First week back

So, I realized this week just how many projects I promised myself that I would start after Christmas break. I've got a charming and willful 2 year old to potty train, a new house to find, and an old house to organize and clean from the inside out. Some updates:

Potty training: Charlotte has started ripping her diaper off at random and will only allow me to put a new one on her if coerced. She will sit on the potty for 3 seconds and then ask for treats.

house search: looks like we're probably going to enter the fascinating and terrifying world of foreclosures. Can anyone tell me why people like to trash their house before they're evicted? Are grown adults really that vindictive? Also, people in Las Vegas don't seem to believe in grass. They make up for it with an almost religious zeal for stucco.

organization: I went a little OCD and got matching containers for all the toys in my locking toy cabinet. Then, I went and printed little labels for all of them. Random visitors to my house have since been subjected to unsolicited tours of my toy cabinet.

cleaning: never realized just how dirty baseboards can get. I'm starting to wish we didn't like our landlords quite so much, and that we didn't convince friends of ours to move in after us.

It's been a fun week! A lot will be put on hold this next week while I teach Jack's preschool. Stay tuned for amusing 3 year old anecdotes from that adventure.

Here are some more random and fun pictures taken over the holidays. From the top: 1-Jack made a snowman Daddy, and snowman Charlotte, and a snowman Jack. He came in for hot chocolate before he could build Mom and Anna. 2-My brother James LOVED holding Anna. He looks tough but he's a real softie for cute kids. 3,4- Cutest children in the world!

Anna was extremely good on the flight home from UT. Matt joked, when we got her home, that we probably could have gate checked her right along with her carseat. I laughed, took this picture, and then quickly removed the gate check tag to avoid any DCFS unpleasantries.

Happy New Year! As promised in my Christmas letter, I am really going to try to keep my blog updated this year. With the move coming up soon, I can't afford to burn any friendship bridges, especially things like blogs that travel so nicely.

Our Christmas vacation to UT was marvelous. We saw my sister's family up in Logan, my mom and dad in Peterson, grandparents in Spanish Fork, and all of my in-laws in Riverton. We also made a fun spur of the moment late night run to the Sizzler with Jenny and her cute kids, who were miraculously well-behaved the entire time. What fun!

I spent the second half of the trip with a large and impressive blue bruise on my lip--I hit my face with a ski pole at Brighton--and I looked like I was growing half of a fuhrer mustache. Gorgeous!

In other news, Anna is trying her best to triple her body weight and has the beginnings on a double chin, Charlotte is ludicrously un-ready to potty train but wants to anyway, and Jack's collection of Lightning McQueen paraphernilia is increasing. Matt and I stayed up late rocking out in our pajamas to Guitar Hero World Tour, and now I have a messy, mainly unpacked house to reckon with. And laundry to do. And groceries to buy. And a workout to do. And a shower somewhere in all of this.

Anyone curious anymore about why my last post is dated in August??