the beeg weenah!

Sorry I’m late! I got a little busy and ran out of time.

But this morning after the big kids were on the bus and the babies were back in bed, I had the middle child pick a name out of a pottery bowl that my little mommy made.



She chose…


*


*


*


*


*


*

Lucky Candice!

She’s lucky yet again. I’m thinking of dubbing myself Lucky Brittany just because that will undoubtedly change my entire life.

Thanks for playing with me.

Just so you know, as I was cutting out your little names and placing them into the bowl my heart was happy looking at this collection of people that I love. Thanks for making my life feel full of good people which in turn brings joy.

I’m planning on doing a few more give-aways before Christmas, so stay tuned…

Smooches,
Britt

late bloomer (beautiful rebel)

When the rain stopped coming down and the sun poured through the window, I walked outside. Then I saw her. That little knockout. She decided to bloom in late November, the rebel. Thank the heavens.






I can't talk--I've been a little sickie and I literally can't use my voice. I never knew how much I love my voice! I love to sing. LOVE. I sing all the time! It's a little annoying to my family (they make fun of me) because when they say something, I always sing a song with lyrics that match. Do you play that game? It's fun.

I also didn't know how much I use my voice to comfort the babies. It's sad. I go in to get them out of thier cribs and give them a big smile and they start laughing and jumping in thier cribs, but when they hear my squeek/whisper they give this look like, What's the deal? Are you really my mommy? Say something. With thier little furrowed brow, it's killing me!

There's so much to communicate and it's exausting. Last night I was trying to whistle my replies. An affirmative response=swee sweeeeee(it goes higher at the end.) Negative response=swee swoooooooo (it goes down at the end.) Jake announces: If you're getting annoyed, it's because mommy is trying to communicate by whistling.



Okay, a little thankful list:
-DVR
-desitin (this is for the baby's bottom, you see.)
-comfortable clothes that can also look cute.
-foundation (this is for my splotchy face, you see.)
-that I'm married to the love of my life.
-and he's taking me out on a date tonight, voice or no voice.

ps-the comments close for the giveaway tonight at midnight! good luck!

tut, tut. looks like rain.

The other night while I was folding laundry, Jake was sitting on the couch with the oldest three surrounding him. They were still and quiet for once and the only peeps I heard were little fits of giggles. He had his secret weapon out: the iphone.

Have you ever seen anything like it? It is a serious tool.

Got loud children? There’s an app for that.

Then everyone starts wondering things out loud:

Is that a platypus?

What’s he doing?

He doesn’t have wings.

Then the wind came through carrying a cloud of “ooooooh”s and “that’s so cuuuuuute”s. A virtual storm of agreement that this was adorable.

“Play it again for mommy.”

So I squeeze into the fray (the screen isn’t that big, you know.) and they play it again for me. And as this little animated animal on the tiny screen feels joy, the lightning crashes and drops start to fall next to me in my own family room.



In other words, my daughter (10.5 years old) felt the joy right along with that little creature and she says, “Oh, he’s just so cuuuute! Oh, my eyes are getting wet…But it’s just so cuuuuute…I don’t know why my eyes are watering!” I tell her it’s because it made her cry and while everyone else is on to the next “best of youtube” she’s sitting there laughing and crying uncontrollably. Jake and I look at each other with that knowing look: and thus it begins. He says to the smaller children (who are now staring at thier big sister), "This is what happens when your big sister starts to become a young lady." And then she laughed and cried some more.

Here's the video if you want to watch it:



In other news, my awesome cousin Mikael started the coolest blog: Starter Home to Dream Home and I have been over there checking out all her creative projects going on in her home. And today she wrote a post about me and made me sound like a super hero. (If anyone saw me now, they’d know I’m just a sick little puppy in a messy house who has lost her voice.) You should go check out her cool projects.

My little friend Lucky Candice has posted our weekly pix at a Hop and a Skip. We’ve been doing TtV every other week. I’m going to be doing a tutorial on how to do TtV soon. It’s so much fun, you’ll want to try it out.

let's celebrate.

I’m 34 today! So in celebration, I decided to have a little sale over at the shop.
All aprons are $34.00 in honor of my birthday
and there will be free shipping on all items until Christmas.
(Because I’m tired of paying for shipping and I figured you were too.)

And now for a give-way...

I want to give someone a 4 oz. bottle of my handmade lotion.

To enter, just tell me something that you're thankful for in 3 words or less in the comments. I'll pick the big winnah on Saturday. (enter from now until Friday 11/20, midnight)

xox
Britt

Presenting: Affirmation No. 37

Life is such an interesting dichotomy of joy and pain. I find myself on top of the world and overwhelmed in gratitude and then stifling the hot tears of anger and frustration all within the same day. (Okay, sometimes the same ten minutes.) Maybe I’m weird. Maybe I’m so normal it’s ridiculous.

I’m a firm believer that I have a choice to react in love. If I make a conscious effort, I can bite my tongue even if I have the perfect retort; I can walk away even if I have the energy to fight; I can give my child a hug even if it seems like they don’t deserve it; I can let it roll off my back even if it was obviously offensive; I can forgive even if they haven’t changed their ways.

I wish I was perfect at it! But I am getting better and that’s what matters, right? Right?? Well, sometimes when I am on the verge of reacting with a human tendency instead of love (that’s right, love is better than being merely human, it is transcendent.), I say this to myself: I am a lover, not a fighter. Because fighting never got me any closer to who I want to be. Fighting never solved one single problem in my life. That’s right. I’m a lover.



Presenting: Affirmation No. 37 will be available at my shop soon. (would you rather have a print, a card, or a post card to choose from?)

overheard:

Phone rings.

Mrs. C: Hello?

#3: Hello. (awkward pause.)

Mrs. C: Hi, Honey.

#3: Can you tell Lily that I’m sick? I have the swine flu.

Mrs. C: I heard. I’m sorry, honey.

#3: Can you tell her that the swine flu is wicked bad?

Mrs. C: yes, honey, I’ll tell her.

#3: okay, thanks,

Mrs. C: Alright, I hope you feel better. Bye.

#3: bye. *turns off phone* Mom? Can you save some lots of money so that we can get Wii Music?




Okay, little rosey cheeked stripey jammied cute thing. Get back in bed.

Post edit:

We don't know if she officially has H1N1, but I thought her conversation was funny:)

interview

B: Well, hello, Mr. Squirrel. You are a mister, right?

S: {slight twitch}

B: Yes, I could tell. You know you are the first interview that I have done on my blog! Welcome, and thank you for joining me.

S: {clicking} (how does he do that?)

B: I remembered you from several weeks ago. You made quite an impression on our car-load of people. It had been a hard morning and I was grumpy from trying to get everyone out the door on time and I was scowling and the children were sulking in their seats. But after we saw you, we were all laughing for the rest of the car ride. What was your morning like?

S: squeak, squeek…squeek.

B: Mm hmmm. Had you been having trouble with the acorn all morning?

S: *nose wiggle*

B: I was wondering how the acorn escaped your grasp.

S: squeak, squeak. *running in circles*

B: Does that happen very often?

S: {staring}

B: Mmm. Well, that was quite a steep hill, so I’m sure the acorn got rolling really fast. You were about half way down the hill when we came upon you and it was such an unusual sight for us to witness a squirrel in pursuit of a runaway acorn.

Oh, there he goes. He’s a fast little bugger. I was just about to ask him if he actually caught up to the acorn before another car came upon the scene. It will have to wait until next time.

And there you have it! The first interview here on Whatever & Stuff.

Happy Sunday afternoon, friends!

smoochies

have a happy weekend!

glowing leaves

Japanese Maple showing off

Redbud Love

Ah, November.

I have a special kinship with November. It is my birth month. That’s right, I’m a scorpio. We’re mysterious and all that. What’s that? You don’t know any scorpios? Oh, well, you probably do but they don’t just come right out and tell you, they want to you to figure it out yourself. (Maybe it’s because we’re, um… mysterious.) Or it could be because our sign always scares people off. There’s that whole thing about being very jealous. (“watch out for the scorpio’s sting!”) But I think it’s a bunch of hoo-hah. (yes, hoo-hah.) I think it gets way to much play in scorpio’s horoscope.



I have a new little scorpio in my life. A new nephew. Isn’t he the sweetest? (yes, brittany, he is.) (scorpios are so controlling!) This new family is in heaven and you can’t help but feel it when you are around them. What a delight.



But that’s not all I love about November. It starts out great, what with all of the leftover candy from Halloween. (I was going to do a post with cute pictures, but I just have been too ridiculously busy. That’s a whole other post in itself.) Then we start to think about Thanksgiving and the focus of the whole month turns to gratefulness. What can be more uplifting?



The leaves have mostly dropped from the trees, doing their pretty little dance on their way down to the ground, but I have several Japanese Maples in my yard and they are in a fit of showy redness right now. I don’t remember this happening in the past. Last November I was on bed rest, and I don’t know what I focused on the year before, but this year, I’m focusing right on the bold little trees who are refusing to blend in. That’s right, let’s have all the beauty we can stand, little Japanese Maple, I’m right there with you. Maybe I’ll actually do my hair today and wear something snappy. (speaking of, I think I will start a portfolio of outfits my eldest comes up with—it is inspiring me to be more bold.) (there. I just did.)



Happy November, friends!

I'm going to be cheerful today if it kills me!

I have decided that after wading through massive amounts of crying and boogers

that today is the day

I am not getting

one

thing

done.

Every day I have tried to stay on top of things

but have ended up

grumpy and

exhausted.

Well, not today!

Today I will

drink myself silly with hot chocolate

and sit and watch a movie

while two babies crawl on top of me

(and other children make endless messes

and lots of noise.)

I know. I may have to pause said movie 2, 756, 111 times.

But I will enjoy it nonetheless.

Okay, I'm going to go

"get to work."

See? I'm already smiling.

ps - have you been here lately?

pps (or pss?) - did you notice I have some original art for sale at the shop?

I'm going to list some prints, too. but not today:)

It Looks So Innocent What Causes Me Strife

-Little neatly packed boxes with labels that say “priority mail”
-Lego bodies strewn upon the floor, cast off and forgotten. Alas, but not forgotten by the tiny fingers of a crawler who so readily enjoys finding things that fit nicely into her drooling mouth.
-Something so miniscule that we cannot even see it with our eyes yet can cause things with horrible names. Names like “pneumonia” and “sinus infection” and “mucus” and “hacking cough” and “ear infection”

Dear Fellow Visiting Teachers,

lap full o potential

I was sitting at the computer, perusing the blog circuit and a putrid smell enveloped the entire room, snapping me back into my life: right here, right now. I took two stinkers to the changing table and congratulated them each for their good, hard work. They wiggled and squirmed and made a simple thing difficult.

Listen to this ridiculously awesome quote by the prophet Gordon B. Hinckley:

"Never forget that these little ones are the sons and daughters of God and that yours is a custodial relationship to them, that He was a parent before you were parents and that He has not relinquished His parental rights or interest in these His little ones. . . . Rear your children in love, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Take care of your little ones. Welcome them into your homes, and nurture and love them with all of your hearts. They may do, in the years that come, some things you would not want them to do, but be patient, be patient. You have not failed as long as you have tried."

ad•mo•ni•tion (ād'mə-nĭsh'ən)
n.
1. Mild, kind, yet earnest reproof.
2. Cautionary advice or warning.


I can’t even think of words after that quote. When I first heard that quote several years back, it was like a whack upside the head. I looked at my children and SAW them. Why didn’t I SEE them before? Who did I think they were? They are not really even mine; I’m just in charge of them for a while, and most likely they are superior to me in every quality, every aspect, and every way. It got my mind reeling with the truth that the potential of these souls is more than I can comprehend and I better do my best to not hold them back. Put those feet on the ground running and watch them go!

As I placed the fresh smelling people onto the ground and watched them crawl away, I thought about their knowing smiles, their playful giggles and the wisdom in their eyes. They’re not even a year old!

I thought about the love letter my 5 year old gave to me this morning when my eyes wouldn’t yet open to the new day. Filled with “X”s and “O”s and hearts to let me know that through our troubles together, there is an underlying love that overshadows everything.

I hope I don’t hold these unbelievable little people back!

Have a great visit with your sisters this month!

XO,

Britt

{Feel free to download the quote above for your personal Visiting Teaching pleasure.}

For this month's Visiting Teaching message, click here:
www.lds.org/library/display/0,4945,2044-1-4973-1,00.html

For more information on what Visiting Teaching is, click here. www.lds.org/pa/display/0,17884,4691-1,00.html

a harvest kind of weekend {a picture story}