Mustard?! Don't let's be silly now.

Not much happened to mark the end of August. Mostly we were just waiting for Adri to get home from her drive across the country. It's funny how much help a four year old can offer around the house. I didn't fully appreciate this until she was gone and there was no willing child to fetch me diapers nor to throw them away. Then, if we ever tried to go somewhere, Juliet didn't have a constant baby wrangler to keep her from running out into our parking lot. Man alive, is it good to have Adri back. Adri didn't seem to miss us too much but Juliet sure was excited to have her big sister back - even though she doesn't look it in this picture.

Silly faces

There is nothing remarkable about the above picture itself except the fact that Luke is asleep. You know when you have a new baby and there's that first night that the baby decides to sleep all night long and you wake up thinking, "Did I just sleep ALL NIGHT? Did the baby die or something??" Well, this was such a night and I thought I'd take a picture of Luke during his 10th consecutive hour of being asleep. I ate breakfast alone at 8:30am. It was awesome.




A recent trip to the dollar store produced some lovely wall stickers. We got several different varieties and hung them up along with some of Adri's art work. Jason took the girls' bunk beds down while we were in Utah so now we actually have room to hang stuff on the walls. Plus, Juliet is out of her crib and in a big bed. After a few episodes of falling out, we fixed Juliet's bed so she'll stay in now. The best news is that although she is no longer confined to a cage during nap time, she still takes naps! During the last few weeks I attempted to let her go all day without a nap but ended up with the result you see below.

Mid-September I finally scheduled Adri's birthday party. She knew she had turned 4 on August 1st and so was confused by having another 'birthday.' For a few days she insisted she was turning 5 and even had an argument with one of our neighbors on the subject. In the end we convinced her she was still 4 which seemed to be just fine. Like Flying Chinaman mentioned, we had our friend Merrily the Clown come over. She did magic and balloon animals and face painting. Though I did manage to burn my finger on a pan while taking a pizza out of the oven I still had a great time during the party and so did all the kids. Merrily ROCKS.

Adri and Merrily

Adri models her crazy birthday hat

Clown magic

Adri assists in a magic trick

Balloons!

The birthday gang


Butterfly Bryn



Ellie and Adri


When getting her face painted, Juliet always asks for a My Little Pony

And here are some random pictures to finish off the September post:

Juliet shows how old she is, courtesy of her Uncle Jesse (don't you wish you could say you had an Uncle Jesse?)

Luke demonstrates his new talent time and again

A picture with me in it - as requested by my dad

The girls getting ready to make brownies with me

Okay, I just looked through my planner and decided there are some random quotes I must also include. Mostly they're for my amusement and maybe that of some relatives so don't get to excited for them to be utterly hilarious.

-Juliet: (to Jason in the shower) Do you need a shirt?

-Adri: (regarding a boy she's playing with at the park) I don't want him to be my friend anymore. I want him to be my cousin.

-Annie: Juliet! Can you just put your arms in the sleeves like a normal person?!

Juliet: No! I'm not a normal person!

-Jason: Juliet, say tthhhank you.

Juliet: Ttthhhh no.

-During General Conference

Speaker: We should all press . . .

Jason: Our pants? Press our pants?!

Speaker: forward.

Jason: Awww.

I dunno, she's got gaps, I got gaps, together we fill gaps.

Upon our return from Utah, Jason and I promptly dumped our remaining kids off at a friend's house and went on a family temple trip. Plus, it just happened to be our anniversary. So mile marker number 7 was spent at the same place we started. Well, technically we were at the Washington D.C. temple and we were married in the Bountiful temple but you get the gist. Seven years is a long time to be together but we've decided to stick it out at least one more and see how it goes. I'm betting we'll last at least two more but we'll see. What do you think, Flying Chinaman?

P.S. When I was in high school I was very good at those claw games you see at Kmart. I would routinely win all sorts of stuffed animals. One day I snagged an Asian looking man in a red tunic. Once I got him home my mom, sister and I named Flying Chinaman because of our tendency to throw around the house, usually at each other. Once Jason joined the family and discovered said Chinaman, he took the joke a bit further by giving FCM a blog. Unfortunately Facebook will not accept his name so he can't ask to be your friend. Interestingly enough, they won't accept Dude Mowery's name either. Lame. Anyhoo, now all of you who claim not to get the joke, well, now you get it. He explains it all in his description on his blog. Check it out.

Hey, why don't I just go eat some hay, make things out of clay, lay by the bay? I just may! What'd ya say?

Whoops, I forgot the adorable pictures of my girls trying to play miniature golf.

By the end of the game Adri could at least hold her club correctly.

Juliet never quite got the hang of it

There was quite a bit of cheating which let to Adri getting a hole-in-one.

For first-time golfers I think they did pretty well.

This Here Giraffe

My name is Flying Chinaman, and I live with the Winns. I am guest-blogging so that I can post some of my favourite pictures that I have taken recently of the Winns. You can learn more about me here (I have only made 3 posts on my own blog because I have C.O.D. (Compulsively Obsessive Disorder), and though I was at first excited about having my own blog, I got over it real quickly).

The titles of my guest posts here will be from songs, not movies. You can still win a prize for naming the song and artist first.

This is Juliet with her giraffes. Giraffes are Juliet's favourite animal. And kangaroos, but mostly giraffes.

Juliet's favourite colour is yellow. She got a giraffe hat balloon animal from Merrily the clown at Adri's birthday party. We recommend Merrily's services!

Adri's balloon hat was more abstract, but you can see from her face how much she fun she was having. You would have this much fun too if you brought Merrily to your party!

Merrily does face painting as well, though Jason and Annie created this canvas.

Luke is the first Winn kid to suck his thumb.

Luke is not the first Winn kid to love taking baths.

Juliet has beautiful eyes.


This is Juliet, but it looks like Adri.




Juliet cooking




Adri on her bed (she can't believe it!)





Jason has 2 baby girls


and a boy

He was reckless with his girls too

And they all love each other

First we were all like woah, then you were like woah, then we were like woah . . .

During our last few days in Utah I was able to get together with some old friends. We had an awesome dinner together at our old haunt, Cherry Hill. We all worked there at one time or another so it seemed fitting to have our reunion there.

I looked at these pictures and decided I have the best looking friends around. Seriously, have you ever seen such fabulous looking ladies?

Natalie and Janelle


Ruth and Kirsten

Jeneanne and Megan

My mom and I took the girls to Cherry Hill for our last day together in Utah. I used to go to there every day of every summer until I was old enough to work and then I served ice cream and cooked french fries in their various snack bars. It was just as awesome as I remember and it made me want to invite all my friends so we could go down the river run together and race each other on the blue slides like old times. Note to all Cherry Hill friends: we will TOTALLY do that some day.

Me, wearing the hugest sunglasses you've ever seen.




Adri at Pirate's Cove

Luke had a swell time

This is the river run; my favorite ride. I think the last time I went on this I was pregnant with Adri. She was brave enough to ride it again with me even though she could now see how scary it is. She had to go in her own tube and held my hands the whole way down. She was a little scared at parts but still felt brave enough to go on the blue slides with me, too.

Here are the blue slides. They've changed since I worked here. They didn't used to resemble two giant snake-dragons but now they do. I like the change. Adri went on these twice with me and we had the best time ever.

And what better way to follow up a hot day at Cherry Hill than to grab a frozen custard at Neilsen's. Delish.

Our trip was super fantastic and I was sad to leave. Adri went with Gramma Nancy to drive the rest of the way home and I took the rest of the kiddies on the plane with me. We were very sad to leave Adri but glad to have Jason waiting for us at the airport. Another good thing about leaving is that I would no longer be able to be addicted to TV shows that involve building things out of cakes or remodeling someone's house. Now I can do more important things, like wash dishes and laundry. Wahoo!

Matchy, matchy! Green squared!

After settling in at my mom's house I started filling up our appointment book. Don't feel bad if you got left out though. The last time I came I tried to fit EVERYONE in and my head almost exploded. This time I visited people who would come to me, people who were close and lots of family.

My sister-in-law, Kari, helped me arrange a party at their new house. I picked up my dad and we drove over to see what kind of place a hard workin' guy can afford in Utah. As it turns out, he can afford a whole crap load more than someone in, say, Pennsylvania. Plus houses in Utah are just better anyway and most of them are equipped with a trampoline.

We forced the kids to all dress alike so I could take some cousin pictures. The family has grown quite a bit since my last visit and it was fun to see them all together.

Carson, Peyton, Keller, Luke, Jacy, Juliet and Adrienne

Grampa Rand helps Juliet jump with the big kids (Jacy doing an awesome 'bum' in the back)

Adri and Jacy spent most of the evening running up and down the sidewalk on this bike.

Catherine and Juliet

Cat's favorite thing to tell Juliet was that she was a cute baby. Juliet insisted that she was NOT a baby but would consent to be called a babe. And that is what she will tell you anytime you say she's a baby: I'm not a baby, I'm a babe.

Carson, the cutest football player in the history of the game.

Keller, the fastest kid out of all the football teams - even the ones older than him

Is YOUR nephew that fast??


Keith, my crazy brother/Keller's football coach - he made Keller wear his high school number

Football action


Carson can pogo over 500 times in a row. You should ask him about it.

Cat, me and Kari

Luke observed all the fun from his car seat


Seriously, isn't he the cutest kid you've ever seen? Luke's pretty cute too.

Jacy and Peyton help feed the baby

We had another dinner at my mom's house where we got to see more of Carson's mad pogo skills. Keller told me about all the books he was reading and ended every description with the phrase, "and it was awesome!" Jacy, Adri and Juliet played with horses. And I got to hold Luke and spend some time with, Peyton, the niece I hadn't gotten to meet until this trip. She's a doll.

Is this chocolate or poop?

C'mon people, guess the quote. If you've already won once, you can still guess - the only rule is you can only win two times in a row. The prizes are totally worth being the winner more than once.



I was just as surprised as Luke looks in this picture to find out we were going to Utah. I had originally planned not to take the trip since it would consist of driving there in a big truck packed to the brim with other mothers and their kids. Plus, the idea of bringing three kids across the country with me and no one to help was rather daunting. At the last minute Jason practically ordered me to go. Lucky for me there was no room left in the truck so I scored some first-class tickets on Delta. Jason was not able to come with us but I had another lucky break when we scheduled my flight at the same time that Jarom was flying out. He graciously agreed to hold Juliet on his lap during the flight, in coach. We left on Adri's birthday and she had a great time getting lots of attention in first-class, eating chocolate cake and watching a movie on the ipod. About half way through the flight I was sure Juliet would be tired of sitting still for 2.5 hours so I made Adri switch her places. Adri was less than thrilled with the switch but all the kids were as good as could be. Jarom and I had our hands (and laps) full the entire flight but made it to Salt Lake City with no problems.
As soon as we landed, we barely made our connecting flight to Idaho Falls where I stayed the night with My Uncle Garth and Aunt Gloria, who I haven't seen in ages. We had a great visit then I packed up the kids again and drove with Jarom and Lixi to our family reunion in Clayton, Idaho. I did not take any pictures during the entire reunion since I had three kids to take care of on my own. I was new to the job so I was a bit frazzled. It didn't help that my kids and I all shared a room with Jarom and Lixi and baby Jenna. Phew! That definitely made for some long nights, especially the night when I didn't realize my baby was screaming for about 5 minutes.
We enjoyed the reunion and then packed up a jeep with all our luggage and kids so Jarom could drive us back to Utah. He dropped us off at my mom's house where we stayed for the next 10 days - I think it was 10 days anyway.

Gramma Joyce got a new sprinkler that my girls were too scared to play in (notice the ball being suspended in the air by the spray of water. Awesome). Maybe it's because we don't have sprinklers here but I think it might just be because my kids are chicken. The weather was really nice while we were there so we spent a lot of time in our swimming suits.

Juliet's version of 'the splits'

My mom busied herself giving Luke a bath every time I put him down. The girls colored more than they ever have after my mom covered a small table in white paper, drew a few pictures on it and left some markers out.

I was still getting used to being a mother of three, plus Luke was not the best sleeper on the planet. This was generally how I spent Juliet's nap time: Adri sitting on my knees while watching a movie, Luke sleeping in the only place I could get him to, and me dozing on the couch with a drink and some chocolate within easy reach. Adri got to see Pocahontas for the first time and ran around all day singing, "Savages, savages, what a good idea!" I think I prefer her version.

My life-long friend, Sara, lives just down the street from my mom so we made several trips over to play with her family. Here's Adri and Katie drawing their names with sidewalk chalk.

I tried to get all the kids in the pool together but Adri claimed that the water was too cold.

Adri, washing the car.

After getting a hold of my brother's family I made plans with my sister-in-law to take the kids to a children's museum in Salt Lake. It wasn't the greatest place ever but at least we both had passes to get us in for free.

Adri dressed as a cheetah on the play stage.

Juliet deciding whether horses prefer carrots or eggs

After the museum we took the kids to run through the sidewalk fountain. Characteristically, my kids did not want to get wet and this was a close as they came to the water.

After we put our clothes back on, Adri left with her cousins to spend the night at their house. She had a great time but committed a mortal sin the next day when she admitted she didn't know was a Slurpee was. Apparently Slurpees have their own food group at the Elison house and I was reprimanded for not introducing my kids to 7-11.

Luke didn't do a whole lot but he started smiling the week we left on vacation so I took plenty of pictures so Jason wouldn't feel too left out.

Adri is always willing to give Luke a squeeze

I think these pictures are from when we got back from the zoo with Jason's family. Needless to say we had some pretty long days and the girls were exhausted.

Luke didn't seem to mind the long days. He just enjoyed showing off the fashionable clothes his aunt Kristi had given him.

My kids also had their first experience at Chuck-a-Rama and they LOVED it. I had fun the first time around but the second trip was after the zoo and they had about eight thousand cousins their to distract them from eating or sitting or ever wanting to leave.

I've got more pictures but I think I'm going to make a habit of splitting up the Utah posts. Stay tuned . . .