoing thing for her as she has to have regular appointments to check on her progress.

So those are some of the things that have been frustrating and overwhelming lately, but they have also managed to bring into focus some things I am very grateful for. Namely, doctors, technology, medicine, insurance, and a hundred other things that make these things annoying, but not life-threatening. I'll take annoying.

Picture Updates

We got pictures of the girls last weekend from the amazing Julia Shinkle and she posted them to her website. Eden at 6 mo., Claire at 4 yrs, Janelle and Brooke at 9 yrs, Sophia at 11 yrs:
http://juliashinklephotography.blogspot.com/2010/08/in-case-you-are-wondering.html

Beauty Shop Birthday Party

On the heels of Claire's birthday is Brooke and Janelle's birthday. This year they had celebrated in style with a Beauty Shop party. After a nail polish game (spin the bottle, whoever it points to gets to polish one nail that color, continue until everyone's fingers are painted all different colors and with each person's last nail, they get to keep that color polish), the girls partnered up and with Maggie's help they gave each other gorgeous makeovers!

With multi-colored nails

Beauty Preparations

Maggie helping make the girls gorgeous

Claire's feeling glamorous with a wig on upside down and backwards

Brooke and Janelle taking time out to goof off

The Before and After Shots:

Brooke

Brooke is stunning in a lacey burgundy top and pioneer-ish skirt

Janelle

Janelle stands out in her grandma-print housecoat, tied at the waist and glam sunglasses

Sophie

Sophie goes from snore to score in this elegant green bridesmaid dress and light green sandal

Leilani

Leilani (with stylist, Brooke) is radiant in bright red lacey dress with a light short-sleeved cardigan and heels

Elizabeth

Elizabeth is a natural model with her posing skills. Here she is shown in a silvery gray and black velvet dress accented with a small plastic pearl necklace. The flower barrette in her hair is the perfect touch to complete her look.

Emily

Work that attitude girl! The fashion snob in Emily comes alive in her emerald dress and sunglasses, making her as hot as any Hollywood celebrity

Anne

Anne is elegant in creamy satin with a lacey skirt.

Janelle ready to blow out her candles and officially turn 9

Brooke's turn (notice Ben in the background, he didn't want to miss out on all the dressing up action, so he found something slightly less feminine to put on!)

Time for gifts!

The After-Party:

Maggie let the girls draw on her face 'cause she's nice like that

Happy 9th you crazy girls!