Ho, Ho, Ho!

Santa Claus came to the library this week and my children were ecstatic! They got to make antlers, eat lunch and visit with Santa. They had a lot of fun! Hunter is showing off his marvelous antlers that he made. Levi loved Santa!

Ella-marie was the first (and bravest) girl to sit on Santa's lap.

Corbin and Miles were very jealous that they didn't get to see Santa. I told them that they were out of luck, and it didn't matter because Santa was done with the "F"s anyway because he goes alphabetically down the list.

Yum Yum Cookies!

I was feeling up to making some chocolate dipped pretzels today, and I had two very helpful helpers. Ella-marie and Hunter were in charge of the sprinkles. As you can tell. Ella-marie did a great job sprinkling (well, loading) the pretzels. Hunter had a bit of a harder time because apparently the spoon had a magnetic pull to his mouth and no matter how many times I told him not to put his spoon in his mouth, it always ended up there. But he still put some sprinkles on the pretzels. I know which ones NOT to eat. I'm not sure if I'm going to tell anyone else.

Mommy's helpers hard at work.
The look may be innocent, but the evidence is written all over that guilty face.

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Success is Sweet!

Hunter has now officially gone poop in the potty three times!! I know no one really wanted to know that, but it's big news! He stayed dry and clean ALL DAY yesterday! I deserve a cookie! Wahoo!! I'm so excited to have finally reached this point in the potty training. Hunter is a man with a mission now and will do anything for a cookie. It sure will be nice to really only have one baby in diapers.

I think I'll move to Australia...

I have had the most interesting/disconcerting/embarrassing day today than I've had in a very long time. I don't have anyone to talk to and tell about it, so I'm telling my blog. It started off innocently enough...Spencer called me from work to tell me that it was a little icy outside and that the steps were a tad icy. Nothing to worry myself over, or so I thought. I went out early to warm the car up and SWWOOOOSSSHHHHHH!!!!! Down the stairs I flew! Luckily I have enough padding where it counts so that it wasn't debilitating. As I stood up on the landing and looked up at the house (hoping that no one was watching)...there were quite a few faces staring at me with their eyes (and mouths) wide open. I waved gracefully and then gingerly went down the rest of the stairs to start the car. I warned the kids that it was slick and that they would need to be careful, but as we all know, children don't listen. It's a known fact. Miles was first out the door and swooshed straight down the stairs, and thought it was so much fun that he did it two more times until he reached the driveway. Corbin thought he was to cool to hang on to the railing, and so swooshh, there he went. Hunter swooshed the first step and then grabbed the railing and held on for dear life. He wouldn't have moved for all the tea in China. Ella-marie just stood at the top watching. I got Levi, Corbin and Miles in the car, went back for Hunter. Thankfully he made it in one piece that time, and then went back for Ella-marie. I think she was a little too brave because she was holding my hand, and swooosh, there she went. In retrospect, I think it must have been very funny to be a fly on the wall for this episode. We'll have bruise inspection tomorrow and see who has the most fabulous bruises. Hmmm, I wonder if Spencer slipped too, and just didn't tell me?

And life just gets more exciting...We had to go to the courthouse to get our license plates renewed. No problem, unless court is in session. Have you ever tried to finagle a double stroller through a metal detector?? No? Well, I am not suggesting it. They finally felt sorry for me and let me go through the exit with the stroller, and then put just myself through the metal detector. So many people just watched us...not assisting, not opening doors, nothing...just watching me struggle. It was a good time.

And then I was feeling so darn good that we went to the mall to use a coupon at Bath&BodyWorks. Once again with the double stroller. I really just must be a sucker for punishment. I was trying to maneuver the stroller around a display when I backed into another display of gift cards. KABOOOOOMMMMM!!!! Millions of gift cards ALL over the floor. Why do I do these things to myself? And wouldn't you know, a random guy (a little scary looking and smelly) came over and helped me pick them up, but he also tried to pick me up as well. Asked if he could give me his phone number and if I would call him and go out with him sometime. While my little ones were sitting there staring at him! Needless to say, I said no, but thanks for helping. I think we made it out of there in one piece (mostly). I'm not sure we'll be going back there anytime soon.

As I was laying next to a sleeping child this afternoon, looking at the clock and telling myself that I should get up and do something, I thought "Surely things will go better now, what else could go wrong?" And then I realized that I have a dentist appointment this afternoon. Really? Are you serious?

I should have pulled up the covers and stayed in bed.

Say Cheese!

I want to introduce everyone to the newest member of our family...Gracias the Chicken. I copied the pattern from Grandma's own chicken that is a family legend. I know that everyone in my family is jealous. I can just feel it. Gracias was a lot of work, but he is well worth it. Now my rolls have a place to roost and stay warm. The kids are super excited for Thanksgiving tomorrow so that we can try him out. Today, in celebration of the first day of Thanksgiving vacation, we took a day trip to the Ashe County Cheese Factory in North Carolina. Ahh, we thought it would be a piece of cake. Unfortunately, we underestimated the roads between here and there. Let's compare it to riding a two hour roller-coaster with no relief and only a small (and I mean 'small'!) shoulder betwixt us and death by ravine.
This photo (above) is how Spencer and I felt the whole way...aka...BARFFFFF!!!!!

Apparently they grow Christmas trees in the hills of North Carolina. Who knew? The kids were ecstatic to find this gem tidbit of information.

Here we are enjoying the cheese making process. This little room makes 40,000 lbs. of cheese a week. We saw them stirring the milky, bacterial concoction, mold some wheels, sqeeze them and remove them to the fridge. I especially enjoyed the cow-inspired benches.

Happy troopers! And the only time everyone sat still...sort of.

Inside the cheese store. No one could keep their hands off. And miracle of miracles, everyone liked cheese curds, which I adore because they take me back to my childhood. Who wouldn't like squeaky cheese? It was a fun day and one that the children will probably be talking about for a long time. Which is good, because I don't think I can handle driving there again anytime soon. Barf!

Why?

We are in the throes of potty-training Hunter. And in the depths of dispair. And ready to pull my hair out, one strand at a time.

For example, this morning Hunter stayed dry during our walk and when we got home I put him on the potty. No problem. He kept saying "Pee-pee, pee-pee" and looking down, but nothing happened. Finally, after 10 minutes he gave up in disgust and as I walked away, I said (and I quote) "I'm going to put you back on the toilet in 5 minutes because you need to go." No more than 10 seconds after I pulled his pants back on, there was a puddle on the floor. AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

But it gets even better, about an hour later I smelled a little something funky. I asked Hunter if he was poopy and of course he said "NO!" I didn't believe him one bit so I went over to him and grabbed his pants and pulled them out to look. Guess who got fingers full of poop? Oh yes, that was me. The poop had traveled up his behind and was at the top near the waistband, so yes, I got fingers full of poop. I thought I was going to die.

So, our next option is bribing Corbin to train Hunter over Thanksgiving. $5 is a small price to pay to have someone else do it.

The Language of Levi

Levi is now at the age where he understands what I am saying to him. Unfortunately, his understanding seems to be a little twisted, or perhaps something is lost in translation. Here are some examples:

My statement------Levi's interpretation

"Levi!"------"Run away as fast as you can"

"Get that out of your mouth"----"Smile, shove faster, run away!"

"Stop Levi!"----"Do it faster, hurry, hurry, hurry! Quick, before she catches you!"

"I love you"------- "Run away before she kisses you!"

Or perhaps I'm missing something here...apparently all of his interpretations include running away from me. Hmmmm...

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

I'm just going to let the pictures do the talking, and some of them shout. Just keep in mind that I only posted the best ones.

Corbin and Hunter: Squishing out the brains of the fat pumpkin!
Miles and Ella-marie: Oozing out the brains of the skinny pumpkin!

Our finished pumpkins and happy kids. Levi really loves saying "cheeseburger!"

Corbin "Captain Brown-eye" Finch

Miles "Captain Bluetooth" Finch

Ella-marie "Beautiful Princess" Finch

Sailor Hunter (though grumpy he may be)

Tail end of Levi the dragon (I had one picture of him running to eat the camera, one picture of him eating his blanket, one picture trying to escape arms, and then this one...which do you think would have been the best?)

There's nothing quite like Halloween to liven things up a bit!

They're Alive!!

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P.S. Thanks Brecken for the great idea!

Hunter, oh Hunter!

I've decided that two year olds are the funnest kids in the whole world. Hunter just makes me laugh, over and over and over again.

Well, I guess you can say, I could either laugh or cry, and lately I've been laughing.

Last week I was sitting at the table balancing the checkbook when my dear Hunter came and climbed up in the chair next to me. I didn't think anything of it until an unpleasant aroma came wafting my way. Our conversation went like this...

A: "Hunter, are you poopy? You smell a little stinky!"

H: "No poop, no poop!" and at which point he turns around, smells the chair and states, quite vehemetly "Chair poop!!"

A: "No way, the chair isn't poopy. Are you poopy?"

H: Sniffs again..."Chair poop! Chair poop!"

A: Leans over and smells the chair... "The chair isn't poopy, it doesn't smell at all, I think it's you!"

H: Sniffs again for good measure... "Me no poop, chair poop!"

At this point I was laughing so hard I almost fell out of my chair. Sure I could have gotten upset because I had to change ANOTHER poopy diaper, but instead I just enjoyed his view of things and let him sit in his diaper until I finished balancing the checkbook. Good times.

And yesterday our friend Kristy had a baby girl and we decided to visit them in the hospital. Hunter has been sucking on a binky since we broke him of thumb-sucking, and so I had the brilliant idea to have him give his binkies to the new baby. Big boys don't need binkies! So I asked him if he wanted to give his binkies to the new baby and he said "YES!" and ran and got them. He put them in an envelope and decorated it with stickers and he had no problem at all giving them to baby Autumn. I don't think that he realized what a drastic thing he was doing until naptime. Needless to say, naptime was really rough. It took 2 hours of crying for him to finally fall asleep. Bedtime was better, but it still took him a while. Today should be great! I'm crossing my fingers.

Home sick, again!

Once again it's Sunday and I'm home sick with three sick kids. This is the second Sunday in a row and it's getting pretty lame. I always forget how much harder it is to stay home on Sunday than it is to go to church and wrestle the kids during sacrament meeting. Well, I guess I should clarify, both of them are hard. No question there. Now that everyone in our family has either gotten it already or is working through the flu right now, we should be free and clear in a couple of days. Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't start back around at the beginning again.

Happy Birthday Corbin!

Corbin turned a whopping 7 years old this weekend. Where has the time gone?? Corbin requested an orange colored cake with pumpkin on top. And instead he got a bundt cake, orange of course, with orange frosting and Halloween sprinkles. I think I did pretty well. I know, you have to look hard to find the correlation between what he requested and what actually came to be, but it's there, if you look hard enough.

Delicious!

Corbin was excited for his presents...a magnifying glass, bug racers, parachute Woody, a joke book, drawing paper, glow sticks (a fave of everyone), a spy book, and Spiderman pjs.

True, oh so true!

I found these quotes on a flyer that was mailed to my house. It was like winning the jackpot!

...

Trying to dress an active little one is like trying to thread a sewing machine while it's running.

...

Children really brighten a household; they never turn off any lights.

...

Children can tell you that the sole purpose of a middle name is so they can tell when they're really in trouble.

...

Two things small kids will share willingly; communicable diseases and their mother's age.

...

Cleaning your house while your kids are home is like trying to shovel the driveway during a snowstorm.

...

and finally last, but certainly not least...

...

Shouting to make your kids obey is like using the horn to steer your car, and you get about the same results.

...

I hope you all enjoy these as much as I do.

Happy Birthday Levi!

Happy 1st Birthday Levi!Everyone was super excited for Levi's party. Or maybe they were just super excited to eat the delicious cake.
Five children later I've realized that I can make a cake that I want to eat for their 1st birthday. We certainly have enough funfetti cakes for all of the rest of the self-picked cakes. Levi's cake is red velvet cherry torte. Delicious!

Levi got a little excited. As you can see by his red hand. He couldn't hide the evidence.

Heaven!

Double Heaven!

I'm not sure why he dumped out the cake and decided to lick the bowl instead.

Levi's favorite present of the night: a balloon

Everyone wanted to help unwrap the presents. Hunter really thought it was his birthday.

Levi perfecting the art of unwrapping presents with his teeth.

Levi and his new set of bibs. What a happy boy!

Shaving Cream up the Wazoo

Ella-marie and Hunter absolutely adore playing in shaving cream...and I felt that I had the patience today to let them. That means it's a really good day. I had to take pictures because they were having such a great time and were so cute with shaving cream in every nook and cranny.

Happiness is as close as a can of shaving cream!Ella-marie wanted to make sure that I took a picture of her so that she could tell Helen how much fun it is to play with shaving cream, so that Helen could tell her mama and talk her into it. (That would be you, Michelle)

I guess I forgot to specify to Hunter that he was to ONLY play on the table. He really got into the body painting this time. Silly me for forgetting such an important point. Next time I'll just strip him down and not care.

As an ending note, my children smell very manly and my table and chairs are now sparkling clean (shaving cream is an excellent cleaner)! Spencer certainly will be surprised when he gets home and smells those masculine little children! It's always a fun time at the Finch house!

Trauma!

I really try so very hard to keep all of my children alive and well. And this week I didn't do the best job. I had pulled Hunter out of the van and then came around to the other side to pull Levi out. I was holding Levi, face out, in my left arm and figured I could slide the door closed. Ha. That's a joke! Hunter had come around the back of the van and tried to "help" me close the door by putting his hand around the back of the door. As I was trying to shoo Hunter away and keep his hand out of the door, I accidently closed the door on Levi's hand!! What? How in the world did that happen? Hunter had grabbed the back of the door, and Levi grabbed the front of door. I really tried so hard, why can't I win?

Levi's fingers are all still attached, just a nice shade of olive green. Poor little guy. I hope he forgives me someday.

"All I want for Christmas..."

Corbin lost his second front top tooth this week. He has really enjoyed singing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!" And whilst Corbin has been losing his teeth, Levi has been growing his with a vengence. Unfortunately, I tried to take a picture of him smiling, and he decided to climb up on me and eat the camera instead. He definately has more teeth on top, trust me, I know. I've felt them bite me...hard. Our loving nursing time is going to be kaput real quick here. Good thing he turns 1 next month.

And I suppose that everyone else was feeling left out and so I had to take pictures of everyone else as well. Look at your own risk. I guess their personalities have really shone through this time.
Miles "The ladies' man" Finch

Ella-marie "Crazy woman" Finch

Hunter "You don't want to mess with me!" Finch

Levi "Cutest bug in the world" Finch

Happy back to School!

It's that time of year again! Miles and Corbin are officially

back in school and I only have three at home with me!

Perhaps I'm the only one with this problem, but I noticed on the first full day of school, Ella-marie and Hunter managed to fight and make as much noise as all of the children put together.

Isn't that a law of physics?

Perhaps, gases expanding to fill the void left when others leave the area? Doesn't that sound right? So then I ask you...how do two little (3 if you include the shrieking mimi Levi) manage to fight as much as everyone put together, and have the volume of everyone shrieking at the same time? It just doesn't seem possible. And yet, if you come visit my house, you will see (and hear) that it is, in fact, quite possible. On a happier note, here is Miles all ready and raring to go to

Mrs. Dowdell's Kindergarten class.

Corbin is super excited to be in Mrs. Simoson's 1st grade class.

(I think that Hunter wants to go to school too!)

Have you ever seen happier boys on the first day of school?

It's so hard to be famous!

Well, my sisters and Spencer and I and our youngest children are famous now. Michelle sent pictures to the Tough Traveler website and they posted the pictures from our camping trip. If you would like to see them, click the link below.
http://www.toughtraveler.com/photos.asp

or if that doesn't work, go to www.toughtraveler.com click on photo album, and we are first on the list.

Go Michelle!

We Finally Did It!

It's sad but true, Spencer finally talked me into cutting Levi's hair. This was a very traumatic experience for me. I don't know what it is about curly hair, but I just can't cut it off. For goodness sakes, I didn't even have Ella-marie's hair cut until she was 3 for fear of losing her curls. Maybe I have some sort of mental block because I always wanted curly hair and was never lucky enough to have it.

Here is Levi's before picture. It's hard to see, but he has curls around his ears. Levi really loved having the clipper touching his head. Even though it is hard to cut while he was turning his head to look at the clippers.

And the after picture. I guess he mostly looks the same in these pictures, but in real life he looks quite different. My baby doesn't look like a baby anymore! Apparently I still have some trauma and issues to work through. Levi is still just as happy as a clam and loves me anyway.

That's all the news for now.

Happy Birthday Miles!

Happy birthday Miles!

Miles turned 5 this week and had a fabulous birthday! If you can believe it, he picked pizza and spinach dip for his birthday dinner...hahaha. I guess that's why his nickname is "Popeye".

And for his birthday cake we collaborated and came up with a pretty snazzy cake. He wanted chocolate, I said how about white chocolate. He said blue, I said how about a blue cake and white whipped cream frosting. He said blueberries, I said okay. It was a lot of fun to make it with Miles helping me. He did all of the blueberries on top.

Look at this action shot!

Kudos to Spencer the photographer! For some reason, Miles looks like Uncle Ryan in this picture...

Did I mention that the inside was blue?

Miles recieved a Lightening McQueen beach towel. Watch out beach, here we come...

And he also recieved some fancy bubble wands and a huge blue jug of bubble solution.

Also exciting this week...Levi grew not one, but two teeth!! He's just been saving them so that they could come with a BANG! He sure had everyone fooled. Congratulations Levi, you're so smart!

And as a last note, I saw this on a bumper sticker this morning. Perhaps you will enjoy it as much as I did...

"Tennessee mothers understand why some animals eat their young!"

Thank you, thank you very much.