forced smile syndrome

if you've ever had children, then you probably know about "forced smile syndrome", otherwise known as FSS. i don't know of a little kid who hasn't experienced FSS symptoms at one time or another, it can last for a few months or even up to a year. FSS is especially common in children under four years old. i come across it in my line of work all the time, in any given family, there's usually at least one child in the group affected by it. i knew it would happen to ethan sooner or later, and today during an impromptu photoshoot after church, ethan began showing the dreaded signs: squinty eyes, raised cheek bones and lips stretched as tight as possible in an over-enthusiastic smile. i'm not one to wish away the time with my little ones, especially ethan, but i will say that FSS seems to be more painful for the mothers, including me and i look forward to the day when his naturally adorable smile returns. but for now, we are getting a good laugh out of this.

so easy, even wende can do it

"i'm sew-ing, i'm sew-ing, i found a cute craft and i'm sew-ing!" - ok, so i still have "elf" lines running through my head. i was super excited to pull out allie's sewing machine and try out this fun craft. this project was nothing but straight (sort of) lines, but when you're as lame of a sewer as i am, even the easy straight lined projects totally count as an accomplishment! one of my cute neighbors from the old neighborhood gave me a couple of these ribbon adorned burp cloths when ethan was born and it ended up being one of my favorite gifts. plain old cloth diapers make the best burp cloths because they're so absorbent and the simple ribbon stitched up the two middle seems takes them to ultra-cute status. i've been wanting to try to make these now for, well, ethan just turned three, but the sewing machine intimidates me like nothing else. but i did it! i'm embarrassed to admit it took a long time, probably an hour, to sew these six burp cloths but it was totally worth how awesome i felt about my cute homemade baby gift! i tied them together with a pretty bow and a rattle and voila! darling baby gift for less than $10! yee-ha! the best part of course is how much the mom gushed over them, and really, who doesn't love being gushed over?

favorite holiday things - first installment

there's something about thanksgiving that kicks off the start of the holiday season and it seems like over night organge and brown are replaced with green and red, pumpkins for snow flakes, candy corn for candy canes, and so on. with the holidays comes a long list of things we only seem to enjoy around this time of year. we have already begun enjoying some of our favorite things which i am going to try to do a better job of documenting this year. maybe you'll be inspired to document your favorite things too. i love sharing this kind of thing because it always leads to something new....

the movie "elf" has worked it's way into a tradition around this house, i liked it from the first time we saw it in the theater and it only gets funnier ever time i watch it. it's such a hillarious, feel good kind of movie and the sound track is fantastic. over the thanksgiving holiday, i cooked a lot of food and was stuck in the kitchen for most of the day on wednesday preparing. fortunately the living room is attached to the kitchen and rich turned on elf to help get me in the holiday spirit. it worked! i brined, beat, whipped and stirred while singing along with darling buddy the elf. there are too many funny parts to name my favorite but i do love the "i'm singing, i'm singing, i'm in a store and i'm sing-ing" part. i'm sure by the time the season is over we'll have watched it at least fifty-two more times...alright, not that often, but it will probably feel like that much so it's just the same.

this year i discovered candy cane oreo cookies just in time for the girlfriend retreat. (yes this was our junk food stash)

we took one for the team and tested them out...you know, to make sure they aren't poisonous or anything. we give them two thumbs up! just the right blend of yummy oreo goodness with candy cane flavor that was suprisingly not too overpowering - yay! of course, you have to have a tall glass of milk, and if you're ethan, you eat only the insides.

apparently i have a candy cane theme here because next on my list is peppermint ice cream.as you know, i'm very picky about my ice cream, none of the "vanilla in a tub" crap will do for me. my favorite brand for peppermint is schwan's, but since i don't like the after taste of the schwan's guy pushing frozen food at my door every other week - i settle for edy's instead. i've said before that ice cream is really love in the form of food. as much as this must say about me and how i deal with my own issues, it really is true. ice cream is love. and i would feel this way even if i were boney thin and had no issues. for real, i really would. no lying. ice cream is just that good.

so what are you enjoying so far this season? my list of favorites is looooong, so brace yourself for a second, third and maybe fourth installment of wende's holiday faves. and happy holidays ya'll!

SPT - wordless edition

"getting started"

distracted

how did i miss these? i was sorting recent photos into their proper folders and found these beauties! i can't believe i missed them, they cracked me up so hard when i first took them i remember being excited to get them posted. i guess i got distracted, which you know, happens frequently in my world, and i'm now getting them up. so these are obviously back when patsy broke her ankle. we took a ride out to our favorite store - archivers, to get her out of the house. ethan thought it was so awesome pushing her around the store, it was totally his job and he would get a little touchy if i tried to help steer, which in a store with that many shelves of little things, sometimes got kind of interesting. but patsy didn't mind, she kept him totally busy having him help push her, she is one of his favorite people because she's always so fun.

the only thing he liked better than pushing her was riding in it himself.

funny kid.

evidence

first i noticed the stool from the bar sitting right beside the counter which i thought was unusual but nothing seemed out of place so i shrugged it off. then in just the right light i caught a glimpse of a foot print on the counter - what the?! then i noticed oreo crumbs in his milk. then i found the smoking gun. he was hiding in the pantry quietly licking the frosting from the middle of his peppermint oreo cookie. can't really blame him, they're really yummy. how does he know to eat the frosting only? is this knowledge something that little kids are born with?

nutcrackin' fun

i love tradition. i also love the ballet, so going to the nutcracker with all the girls is definitely one of my favorite things. it's such a fun way to start off the christmas season, it definitely puts me in the mood for thanksgiving, shopping and everything great about this fun time of year. growing up the only girl, i waited a long time for sisters, but they were worth the wait! we definitely lucked out with this group. and if we're really lucky, ashliegh will be in this photo every year because brandon will marry this great girl! i am always in awe of the incredible strength and talent of professional ballet dancers, i have such admiration for what they do and never get tired of watching them perform. one of my favorite moments of the day was looking over at the little girls during the recital, heads huddled together, quietly (?) discussing what was happening on stage, they were just so cute together. on the way home we realized we could catch happy hour at sonic and had to stop for drinks.i discovered a new favorite thing - cherry limeade, yum-o, thanks for the recommendation ashliegh! now i'm off to paint some kitchen cupboards...busy busy busy.

it's hard to look scary and pretty at the same time...

so we went, a bunch of moms in the middle of the night with about a million people - a lot of teenagers - to see if harry potter's buddy could pull off the role of dreamy steamy edward.

(the lobby of the gateway movie theater )

the movie was more entertaining with a theater full of screaming girls, it was seriously so funny how nuts people were over this whole thing. the girl sitting behind us kept saying, "oh no way, nuh-uh, oh my gosh!" every time one of the cullens came on screen. so i will say this, the movie was better than i thought it would be, maybe because my expectations of it were so low. i liked how they cut through the crap and got to the story, stefanie meyer tends to ramble. but, i missed hearing edwards thoughts and i wanted to see the cullen family more. i hated "book" bella but liked the "movie" bella fine, maybe because i couldn't hear her inner whining dialogue. there were plenty of parts that i laughed out loud because it was so sappy and wondered how the actors kept straight faces for some of those scenes. and really, what's up with jasper? did someone forget to tell that actor that he had been cast as a vampire and not a zombie? he looks like a stoner with bad hair for the entire movie. however, the cheese, the lack of cullens, the stoner, emmitt's crushed velvet purple track suit, all of it was worth watching to see this hottie on the big screen. (i'm not talking about the girl either) i never really knew that i liked robert pattinson so much, but man he really melted my butter in this movie. he's definitely not what i pictured in my head as edward but he did a good job i thought. i saw him on the today show this morning, someone asked him "what was the hardest part about playing edward". he answered in his cute little british accent, "it was really hard being scary and pretty at the same time". ya, ok, that pretty much sums up the whole movie for me. still, if i had a locker, his picture, would be in it.

SPT - not so wordless edition

our SPTs for november are supposed to be wordless...photos that tell the stories themselves. however, this one needs a little explaining...same pipe as last month, different place, lots of leaks - SIX - and counting. now i have THREE giant holes in my ceiling, and a repair man coming on friday to replace the entire pipe this time. his genius assessment was, "well girl, i think you gotta bad pipe" - NO KIDDING! i'm not really looking forward to more dry wall dust and paint, but i don't think the ceiling gaps will really go with thanksgiving dinner. so i just keep telling myself... i love my house. i love my house. i love my house....

mystery photo

i have no idea who took this photo...i'm sure it was one of the teenagers although allie swears it wasn't her. i found it while emptying my sd card yesterday, and it made laugh so hard i had to post it. i wish i knew the story behind the toddler mohawk, but the smile on his face tells me at least he wasn't being tortured by his hair stylist. apparently spencer is not the only one who enjoys a crazy do.

the big break

girlfriend weekend get away

in a nut shell-

chick flicks

amazing food

gumballs

see's chocolate

hot tamales

amazing cabin

paper crafts

late nights

board games

no make up

pajamas

scenic walk

deer and wild turkeys

sleeping in

lounging around

best friends

plenty of laughter

much needed break

and a NO photo truce!

(until the last five minutes to take one self-portait)

i love these girls!!

hair goo isn't just for girls

since his decision to grow his hair out, spencer has looked forward to red ribbon week every year because inevitably there is always "crazy hair day". before the long hair he always complained that his hair was too short to really do anything the counted as "crazy". he's making up for lost time i guess because the last two years in a row he really got into it. in fact, i'll admit i was a little embarassed for him to leave the house, but what can you do? spencer is my kid who doesn't really love school, so i say, if a little hair goo (ok A LOT of hair goo) makes him excited to go, i'm on board. for the record, he was totally disappointed that i didn't let him spray his hair BYU blue. i really am the meanest mom ever you know. **NOTE added 11/9 - the reason i said no to the blue hair spray is because spencer told me at 9:45pm the night before crazy hair day. he wanted me to drop what i was doing and take him to target to the spray. i was too busy and told him no. if he had asked me earlier in the day i would have gladly let him spray it blue! i just wanted to clarify...

three old years

we celebrated ethan's birthday during our trip to disneyland. really we went for halloween but since his birthday is the very next day, his birthday kind of got crammed in at the same time. we started with a great breakfast at the rain forest cafe.ethan didn't mind waiting for a table because it gave him time to check out the giant aquarium - he was especially excited to see dory in there. we have been celebrating a lot of birthdays lately and he loves singing the birthday song. he totally got that it was his special day and even sang along with us "hap birday to ME!" when the ice cream came - always a good after breakfast snack! he loved getting balloons from the hotel staff and wearing a pin with his name on it. ya, disneyland is a pretty good way to spend a birthday - especially when you're "three old years", which is what he tells you when you ask him how old he is. love this little guy.

you have to be this tall to ride this ride

rich and i really couldn't be more different from each other in many ways, one big way is roller coasters. i am an adrenaline junkie, there isn't anything that i wouldn't ride, ok with the exception to non-regulated carny rides - now that's crazy! in fact, a dream vacation for me would be to travel all over the US riding all of the big record breaking coasters, the idea of it makes me a little giddy even though it will probably never happen. until recently it sounded like a lonely vacation, then we went to disneyland and i realized all four kids are thrill-seekers just like me! ethan's favorite part of disneyland hands-down was riding as many rides as possible. he kept asking "pirates ride?" and loved the water fall at the beginning. he loved everything we went on but requested pirates most often. the older kids were off doing their own teenager thing a lot so i don't have as many photographs of them, but they rode the thrill rides over and over and are officially hooked YAY! luckily the kids were really great about also riding a lot of kiddie rides for ethan, one of them, his favorite, the merry go round. which, funny enough, is the one ride i CAN'T do, oh man, it makes me so sick!ethan also got a kick out of standing next to the "you have to be this tall" signs to see how he measured up. he knew it determined whether or not he could ride something and was always disappointed when he wasn't tall enough. so a family of thrill seeks - well minus dad - but he's a good sport anyway.

smartie pants

yesterday i came home from running errands to find this lovely note taped to my computer monitor...taylor the stud has been working really hard this term to get really great grades. he actually works really hard every term and although he has come close several times, this is his FIRST report card with STRAIGHT As! YAY 4.0 boy! this is not a bad start for his first year of grades that the colleges see. he is such a smartie pants, i KNEW he could do it! GO TAYLOR you honor roll STUD! just for the record, allie also brought home a fabulous looking report card, a 3.9! not bad at all for her first term of jr. high! i fully recognize what a BIG deal this is and i'm so proud of them both!

for kristy

kristy said we had to eat some disneyland pickles because they were the best. i got one to try and had one or two bites before ethan took it over and never let me have it back. she's right, it was pretty yummy. ethan loves the movie "little rascals" and was singing "i gotta pi-ttle, i got a pi-ttle, i got a pi-ttle, hey! hey! hey!" the whole time he ate it, pretty cute. if it weren't for the squishy juice factor i would've brought one home for you kristy!

halloween

there are several reasons why disneyland is a great place to spend halloween...you don't have to deal with a ton of candy for the next year, it never snows in california (which is does every year in utah) so you don't spend the night bargaining with your children over how many more houses they can visit before your toes freeze off, no one wears anything bloody at disneyland and $5 disney charcter t-shirts are all the older kids need for a costume. hooray!of course, there's also the awesome decorations....(which i didn't do a super great job of documenting)and if you're lucky, you just might spot a tiny buzz light year roaming around the park. and just incase you get confused by all the other buzz's there, you'll know that this particular buzz belongs to me because he's the one that refuses to wear the purple sock helmet thing on his head, fyi."don't worry, i've set my laser from stun to KILL!""to infinity and beyond!"

happy halloween!