Maisey's FOUR year old pictures

She says this is how many kisses she's going to give Daddy whenever she sees him again.

Maisey's mischevious Monday

I was sick yesterday. Today I planned on reclaiming the house.

 It was a good plan. A reasonable, doable plan.

 If it wasn't for Monster Maisey having a case of the mess-making Mondays.

 First, she encouraged a popcorn fight in the living room of a Costco size bag of organic (read expensive) popcorn. When I instructed her get the vacuum and clean it up, she did. For a minute. Until she decided to open the canister and dump the contents onto the floor. Next she gave Elise an entire new box of cereal (again) and they dumped about half of it all over the kitchen. She sat in there for a while and cleaned (ate) them off the floor. While I was on the elliptical I realized that it had become too quiet. I rationalized that they were likely playing in the garage. But I had a feeling I should go look for them. Maisey had taken Elise outside in the front without my permission (the hugest cardinal mistake which has been discussed and spanked over many times). Her next move was to put Lila's thera-putty on the buttons of the printer. The buttons are now covered in orange putty which I cannot get off. Next she watched and laughed as Elise emptied the entire trash can so that she could put it on her head like a hat. A while later I walked into the kitchen to discover the entire floor was wet. Very very wet, everywhere. I asked her what happened. She said she had climbed up on the counter, turned on the faucet, and used the sprayer to soak the kitchen floor. I looked out the window to discover that she had taken my nice decorative Halloween kitchen towel outside to carry worms and snails in. And also had emptied my rag drawer into the piano room. The final straw came when she covered both her and Lila's dinner in hand soap when I left the room to help Elise with a diaper. She was sent to bed at 6:15 without eating anything for dinner. 

Needless to say, I did not accomplish quite everything I needed to do. 

One of the following two things is likely to happen:

1) She will sleep off the crazies due to the fact that she will be getting an extra 2 hours of sleep.

OR

2) She will wake up around 3am completely rested and ask me to make her a Nutella sandwich. 

Please, for the love of orange gummy bears, let number one somehow miraculously occur.

This picture was taken on our last St. George trip when she decided to empty the trash can, and then fill it up with herself, along with some water. 

No, seriously though, I hate it when kids beg for stuff

Usually. But lately, when this kid begs for stuff, I can't help myself. I have to look away or leave the room. It's too much. She scrunches up her shoulders. She cocks her head to the side. She uses sign language. She asks in a baby falsetto. She has perfected and employs a plethora of faces and antics to get what she wants. And we're all suckers for it. Every last one of us. She uses these to con her sisters into getting her paci and her blanket out of her bed for her. Then she always comes and shows me what she has. She has to know I'm going to take it away. But I guess that moment of triumph is worth it to her. Deep in my gut I fear we're creating a monster. Starting tomorrow I will hold appropriate boundaries when she breaks out all her tricks on me. I will not be worked over by a one year old. I will not give her a chocolate muffin before she's finished her dinner. Unless they have zucchini in them, like they did in the following pictures. In which case it would be totally fine because it's basically a health food and provides her with essential dietary elements. 

Clap for me, I'm so smart and entertaining!!

I don't even have to sit down. That's the level of disregard I have for rules around here. 

Watch me sign 'more'. They go nuts over that one.

Why yes Elise, you can have whatever you want!

asking for "more"..... she draws it out and makes her voice low and hilarious

Can you hear it? "Abo....go get me another muffin". 

This is her declaring that she's "all done". With her muffin. Not with begging. She wasn't born yesterday. Just last year.

                                                "Nom nom nom. These suckers do as I say"

And a shout out to her gallery of fans. She has everyone one of her sisters cracking up and cheering for her.

Breaking for fall

When I initially saw that the kids had a four day weekend for fall break I cringed a little. Weekends are usually a bit long and draining and I've come to dread them a little. However, I'm happy to report that we had a fantastic break together. The weather was lovely, the attitudes were (mostly) good, and I thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with the kids. It's on those days that I seriously contemplate homeschooling. Anabelle has asked me twice this week to home school her. That thought scares the ba-jeebies out of me. I wish there was a hybrid between the two. Because let's not underestimate the power of going to Target with only half your kids. Or being able to send them out the door when they have been mouthy for the first hour of the day.

Anyway, we weren't talking about homeschooling. We were talking about normal schooling, and taking a break from it. Let's look at a few pictures of that:

We met Emily at a park in Salt lake on Friday. We spent the bulk of the day there. Molly and Lila hit it off, which thrilled me. It looks an awful lot like Emily and I, 25 years ago. 

It would absolutely blow your ind how many wood chips can fit in a diaper. 

On Saturday the girls had soccer games. Lila played goalie. What I mean by that is that instead of dancing, galloping or twirling on the field, she did it in the goalie box. She also inspected the net and played with that for a while, 110% oblivious to the game. She did however notice that the morning light provided the perfect scenario to watch your shadow dance and she spent considerable time in that endeavor. I realized that she thinks they are winning every week because they keep giving her treats at the end of every game. BUT, as we walked to the car, her arms full of Gatorade and fruit snacks, she immediately noticed Maisey looking at her treats. With zero hesitation Lila handed Maisey the whole bag and told her she could have it. It's not like Lila handed her a V8 or anything. She gave her the all coveted, "our Mom doesn't buy us these" fruit snacks. So, I'd say she's winning at other things. More important things if you will.

Goal kick!

Elise spent the duration of Anabelle's game making sand angels and sitting in the place that used to be my lap. I prefer the sand angels.

Cheering for "A-bo". Whilst eating a sand covered granola bar.

Lila fell down and scraped her knee. Being the extra compassionate Mom that I am, I told her I would wash it and bandage it when we got home in a minute. Her little team mate went a got a wipe from his Mom and cleaned it up for her. She was still talking about it today. 

 After games we came home and did our chores. Everyone did them with good attitudes, even if it did take Maisey four hours to pick up a stack of books. We went and got donuts that night and had a cider and Halloween donut party on the porch. In the dark. Which made them feel big and cool to be outside in the dark. I have some pictures of that on my phone. If I can figure out how to make my phone give me back all my pictures, I will add them. In the event that never happens, just know that Elise really appreciated her first donut and that baths were immediately necessary.