Let it Snow!

Playing in the snow, and eating it are definitely the top two activities of winter in this house. Today, Ruby came in the house, mostly a snowball, and I was picking chunks of snow off of her fur and tossing it in the sink. My tiniest came in and saw was I was doing and said "Mom! Don't do that! I like to EAT that snow!!!" Oh my. . . that is just about all I can think of to say.

Christmas Dresses

Today the girls got to wear new dresses to church. I am a total nerd about matching, but I love it. As we were getting dressed this morning my oldest came in a said "Mom, these tights are as tall as me!!" Sure enough, she held them up and they went straight to her chin. Who are these people making clothes for? Oh well, they did the job, now, I can have them and I'll buy her some much smaller ones. I so love having girls. I adore my darling daughters.

fall sprinkler party

This was just 5 days ago!! Can you believe that it is snowing now? I love fall for this very reason.

Halloween

We love Halloween at our house, and this year was fabulous!

fall photos

Finally!!!

This little chicken has been waiting to lose a tooth for a very long time!!! She was the only one in her Kindergarten that hadn't lost a tooth yet by the end of the school year, and man it has weighed on her. So, at school the other day, she was drinking her milk and out it came! My cute little toothless. Not the best picture of her teeth. They aren't gray I promise.

hot as what?

Me: Girls get you coats on, it's cold outside.
#2: But it's not cold at gymnastics.
Me: But it will be cold before and after.
#2: It's not cold at gymnastics, it's as hot as a red-headed chicken boiling in a hot spring. . . .or whatever.
Me: What was that again?
#2: You know that river that you went on this summer, and me and (#3) stayed home, and it had hot springs?
Me: The Middle Fork?
#2: Yea, it's as hot as like a chicken in THAT!!!

There you go, my darling daughter. She is so wonderful, I can't even believe she's mine.

Ear Piercage

My tiniest has been begging for a really long time to get her ears pierced. I took her once, but the lady had a few too many piercings herself, and was a little bit scary to my little. We tried another time, but again, it was a bit too frightening, and she decided at that point to wait until she was as old as Addy (her 15 year old cousin) or married to get them done. Finally, it was just way to much, she HAD to have them pierced. So, I told her this was the last time I was taking her in. I didn't care if she did it or not, but this was it. Ironically, the girl working this time was the scariest of the three (unfortunately, I am WAY too big a cheapskate to go to the cute little girly place to get them pierced. We went for cheap, aaaaand a little scary.). Any-who, I was shocked that she jumped right up and did it, and even more shocked when her older sister did it too. My cute middle girl hasn't really been interested at all, but she did it. The oldest has had hers pierced for a while. So, all is well here, bejeweled ears are the BEST!!!

Middle Fork

The Middle Fork is such a cool river. We had such a great trip. For a fabulous recap on the trip, click here.

San Juan

Ok, I've given up entirely on trying to catch up from last summer. It's not going to happen, maybe if I start now, I can stay caught up. Life is so insane lately, I love it. We just spent the best weekend on the San Juan. It was the little girls first multi-day, as our oldest did the Middle Fork with us a few weeks back. I will post photos from that. The weather was beautiful, and of course the river was amazing and the company fabulous. It was a great way for our family to end the river season. My tiniest said the funniest thing as we were visiting Rock House, a Native American Indian ruin on the river. She said "Indians are the smartest people; Indians and Chinese people I mean." She's so cute. What a little thinker. Here are a few photos from the trip.

Breakfast

Not being a real eater myself, meals are always somewhat interesting at our house. I have two kids that are as indifferent to food as I am, and one child that very much needs a proper meal three times a day. It just goes to show that they come with their own personality. After nearly 9 years of me trying to get out of every meal of the day, my oldest still wants food! And like her father, she's somewhat offended at being offered a bowl of cereal three times a day; unlike the rest of us. So this morning (and pretty much every morning), this is how our conversation went:

Me: What do you want for breakfast girls?

#2: Oatmeal (every day, every meal, just like her mother(:)

#3: Hot cocoa (also like her mother(:)

#1: Do we have any roast beef?

Me: No

#1: Can you make me a burrito with chicken?

Me: No, seriously can't you just have cereal?

#1: I don't want cereal! Will you make me some rice and gravy?

Me: No, I'm not making you dinner for breakfast, lets keep it simple

#1: Fine, can I have Alfredo and a can of corn?

So seriously, my little chicken ate left over alfredo, and a can of corn for breakfast, and had a corn dog chaser about an hour later. I don't know where this child came from.

The Waterslide

Xanadu

Need I say more? Summer is just the BEST!

Outdoor Summer Theater

We are privileged to have such talented children around us that delight us with amazing theatrical productions. Who needs Broadway when with only two hours of rehearsal, some Barbie make-up, and a few garage sale dress-ups we can have fabulous out door theater in our very own yard!?

Carnie

We met up with some friends at the city carnival tonight. It was of course a crowded disaster. My friend Katie put it best in her blog, and I quote "...you know the crowds, the scary looking people you try hard not to judge but can't, the expensive food and kids whining." I saw more shoe-less children, painful looking piercings, very large tattoos, very VERY large hair, belly fat that really should have been covered, and just plain crack tonight, than I have seen the rest of the year combined. It's a must-not-miss event!

canyon trail

For FHE tonight, we took our girls up the canyon to walk along the trail. Everything was so green, and so beautiful!!! I wish our weather could keep it that way, unfortunately, we only have a few more weeks of it, then everything will be brown again. Just for the record, I do, do my children's hair, just not every day!

dance recitals

We spent the day Saturday at dress rehearsal for the big ballet and jazz recital coming up in a couple of weeks. The ballet we're doing this year is "Sleeping Beauty" with the Tchaikovsky score. It is so beautiful, and I love that the girls are part of such a cool performance. The next day, at the Jazz show, the younger two are tapping to some Broadway themed piece, and our oldest is performing with her Irish class. It was a long day of waiting to go on stage, adjusting lights, music, costumes, make-up, buns, head pieces and everything else. I'm a nerd I know, but it was such a fun day, and brought back such great memories. Sleeping Beauty is the last ballet I did before my mission. It's fun to go through it again with my girls.

I'm a tightwad... I mean, I'm a dog groomer

So there are totally things that I'm willing to spend money on. My dog getting groomed really isn't one of them. I could buy a fabulous chair for my living room in what I would pay to have the fluff ball groomed every year. So, I've decided to become a dog groomer once a month.


Above is the before shot. She's soooo cute isn't she? This was taken after I cut in between and underneath her eyes (which weren't really visible before). She gets so hot, so the girls and I decided that it wasn't so bad doing her face, we'd just do the rest of her.

This is after we cut about 2 inches off her whole body. It's a little choppy, I couldn't really quit laughing, and my neighbor gave me a stern scolding, but seriously, it's a dog.

As soon as I get a little bit better, this is what I'm hoping to achieve ..., then I'm going to buy some sassy black support shoes, and a khaki skirt, and practice running with my arms straight down, and get Ruby into some contests!

Until that time though, my dog is going to be the result of my secret desire to cut hair.

St. George

We got to go to St. George this weekend for our nephew's wedding. It was so fun for the girls to spend time with their cousins, swimming, playing, and dancing at the wedding. Our oldest chicken got to be the flower girl which was so fun for her, and then, she caught the bouquet at the end of the reception. On our way back home, we stopped in at Zions for a quick drive and a short hike. It was so beautiful and green from all the rain. We loved it. We had such a fun time with all of our family, thanks for a great weekend.

neighbor kids

Our neighborhood is a total kid-fest. There are so many great families here, and super fun, really good kids. We had an impromptu sprinkler party the other day when it was so beautiful outside. I am so excited to be doing this for the next few months.

Warning

Let this be a warning to you all. This is what happens to naughty children at our house!

Spring Break

I love any break from school. I'm the mom with the self-imposed "early out Thursday", where I pick my girls up early. Not the most responsible thing, I realize; I just want to hang out with my kids all of the time! So a week off of school was a lot of fun. We had a couple of days of warm weather, the littles got to ride bikes, and play out side all day and get filthy. My favorite thing is mud covered princesses that smell of a mixture of sweat and sunshine. Even Ruby got muddy, and had to have a bath. She's not nearly as cute when she's wet. I came in one day to a surprise tea party, complete with strawberry tea, a little bowl of torn up bread, and a little bowl of tortilla chips (since we didn't have any small cakes on hand, they had to do, and did so beautifully). We felt bad for our dad who had to do homework non-stop as usual. No spring break for him. We are all the more excited for summer now, especially July when our dad gets the month off!

I love these pictures, and decided to post them. I don't know how I got black eyes and transparent green eyes from the same gene pool, but I love it all the same. I don't have new photos of Ruby on the computer yet, but I have to say, thanks to a great book (that I didn't actually read, someone just told me the basics), she is doing marvelously at her crate training. It's all quite good now, and we are again happy that we have a dog.

HELP!!!

It's official, I have a newborn. If I'm not holding the creature, she pees on my floor, and chews on things she really shouldn't, if I lock her up she bawls, and she does not get the leash, at all!!!! It's snowing outside, and too cold for her to be out for any length of time. How am I supposed to clean bathrooms, and mop my floors? There is only so much you can do one-handed, and like a newborn, she bawls after a while of that too. I think I'm re-thinking the dog purchase, just 5 days too late! Ruby is wonderful, just not on cleaning days!! My oldest child's idea? "let's get another one, so she'll have someone to play with." Brilliant.

Ruby Delilah

Welcome the newest Ekker girl to the family! We finally have a baby girl in the house! She's a Shih-Tzu, she's covered in dark fur, she demands attention, and she responds well to baby talk! The girls are in heaven, and the boy is coming around to her.

Easter in Moab

We had the best Easter weekend in Moab, with our great friends who were so good to invite us. We hiked to some of the most fabulous places, and saw some of the most beautiful stuff, the entire weekend was smashing. The girls had a blast, as they always do, my favorite quote of the weekend came from the eldest of the Ekker girls who said "Kids who are spoiled don't have very good lives. All they get is toys, but we get to go to these cool places."

All Pink Kitty

This is my "all pink kitty". She found a catalog last Halloween that had a pink cat costume in it that more resembled lingerie than anything I'd let my 3 year old wear, but she would not give it up. She wanted the "all pink kitty" costume. So, we finally talked her into my version of a Utah-weather, would cover more than 25% of your skin, pink cat costume. She went for it, and really hasn't taken it off since. If it's clean, she wears it, at night, she'll take it off and hide it so that it will be ready to go in the morning, because seriously there is nothing worse than wanting to put on the all pink kitty, and it in the hamper under stinky wet wash cloths.

Daddy Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!!!

Our friends were recently "blessed" with 6 Shih-Tzu puppies. Our girls have been begging (to put it mildly) since Alice the Hamster died last year, for a dog. Their parents are not animal type people on the other hand, and so the answer has been no, until I saw them, and oh my goodness. they are so stinking cute. So then it turned into "You have to ask Dad." My darling husband has never really been able to say no to his girlies, and proof that miracles still happen, we have been given permission to buy a dog!!! We picked out a little female called Daisy. We can have her after Easter. Heaven help us. Any potty training tips for notoriously stubborn and not easily trainable dogs would be much appreciated. Daisy is the one being held by Xanadu on top, and is in the middle of the lower photo. She is chocolate, with a little white spot on her chest. I don't know if "Daisy" will stick as the girls have also come up with "Tulip", "Tallulah", and "Alice" ... again, sentiment.

More Pink Please

With four girls and only one boy in our house, we've been feeling a lack of things "pink". We therefore decided to devote a room to our favorite color. Here is the room before, and after. We have one very happy chicken, and two sort of jealous ones. I learned an important lesson doing this job, if you intend to cover "botany beige" with "swan lake", use a primer first!

Sledding Day

We took the girls sledding up in the canyon. It was such a beautiful day, we barely even needed coats. Notice the cheek tattoos. There is the oh-so-stylish duck head, and the blazing cannon ball that was placed sideways to look like the black ice cream cone they thought it was.

all pink in a gray world

As my little and I were walking home from the bus stop this morning, I looked up as she ran ahead of me and saw this beautiful pink thing dancing down the cold gray road. That's totally the role she's taken in life. She can even make cold, gray things beautiful and happy.

The girls received from Santa, much wanted American Girl Dolls. Fortunately, Santa is far more generous than their parents.