Monday, December 21, 2009

Lost Tooth

Bonnie lost her first tooth last week! She has been waiting and waiting for this tooth to come out. I am pretty sure it has been loose for almost a year! Well, it is finally out, and she is so happy. And the Tooth Fairy remembered to come and everything! It was a red letter day!

Ewwwwwwww!

Brett caught a rat the other day in our garage! Ewwwwwwww! We had been hearing something in our attic, and it sounded kinda big. Then we found some chew marks in our food storage. Boy did that make me mad! What a waste of food! Anyways, so Brett set out some rat traps, and this is what we got! A big fat rat! EWWWWWWWWW! Ethan was of course fascinated with it. I refused to go out in the garage until the rat was taken care of. I'm a pretty tough girl, I can kill spiders (for the most part), but this was WAY beyond me.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Adventures in Christmas Tree Land

We had one hum dinger of a time getting our Christmas tree this year! We weren't sure if we were going to cut one down, or use the sad pathetic artificial one we have in storage. Just so y'all know, I don't have anything personal against artificial trees. In fact I have seen some incredibly beautiful ones, just not at my house. I do prefer a real tree to the artificial, as a personal preference. Well we got a call from the primary president in our ward asking us if we wanted to go up to Cohasset and cut down a tree. Apparently her sister's husband's family owns a ton of acreage up there and they wanted to give away some of the Christmas trees that are growing on the land. Well, we thought, woo-whooo! We didn't know if there would be snow up there or what, so I dressed my kids like there would be. Turned out there wasn't any snow in sight, just rain, rain, rain, rain, and more rain. When we got to the place we were told to meet the sister's husband, his name was Cliff. I've never met anyone named Cliff before, he was a real nice guy. Anyhow, Cliff fired up his F-150 with our family of 6 crammed inside. He smacked that puppy into four wheel drive, and we were off! We went up hills, and down hills, and finally stopped at a place that Cliff deemed appropriate for Christmas tree finding, and also, he was afraid to take the truck any further on the slick, thick, oozing, muddy logging road we were traveling on. I was carrying Lily in my arms with a blanket over her, and holding onto Eliza's hand as we hiked into the forest. You would think that being in the forest, with all those trees for protection, we wouldn't have gotten so wet. You'd be wrong though, we were soaked. Luckily Lily kept the front of me dry though! Just kidding, but she did sleep through the whole experience. So anyways, there we were in the middle of nature, hiking up a huge hill in search of the perfect Christmas tree. Cliff was leading the way, with Ethan, Bonnie, and Brett right behind him. Eliza, Lily, and I were left to fend for ourselves. After walking all the way to the top of this extremely large hill through extremely thick underbrush, we come to a clearing at the top. I think that the others were planning on going down the other side of the hill and up the next one. Well, by then, I was going to be pretty happy with any old branch, or Charlie Brown tree we could find. It was pretty tough going through all that underbrush with one arm carrying my baby (granted she doesn't weigh much), and helping an almost 3 year old climb over fallen trees and other debris because she doesn't want you to carry her! "NO mama, ony Ziaza do it!" It was at that moment when I spotted it...the perfect tree! The one we were going to take home! I walked right over to it, and realized it had a big hole in the middle. So we cut down the one next to it, which turned out to be the perfect tree for us! After we cut the tree, we started back to the car. I was prepared for a long and hard hike back through the underbrush dragging our newly felled tree. Imagine my surprise when we walked about 50 feet, crossed one fallen tree, and came to the road! WHAT!!! I could have walked up the road and found our tree! Well, then we walked down the hill, on the road to the truck. Eliza couldn't be stopped, and I saw it coming, but there was nothing I could do to stop her. She started running down the hill, and just like I as her mother knew it, she did a total face plant into the muddy road. I wish I could have taken her picture in the mud like that, but I wasn't fast enough. It was a classic fall, one of those that you see happen in slow motion. She wasn't hurt, thank goodness, and we all climbed back into the truck. Cliff started to retrace our route into the forest, but we kept sliding back down the steep muddy hill. This probably would have been terrifying in itself, but there was a small drop off on the other side of the road that kept getting closer and closer every time we slipped. We backed down the hill three times in an attempt to get better traction. Finally Brett got into the back of the truck, and with much prayer, we finally made it out! Then we took the tree home, and put it in our garage to dry off. When we brought the tree into the house, I thought, "Wow, this sure looked smaller in nature!" We found our spot for the tree in our house and put it up. We got the lights on the tree, and the kids did all the decorating. After all our hard work, we stood back to admire our handy work, and that's when the tree started to tip over. Then it fell all the way over. The stand had been full of water that was now all over our carpet, and ornaments were broken (though not as many as you would think). So we tried and tried to get that stupid tree to stand up, and we just couldn't do it! Brett finally came in from the garage with a 3x3 foot piece of plywood and bolted the stand to it. That worked to stabilize the tree mostly, but we ended up drilling a hole in the bottom of the tree so we could put a spike in it to hold it still in the stand! What an ordeal!!! But now it is up and beautiful and perfect just like a Christmas tree should be! Here we are in the forest, I wish you could see how hard it was raining. Here is Lily all snugly and warm and dry and very asleep on my shoulder. That girl can sleep through anything! Poor Eliza! She was so mad because her hands got dirty when she fell down. This is right after her face plant in the mud!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Out and About

I was running errands today with Brett and my little girls. I always carry Lily in the front pack. She is much more comfy there than in her car seat. Some of you have had the misfortune to hear how much she HATES her car seat. It is painful to listen to. Anyway, I digress. Picture me walking through Wal-Mart today with Lily in the front pack, her little head barely showing over the top, pushing the cart with Brett holding Eliza's hand next to me. All of a sudden a woman stops me (which I get all the time, because frankly, my kids are super stars). Anyway, she stops me with an "Oh, my gosh...is that baby real?" ...Yup that's what she asked me. Nope lady I just like to carry 10 lb baby dolls around in the store to see if anyone will notice. Can I get a "Here's your sign"? Next we ran over to Office Depot. Eliza had a small package of crackers that she was finishing up. She decided that she didn't want to hold onto them while we were in the store, so she handed them over to me. That was her first mistake! We were in the store for a while walking around trying to find what we were looking for. I may have absent mindedly started eating those crackers along the way. Alright, I ate them all...and they were good!!! When we got to the cash register, Brett was taking care of the money end of things, when Eliza asks me, "mommy where my cackas?" To which I have to tell her that I ate them all. The lady behind the counter looked at Eliza and said something like, "oh, no, mommy ate your crackers!" Then she paused for a minute, looked at me and asked, "Wait...Did you really eat her crackers?" That's right lady, I took the food right out of my child's mouth! Don't judge me!

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Lily's Blessing

Lily was blessed on November 1st. It was so wonderful! My mom and dad were there, along with Aunt Jenny and Uncle Spencer, Aunt Sabra and Uncle Michael, Jake and Julie, and Jeff and Becca. Plus a lot of kids that come attached to these misfits we call family and friends!!! It was a beautiful blessing. Lily was so good through it all. I took these next pictures a week before her blessing. She is such a beautiful baby. I know I am her mom and supposed to think she is beautiful, but she really is!

Halloween

Halloween was so fun this year! And only a week ago! The kids were soooooo excited to dress up and go trick or treating. They were super cute in their costumes. While we were out trick or treating, I noticed that Ethan had his Halloween bucket, and the plastic grocery sack he had carried clothes in to his Aunt Jenny's house. When I asked him what he was doing with the bag, he looked up at me with a smug 8 year old smile and said, "when I say trick or treat, they put candy in both bags!!" He did not get to keep the grocery sack. He was pretty bummed that his scheme didn't work out the way he thought it would, but was soon preoccupied with all the candy he did get. Brett was a good sport and let me dress him up as Waldo, and I was his girlfriend Wanda. Our stripes, believe it or not, are made out of red duck tape! Thank you Shannon for the idea! I ran out of tape before I was finished with Brett's shirt, so only the front has stripes. He was very accommodating. We were the only adults who dressed up with our group. You might think that was embarrassing, but no, it just confirmed my theory that we are AWESOME!!! Brett may have been a little embarrassed... Happy faces... Silly faces... Scary faces!!

Sunday, September 27, 2009

On A Roll

Alright, this is my third blog of the night! I am feeling a bit blogged out. Don't worry though, I think my dearth of blogs is over. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to post some more pictures of my four beautiful children. Ethan showing off at the duck pond up in paradise. I use the words "duck pond" loosely, because we saw 2 ducks, but they hid under bushes the whole time. Bonnie is just being her cute self. Eliza is having a snack under our kitchen table. Our little Lily. All four of the little rascals.

Attention to Detail

Every night before bed, I ask my kids to set out the clothes they are going to wear to school the next day. Then I ask them to show me what they have picked out. Every once in a while, I will get sidetracked with other things, and not ask to see their clothes. I know when this happens, Ethan will attempt to wear the same exact clothes he had on the day before. No matter that they have mud splattered on them, food stuck to them, popsicle dripping down them. He doesn't care. Bonnie however has a different issue. This is one of her more colorful creations. I do try to help her figure out what matches and what definitely doesn't. When I tried to explain to her that the shirt and pants were a good fit, but the red socks and purple shoes were a bit much, she said, "But Mom, this shirt has red and purple on it!" Well of course it does. How can I compete with such logic? So as much as it pained me, I sent Bonnie off to school wearing her carpis with red socks pulled up, and purple shoes on her feet.

Where Have All The Bandaids Gone?

Eliza had her friend Eliza over to play (one of our friends calls them "E Squared"). They were playing quietly, which is always a cause for concern. Then we found them holed up on the bathroom floor surrounded by band aid wrappers. As you can see in the picture, they were having a pretty good time peeling and sticking. When I was a kid, I had a sticker collection that I could use for my peel and sticking needs. I guess Eliza might need a little more direction. Although, we have given her stickers before, and they just end up on the window (where they don't come off), or on the TV (where they don't come off), or all over a two year old's back (don't ask how they got there, just know it took me a good week to get them all off). Maybe using up all the band aids isn't such a bad idea after all...

Saturday, September 5, 2009

4 Days Old!

Lily is 4 days old! It is amazing how fast they change and grow.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Welcome to Lilian Claire Stapf!!!

Baby Lily has made her appearance at last!!! Monday September 1st, at 7:06 am, Lily made her debut. She is 7 lbs 12 oz, and 18 inches long. As you can see, she has piles of dark hair, and round, round cheeks. At this moment, she is sleeping. That wasn't the story last night however! We are all happy that she is here at last!

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Starting To Catch Up...

As I write this entry, I am feasting on a peanut butter and carmel sandwich. I never knew you could find heaven between two slices of white bread!! Well, I don't really know if I can say heaven, I mean, there is no chocolate involved after all. Maybe the heavenly waiting room then. Mmmmmmmmm. Alright, I am going to go way back before Easter, and come forward from there. These first two pictures are Bonnie being super silly. She made a leprechaun hat at school and she is showing it off. Oh, my Miss Leprechaun, what a big nose you have!! Isn't she just plain cute? During Spring Break, we went with our cousins to Turtle Bay. It was so much fun! The kids all got along really well, and we didn't lose a single one of them! This first picture is all the cousins together before we went in. This scary picture is of one of the exhibits. Ethan looks a little too comfortable behind the wheel than I would like! Bonnie is looking at the fish in another exhibit. This is everyone on the sundial bridge. It is a suspension bridge that moves with the wind. It is actually pretty freaky, but I tried not to think that I had all my children on a moving bridge over the Sacramento River. The kids loved it of course. Ethan is hanging from one of the suspension cables on the bridge. He thought he was mighty big stuff to climb up there and hang. Then he dropped, made the whole bridge shake, and gave me a heart attack! Oh, you see the blue stripes on the bridge beneath him? That's glass! That's right, G-L-A-S-S!! I guess I might have freaked out a little. Eliza saw some geese swimming in the river, and she wanted to make sure everyone knew about it!

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

I'm Back Baby!

Alright, I know that it has been forever long since I have posted, and I sincerely apologize. However, I am pregnant, and that is all the excuse I need!! It is going to take me a while to catch up, so bear with me. For all who haven't seen me in a while, about a month and a half ago, I cut my hair, and I mean chopped it off! It was about down to my shoulder blades, and now it is to my chin! Our friend Perry did it, and I LOVE it! It is new and fresh, and it makes me feel hip! I wasn't sure I was going to cut so much off when I went in to see Perry. I was thinking just a trim. But sitting there, I knew I wanted a BIG change, and that this was my chance to do it. Brett wasn't with me, and so I totally shocked the poor guy when I got home. He likes it now, but it took a little while to get used to. When Eliza saw me for the first time, she wasn't sure it was me. She was a little shy, but we got over that pretty darn quick! I found a before and after shot of me, so y'all can see. The first one was taken around Easter time, and the second was at Bonnie's birthday party at the end of May. I was talking to some of the other mom's that were at the party, and that is why I look like I am in the middle of saying something. Eliza didn't want me to be saying anything, and that is why she looks so grumpy.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Cuter than...

My kids and I were recently in the car (we're always in the car). I told them that we were going to the park with our brand new cousin Jack. Both Ethan and Bonnie were ecstatic. They started talking to each other about Jack. It was one of those moments as a mom that I was happy to be a fly on the wall to witness this conversation. Ethan observed that baby Jack was WAY cuter than a rock... Bonnie countered with a yeah he is cuter than a rock, but he wasn't cuter than a guinea pig! Just so you are all aware of the order here it goes; rock, Jack, then guinea pig. Ethan and Bonnie didn't ask my opinion on the matter, but I would have said that I think Jack is WAY cuter than a guinea pig!!!

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Computer problems

I have to say that of all the problems in the world, I am grateful to have mine. That being said, our computer totally crashed a few days ago. I am now writing this blog on a borrowed computer that has none of my pictures or anything on it because all my pictures and videos were on the computer that fried. I am not sure when things will get back to normal, or if there is any such thing as normal. But I have pictures of Bonnie's new hair cut and our butterfly adventures to share when I can. I just wanted everyone to know there is an actual reason behind my lack of posting this time. Until I blog again...

Friday, February 27, 2009

Pinewood Derby

This is Ethan's very first pinewood derby! He was so excited can you tell from the first picture? He got a certificate for the "most natural car". His car was called "The Turtle". In retrospect, that probably wasn't the best name for a race car. Oh, well, Ethan had a great time. His very last race was to determine the second spot for whose car got to go on to regionals. He didn't win, and you could see the shock on his face at first, and then...he turned to the other racer, and said "good job"...with a smile on his face. Oh man, oh man, I was one proud Mama! That ten minute talk on good sportsmanship before the races started really paid off! Later he pouted all the way home because I told him that two brownies, and three cookies was enough dessert, and he didn't need anymore when we got home. Ahhhh, such is life...

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Ring Around The Rosies

Eliza LOVES to play ring around the roses. She loves it so much she will play by herself if she has to. Ethan and Bonnie are a good big brother and sister, and they play with her a lot. It makes me sick to my stomach to play more than once with her, so I really appreciate Ethan and Bonnie's help. Eliza calls it "wee-wee" and will come up to you to ask you to give her your "hi" which is hands. She doesn't have a very big vocabulary, but boy can she get her point across!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Alright, I know this video was kinda long, but I just wanted everyone to know how much I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that Brett plays like this with our kids! And as you can see, Bonnie is having a great time too! I think that Brett should have been a basketball player, did you see the air that he got?

So whenever Bonnie is bothered by something, she says, "Oh, father", or "stop fathering me". It's so funny to hear her muttering to herself, "father, oh, father!" I'm not sure where she came up with the word "bother", but I am so glad she gets it wrong. It makes my day to hear her!

It was a sunny day, and the weather man said it was going to be overcast. So Bonnie told me that I needed to call him up and tell him he was wrong! Somehow I thought he would already know without an irate phone call from a listener. (She heard the forecast on the radio)

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Happy Birthday Eliza

Eliza's birthday was on Wednesday. She is just so darn cute, and I just can't get her to do what she does on camera! It is killing me! She loves to dance, and she loves to sing. But will she do either while the camera is rolling? NO she won't! Oh, no! I just had a terrible thought! What if she is already the contrary chicken just like Ethan! What if her contrariness is just a part of her being, just like being cute is? How am I going to deal with two contrary chickens? For those of you who don't know, The Contrary Chicken is a children's book that we read when Ethan was little, and it fit him so well, we started calling him that when he is being particularly contrary. He sort of thrives off of it though, being contrary that is. It is like an energy source that just gets stronger and stronger the longer it lasts. Wow, I have definitely gone off on a tangent here. Sorry, enjoy Eliza's cuteness.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

We Wish You A Merry Christmas!

Alright, so I know that Christmas has come and gone, but I made my kids sing this silly song three times before I thought it was "perfect". And by perfect, I mean I just couldn't take it anymore and this was the last cut they were getting!

So Christmas at our house was pretty fun. The kids were their Hilarius selves, (of course what else would you expect on the one day a year they get to rip into gifts like there was no tomorrow!). Eliza though, could have cared less about what was going on. She was opening presents because I was helping her. And by helping her I mean I was taking her hand and making her fingers grab the paper and pull it in a downward motion. I think her second present was a magna-doodle. After that she would have nothing to do with opening presents. She just sat and drew on that thing for probably a good half hour. We tried to get her to open more of her gifts, but she would tell us "no", and give the sign for "all done". Oh well, it was more presents for Ethan and Bonnie to open! Ethan got everything he wanted, and declared it an AWESOME Christmas! Bonnie didn't get anything that she wanted, well she did get a puppy that moves when you touch it (cringe, it's a little spooky actually), and she got a barbie horse that actually walks when you touch it with the magic wand. Brett and I thought that she was going to love her gifts, but they weren't quite right. When Bonnie told Santa she wanted a horse that can walk, she meant one that she could ride too! Santa told me that the horse she wanted cost a whopping $400 more than the one she got. I say yeah for bargin shopping! Too bad for Bonnie, though later Christmas day, she decided that "evendough I didn't get everyting I wanted tis is til the best Quwistmas EVER!" I guess it wasn't a total wash after all! Merry Christmas to all.