"You've got a handful!"

If you have more than one child, or even just one who happens to behave LIKE a child from time to time, you're bound to run into THEM. You know who I am talking about... those people in the grocery store, in the line at the bank, the library or just about any public setting... They take one look at your darling little crowd and issue intelligent comments like, "Are they ALL YOURS?" "Do you PLAN your family?" "Are you done YET?" or my personal favorite..."Boy! you've got your hands full!" Most people mean no harm and are just admiring your "gaggle" (that one is for you Mel) but some are down right rude. (I opted to leave those comments out).

I used to just smile and laugh with them until one day, out of the blue, my four-year-old said, "Mommy, why do people always ask if your hands are full?" It took me a moment to realize what she was talking about. Then it occurred to me that I had never considered my children's feelings about all those comments. That was when I started to think about my reactions. If I shrugged or smiled wearily, what was I saying to my children? They are the best decisions my husband and I have ever made!

So now I have a ready response to those comments that inevitably come our way. And you know, it has been really fun to see the reactions that my come-backs cause. My favorite: A man just leaving the neighbors house saw us all playing in our front yard. He said the usual, "Wow, you have your hands full!" To which I smilied and quipped "Not yet." He started to drive away and then kicked his truck into reverse, stuck his head out the window and asked, "Did you just say 'Not yet'?"

A FEW TO HAVE FUN WITH:

~They had a buy one get two deal.

~You should see the twelve I left at home. (I love this one!!!!)

~Makes for great fun!

~We are trying to market chaos.

~(This one was my uncle's) Let those who want to have a big family, go ahead. We only have ten.

~We'll keep going until we have an ugly one.

If you've ever read the book Cheaper by the Dozen (A true story by the way) the father, who is very proud of his family, had quite a few of these. The obvious one "They come cheaper by the dozen!"

Hope you have fun and I would LOVE to hear some of your family's incounters! If you have a good come-back, may I have permission to use it too?

Bingham Fun

Thanks for all your sympathy with the waterfall in the basement! Just so you know, my wonderful, amazing, marvolous husband fixed it by ten the next morning. I had taken the kids and gone to play volleyball at the church (more for the flushing toilets than the volleyball). When I came home he had it all done. (This is where you hear the angels singing). I really enjoyed having water agian. So after all that whining... I only had to be without running water for about twelve hours. The kids thought it was fun (that is only because they weren't the ones who had to take a FREEZING COLD bath) but we learned some really good things... like how to use the water four times before throwing it out. And our Family Home Evening, on preparedness and water storage, was a lot more meaningful to them after their "pioneer" water adventure.

Brooke's all duded up as a cowgirl (Naugahyde boots and all!). Elko may not have a ton to offer... but we do get to dress up as cowboys every year for the National Cowboy Poetry Contest Week. Yeeee-Haaaa! My favorite billboard in town is an ad for the contest and asks "How many words do you know that rhymes with varmint?"
Madi has been so excited because she just started "cooking lessons."
I'm trading with my friend: I teach her son piano and she teaches my daughter to cook. (Just to defend my motherhood honor... I do cook with my children. We just thought this would be a fun thing for Madi). I sat in on her first lesson... I think I may need to take notes! I thought I could hold my own in the kitchen... well I'm re-thinking that now.

Connor is convinced that crawling is still faster... but he is walking a little more each day. Oh, and did I mention that he likes to climb... the kitchen table is his favorite perch now. He can climb up in about two point two seconds. Ahhhhhh! I turned around for moment to clean up dinner and when I turned around he was up there stuffing his face with as much spaghetti as his little fists could hold. Apparently he hadn't had enough.

Madi has had a good week! She just won third place (In her level and school) for a painting she entered in the Nevada PTA Reflections contest. She is proudly displaying her prize... her own "credit card". (Its a gift card) Sorry, no pict of the painting... I think they send it on to the next judging.

My handsome little men! I love the clearance winter stuff!!! These sweaters were my "find" during our last Twin Falls shopping trip. I never really appreciated all the variety of stores until I moved here. Now I seriously have the "shopping shakes" any time I am in Salt Lake or Twin.

Who needs to bathe?

It was a quiet Sunday evening... we had finally finished all our meetings and church assignments and were lounging about watching a movie before tucking the kids in. Sounds nice huh? Well, then we went into the basement and guess what? We now have an indoor swimming pool. Our pressure reducer-thing-a-ma-jig has gone kaput. So, to stop the waterfall on the wall, Brett had to dig under a couple feet of snow to turn off the water main in the front yard. And now I am looking forward to a lovely day without water tomorrow.

(Brett will fix it for Family Home Evening. Maybe we'll have a correlating lesson on water storage and preparedness). Although it still doesn't make me feel any better about a whole day ahead of me without a shower and flushing toilets with a pitcher of water (potty training included). Brett is trying to make me laugh at this "stinking" situation... "Don't forget Hon'... If it's yellow let it mellow... if its brown flush it down." Easy for him to say. He gets to go to work to use the potty!

All in all, it is a great lesson in gratitude. I am so grateful to have flushing toilets, warm water, CLEAN water that comes right into our homes, a washing machine that all I have to do is load and walk away... I really am quite spoiled. So tomorrow we will be playing "pioneers." We might even smell like them too!

You know, its a little like the women going to the well (our storage barrels are in the basement and too heavy to carry upstairs). So I will be making frequent trips to "the well" tomorrow... too bad I don't have any other ladies to chat with like they did long ago. Well, at least I have a good excuse not to do laundry.

Hope you all had a nice warm shower!

Afternoon snooze

Things got a little quiet yesterday afternoon so I went to check on Ben and this is what I found.
That kid can sleep anywhere!

Connor's First Birthday

What do you mean, "there's no more cake"?!!

Connor's 1st birthday was Saturday. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for the gift!

He loved the Little People Set... too bad Ben swiped it the first chance he got. Connor has to crawl at top speed to pursue the thief who is currently fleeing the scene.

Connor is the first baby that I didn't have to encourage to go for his cake. He dug right in and I do mean DUG. The other kids were getting worried that they wouldn't get a piece of cake.

We were enjoying taking pictures of his messy face so much that I'm afraid he really stuffed himself with frosting! That night, I was up very late with a little guy who had a very upset tummy. But all in all it was a really fun day for our little Connor.

Loving the holiday break!

Having Madi home from school and Brett home for the few days he got off work was so heavenly! I loved all the extra family fun stuff we got to do!

Madi is reading a story to Brooke. (I sat around the corner and just listened). It was so neat because Brooke really enjoyed being read too as usual, but Madi was reading for fun too. A lot of the time I have to make her sit down and read and she fights it, wanting me to read to her. It is really amazing the things that are changing as my children get older and I am learning to sit back and let them do things for them selves. For example, It is really hard for me to let Madi do her own hair. (Melanie, she's a lot better at doing her own hair than I was thank goodness! ha ha ha).

Dad's night to cook! Hooray! Brett makes dinner on Sunday evenings and it is so nice to just sit back and WATCH.

Ben was Daddy's little helper.

Brett taught the kids how to make tiny smores over a candle. Nice honey! Now every time I burn a candle they are going to be looking for the mallows.

We had a family snow man making session. Ben would rather eat his carrot than donate it to his snow man's nose.

So now I have our FAMILY of snowmen on my front lawn. I love snowmen, but it was a workout making six of them! I don't really look as round as my snowman makes me look.

Grasshoppers and hot cocoa! Yummmmmmm...This is one of our fun family traditions! It is one of those treats that our cousins, Brandon and Michelle taught us. It isn't something you'll want to do in front of company, but pay attention, and kids... Do try this at home!

Nibble off two ends of the cookie and suck the hot cocoa through it... then quickly put the cookie in your mouth. (It melts from the inside out). NOTE: Real "keebler grasshoppers" work the best AND it is kind of nasty if you use flavored hot cocoa... the regular cocoa is better.
So try it and let me know.

By the way... this is one of those awful pictures I post only to show you that occasionally I'm not the one holding the camera. In my defence, I am still getting over pinkeye and can't wear makeup. Waahhh!

Christmas at the Binghams

We had a wonderful Christmas. We stayed home and enjoyed a very nice family day. We always have a big breakfast and have to clean up before the gifts are attacked. It's my favorite tradition and the kids were really good about waiting. (How mean am I... they even had to make their beds and get ready for the day first). Madi, Brooke, Ben and Connor under ready to open gifts.All the kids watched Daddy open his gift. (They were so good about keeping this Christmas secret). I had been working on scrap booking Brett's missionary pictures for two months. I am so surprised that not even Ben spilled the beans. It was one of the few gifts (in the history of our married life) that I managed to surprise him with AND that he actually liked!

The day ended with our little Connor taking his first step!

We also had our own Christmas pageant. Its so fun to have kids old enough to actually do one now.

Brooke was the angel... Ben kept changing his mind between wanting to be Joseph and a shepherd with me...

Madi was Marry and Connor ended up being Joseph... although he kept climbing onto the "manger" and upsetting "Mary."