JESS

 

Today was picture day, notice Sierra's hair. I sent her to school with really cute hair. She was almost late for school because I had to have it perfect. Then she comes home like this with it a tangled mess. It is almost better not to try.

 

My friend Jess stopped by our Paradise. She said she just had to see it in person. She took some pictures of me and her. I will have to post them when she sends them. She was adorable and her baby was super chunky and cute as can be. Sierra and Chase picked up where they left off. Madison said, "Talley is really nice." I said, "I know you used to play with her in Pittsburgh." She said, "I did?" She can't remember, she was James's age. It is hard to think it was that long ago.

 

Jess was so sweet and told me how wonder and beautiful our little Paradise is even though it over run by weeds and has crooked floors. I was glad she liked it for the reasons I do, for its unending potential. She also brought me two children's books Circus Ship and Baby Shoes. The first is her favorite children's book and the second is one of my favorite children's books. I thought is was the sweetest thing ever. She is such a sweet friend and I miss living a few blocks away but I am grateful she stops by when she is headed to Utah.

 

Hopefully our kids will have many more great memories running around on our little paradise.

 



She wouldn't smile for the life of her. I asked her to put her arm around Chase and these are the looks she gave me. Nine? At sixteen she will be wishing she had.



GENERAL WOMEN's CONFERENCE

I feel so blessed to go to women's conference with my little girl. She is growing up so much and I don't think it is coincidence she turned eight the year they announced they were going to lower the age of those who were to attend women's conference. I think this world is a difficult place to grow up in and I love giving my sweet girl more tools to use to work through the difficulties that surround her.

We met at the stake center at 4:00pm and did a service project for the community. I don't think they expected the kind of response they got. There were more donations than they could deal with. Then we had bread bowls and soup for dinner, followed by the meeting. They sent us into the chapel a half hour early to listen to beautiful music preformed by some of the sister's in our stake. I thought, for my eight year old sitting still for an hour and a half will be a huge accomplishment, if I make her go in any earlier she is going to hate it. I let run around the cultural hall with her friend for the half hour. I am sure everyone thought I was a bad mom, but every child needs different thing.

She laid on my shoulder and watched the conference. She kept asking to leave to get a drink of water. It is hard for her to sit still that long. Afterwards we went to Target together and bought her some much needed Sunday shoes. We stopped off for root beer floats and went home. She had a great time. I am grateful for the one-on-one time with her.

PICNIC

Friday, I got a call mid-afternoon from the missionaries reminding me that I had committed to feed them. They said a good time to feed them would be 5:00pm. I knew I could feed them, but Nate wasn't going to be home. Luckily, Sister Whitehead has a picnic table in her backyard. I told them they could eat but they had to stay outside and I would send there food out. Sierra and Madison were my little servers. They brought out there meal. Then they asked if they could have a picnic outside. I said they could thinking they wanted to eat with the missionaries. They didn't. They just wanted to have a picnic in the front yard. Poor missionaries ate by themselves, brought the dishes down and left.

There mother's must have raised them right because I got a thank you note on my door this afternoon.

I didn't want to feed them because I was looking forward to date night. I knew if I feed the missionaries most likely we wouldn't go on a date. I needed the break.  However, Nate didn't get home until 9:00pm, so we wouldn't have gone out either way. I guess things have a way of working out. (I still need my date though, maybe next week.)

POTTY TRAINING

Potty training has been a blast. We haven't had significant progress but I have never potty trained with so much help and enthusiasm. The girls seem to want to do anything and everything they can to help this little boy along his journey. Here is the break down so far.

• Tuesday evening. We just practiced sitting on the potty for a few hours and he hated it and was scared to death.
• Wednesday, He would sit on the potty with a lot of encouragement. Sierra put a handful of legos in a bucket with a spoon. He loved stirring them.
• Thursday, He woke with a dry diaper. First time ever. He told me he needed to pee and ran in and peed once. By chance he peed a second time on the potty. Two successes.
• Friday, He told me pooh and put his pooh in the potty. Yeah. He peed once in the potty. He loves the toilet now. He still has plenty of accidents.

Needless to say we aren't even close to the end of this journey but I didn't have high expectation potty training a boy at twenty months. I can't change two diapers or pay for two sets of diapers. He can do it. I am determined. We will figure it out. He is certainly loving all the attention.

QUASIMODO

 

I let Sierra stay home from school yesterday, no, we aren't getting into any bad habits. She just needed a mental health day. She didn't go to bed until 3:30am. She was scared. She couldn't calm down enough to sleep. Her friends were talking about a crazy killer doll at lunch. When she got home she packed all her dolls and hid them in my room. It didn't help. Nothing helped. She ended up sleeping on the floor of my bedroom.

The next day she just hung out and played legos. Her favorite place to set up her lego villages is in the windowsill. She was playing and saw this guy. She convinced her sister to climb down in the window well and rescue him. She was too scared to. Bugs. Sigh. He was missing one eye and a half a foot but was still quite the hopper and mover. I told her she had to let him go that evening. He wouldn't survive in her care. She said he would be fine, but then I reminded her of her track record.
Quasimodo, that is what she named him, was set free. She was sad.

On a better note we are making some improvements with potty training this little guy. I know everyone tells me his is too young but I can't think about changing two bums. He has to grow up. His mommy is pathetic when it comes to poop. She dry heaves through his dipper changes and she is done changing big boy poop. I will give you a break down of his improvements in a few days. I have been taking notes to keep myself motivated.

TRADES

I have had these two nasty chairs in my home for about two years. They have been in dire need of being reupholstered. They were gross. My sweet friend Heather traded family pictures for redoing my chairs. I think I got the better end of the bargain.

 

Not one of the pictures I took was perfect but I was a bit distracted. Imagine this, I took my kids along. I thought everything would be fine. They would play in the yard. I would snap a few pictures. We would go home. I lectured them on the way there. Sierra your responsibility is take care of James, just play with him on the swing. When we are done, we will have popsicles and you two can play. We were agreed. I don't know what it was, but after we got there all heck came loose. Sierra rounded the geese up and threw them in the yard. They were honking and chasing the kids. I kept telling Sierra to get them out of the yard, she wouldn't. Then the cats were running in and out of the picture. Sierra kept bringing them over to say hi. Oh, my. Then she ran over and tried to pass out popsicles to everyone, when we weren't even done . James was following me around whining. Sierra refused to take him. All I could think was thank goodness Heather and I are friends.

I snapped these pictures of my girls but if you could have seen me.... I am pretty sure I was wearing both these face at one point last night.

PUDDLES

Today, it rained and rained. I dropped Sierra off at school in the thunder storm. Right now there is just sunshine and puddles. My kids love puddles and can't miss an opportunity to stomp in them. James was so happy.

VACUUMING

Saturday, I made the kids chip in and clean the house. We needed a serious cleaning. James followed Madison around with his vacuum that we found at the thrift store. I thought it was the cutest thing. We picked up his awesome vacuum complete with batteries and in working condition for $1.00. It was the best find. He loves it.

PREGNANT BRAIN

 

Yesterday, I felt like fool. I know pregnancy brain is a thing because no one can be as stupid as I was yesterday. Laura, Madison's primary teacher was pregnant and having a baby girl. I was so sad I missed her baby shower. Sierra's birthday was on the same day. So, I told her let me make it up to you and take pictures of your baby in the hospital, those are my favorite pictures of James. She said she would like that. After multiple attempts to schedule on Wednesday, I finally was able to set them up for Thursday. I set up the time at 10:00am. I don't know what happened to my oven clock, the clock my life runs off of but it was set for an hour earlier. When I dropped my kids off at a friends it was 11:00. My friend said to be back by 12:20 because she had to take her son to preschool. I told her it wouldn't be a problem, thinking I had two hours. When I got to the hospital it was 11:20. I called Laura and apologized. I called Heather and apologized and told her there wasn't a way I could be back by 12:20. I didn't realize while I was taking picture I had missed taking Madison to Kindergarten.

 

So, we called up a friend and played on the playground at McDonalds and ate sundae's, what else were we going to do?

After we picked up Sierra from school we went out to our little paradise. Luckily, I remembered that my friend Kim was dropping off her geese. I called and they were on their way.  I have to chalk it up to inspiration because my mind is obviously not that efficient lately.

When I tell James to give me a cheese, he bats his eyes. You can see it in the first picture and in the last picture. He cracks me up. He was my bright spot yesterday.

ZOE

Madison has amazing hair. Today she was getting ready to leave the house and I had to snap a picture. Photography is hard for me. I want real pictures but I also want beautiful pictures and unless you have better equipment than I, real is just real. Here is a real moment in our dark basement, when earlier this morning the dishwasher stopped working and so I had to wash the dishes by hand. Madison's favorite place to eat is on the bar. She is technically in the kitchen, which is the only place she is allowed to eat and yet she still has full view of the television.

My friend Tiffany asked me to take pictures of her baby girl. She turned one a few months ago. I was so happy to do it. I would love to run my own photography business someday. I love pictures. I love taking them. I have to pull them up on my computer and enjoy them right after I get back from taking them. I am a little obsessive.

But this is what stops me, the dentist is never around, I mean never. I would have to higher a babysitter and its not always easy to get a babysitter. Anyway, quickly this thing I love becomes something that takes over my life. The thing I value the most, like this little munchkin gets neglected and then...... it isn't worth it anymore. My time will come.

Isn't he the cat's meow! Oh, I just love eating him up. I went to Relief Society tonight. He played in the nursery when I went to pick him up he wouldn't let go of his baby doll. I let him bring it home. My girls kept freaking out, "He is stealing the baby doll mommy!" He wouldn't let it go and I figure we can just return it on Sunday. He loves babies. I hope so because we are going to have one pretty soon.

Tiffany moved her from Ogden a few months ago. Her husband is the one who is obsessive about fly fishing and introduced himself as, "You will never find anyone more obsessed than me about fly fishing." The ward giggled. He met Nate. We have to be friends. Fisherman's wives must stick together.

Here is her precious daughter. Cutest little girl ever!

WEDNESDAY's

I know. I know. Madison's underwear is showing. I am bummed because these are the cutest pictures ever. I asked her if it was okay if I posted the pictures anyway. She said, Yes, it is so funny! My Madison. I wanted to post them to Facebook..... darn. I don't know why I didn't catch it.

I have loved hearing about kindergarten drama lately. I miss all of Sierra's updates on all her classmates. I can't remember when she stopped telling me the detail of everyone's lives. I miss it. Madison said Luciana said her Mom got hauled off to jail the other day. Then she told me how Dominique can't keep his hands to himself so he is always getting in trouble. Then she said yesterday Dominique broke his arm. Karma... maybe. Hilarious. McKenzie came over to me during art heritage and said, "Is that girl with the long blonde hair your daughter?" I said, "Yes!" She said, "The other day she hit me for no good reason." I said, "If Madison hit you then there was a reason." McKenzie looked me in the eye and said, "Nope, no good reason." I asked Madison about hitting McKenzie she looked at me incredulously and said, "I have never hit anyone." I believe her. I mean we are talking about Madison, there isn't a mean bone in that girls body.

Anyway, we are grateful for sweet friends. The girls love playing with these girls. They are sisters too.

MULTIPLICATION

I thought that teaching my child how to go potty was the hardest thing I would have to do. Then I had to teach her how to read, which was brain numbing and ridiculously hard. Surprisingly, she in now a reader. When I go in her room late at night, she is usually reading. It makes me so happy. I never thought she would enjoy reading. She does now. I am grateful every day.

Now onto the next hurdle, multiplication. It has been ridiculously long hours. If anyone has any tricks, besides flash cards and on-line games, I am ready and willing to listen. She doesn't like doing it and frankly neither do I but I don't want her counting fingers in high school, so we will plug along.

I have been thinking a lot about boy names this morning, which I haven't really done because all of our children's names have been compromises and I don't want to set my heart on anything, but here I go again. I have looked at the top names for 2013. Surprisingly, my nephew Leo's names was 75. I didn't think he would even make the top 1,000 names. There was nothing on the list that stood out to me.

I am not into different names, even though I wanted to name Madison, Ember.

I logged onto Nate and I's family history and these are the names that jumped out at me. I know some of them make the top 2013 names list but maybe because I felt a connection to the names they made the list.

First Names
Charles
Maxwell
Samuel
Jefferie
Benjamin Colton
Thurston
Henry
Nicolas
Alexander
Peder
Lage
Axel

Middle Names
William
Benjamin
Michael
Spencer

Yes, all of these names were either in Nate's family line or my line. I love Maxwell and Lage. We will see what Nate thinks. I told him the other day I liked the name Lucas and he wouldn't give me a nay or a yeah on it. Then a few days later he said, "I like Lucas!" I said, "You do?" He said, "Yes, because when he grows up I can say, Luke, I am your father!" Then he laughed and laughed and said, "I am not naming my son Lucas."

Nate you make me giggle but naming our children is almost as difficult as teaching our daughter multiplication.

CORN

My friend Kay vacuum sealed corn for her son. He wasn't able to come pick it up, so she gave it to us. By the time we got the corn the seal had been compromised. I put the corn in the storage room and waited until Monday. We broke open all the packages of corn and cut the corn from the cob, cooked it for a few minutes and then froze it. We have about twenty quart bags of corn now. Might I add, fresh corn. Yummy. We will be using it in soups and for a side for a couple of months.

My favorite part about doing corn was my sweet Madison. She hung out with me for two hours straight and shucked corn for me. She never stopped and never complained. I wouldn't have gotten it done without her. Even James chipped in and you can see the cob he just finished on the table. It was covered in silk but it was perfect because he did it all by himself. I usually rush about my tasks from one to the next. I don't include my kids because it is faster and less of a hassle to do it by myself. I don't think this makes me a good mom. Yesterday, I felt like a really good mom.

Madison also helped me do peaches for an hour the other night. She put the peaches in the jar because her hands are tiny and she can arrange them prettily. She was a great help.

Earlier that morning we were going through tutorials trying to find a good hairstyle. We chose this one. When I was done she started giggling like only Madison can. She couldn't stop. She said, "Look at my ears they poke out like an elf. We should call this the elf hair." She kept giggling and giggling and saying, "I'm an elf."