TRIP to UTAH

The trip went really well. The girls were great. CC proclaimed as we climbed off the plane and entered the Utah airport. "Mom, it's a beautiful world!"

LOVE AFFAIR WITH A TEDDY

Her sister just wanted part of the spot light and she thought she was going to steal her teddy's.

RECYCLE

I made this shirt out of an old turtle neck t-shirt from the thrift store. The fabric was good so I paid 4.99 for the shirt. I have enough fabric left over, because it was a men's shirt, to make another one. I am in love with this pattern. She will be wearing this outfit to fly home today. I can't wait to see my sisters reactions.

TOMORROW UTAH

Girls were so hyper they wouldn't sleep. I may have to endure a lot in the next twenty-four hours, but when I arrive in Utah I am goning to give CC to Aunt Tamara and MJ to Aunt Kimberly and go to Aunt Jennifer's house and get my first full nights sleep in 4 years. ;)

(Had to add this... Don't tell.) Nate was having a conversation with MJ last night. He said, "new kid, you are going to go a way for a really long time. By the time I see you again you will be walking and talking. Don't forget your Dad."

Later that same night, "new kid, don't forget me. Your mom is taking you away from me for a whole month."

I interjected, "Only twenty days." He replied, "Oh twenty days is sooooo much shorter than a month."

He then said, "New kid you are going to be walking and talking. I am going to miss ten percent of your life."

Poor guy. Cracks me up.

SERVES ME RIGHT

I can bearly get up in the morning because of the late hours I keep after the girls go to bed and because both of them wake up multiple times in the night and rise really early. Often, I give them a banana let them snack infront of PBS and go back to bed for ten-twenty more minutes of snooze time. (I know, I know.) Well, I got maybe five minutes before Sierra came tearing in to the room yelling, "Come quick mom. MJ touched daddy's bike and is a big mess!" Well, I ran in and saw this looking at me. I promptly threw her in the tub.
Of course CC had to jump in with her.
I don't know how the hanger got in there.
CC pretending the baby doll is taking a plane ride to Grandma's house. I love her creative use of every day objects.
I knew those flip flops weren't dead yet. They still have a lot of life left in them.

AHHHH.

Have you ever had a night where your four year old is yelling I need another story. You are bathing your baby. You say, "Promise, I will read you one more story after I get the baby bathed, if you don't get out of bed again." Then you hear a commotion in the hall. You take a peak and guess what she is out of bed. "Okay," you say, "No story." Then the wailing begins. She screams and screams and screams, "I need another story." You know you can't give in that will be bad parenting. You compromise. "I will rub your back when I am done getting the baby in her PJ's, if you will stay in your bed." She does. You go back with baby in tote. The baby is a leach so you have to. Then you begin rubbing. The 4 year old stops crying the baby starts. Your baby starts flinging her body about and fussing. Fussing escalates into screaming. "Great," you say, "They traded places." You say to the 4 year old, "Oh, rubbings are done." Apparently, even though her sister was screaming like a crazied lunitic, she enjoys the rubbings so much it doesn't matter. Then the, "More rubbing!" starts. You say, "No!" Then the screaming gets louder. You threaten to shut the door. Screaming persists. You shut the door and hold it closed. The leach is in your left arm and you are holding the door with your right. She is wripping on the knob so strongly your knuckles are turning black and blue. You finally say, "If you get in bed, I will open the door." She gets in bed. You open the door. You walk down the hall. She gets out of bed screaming, "I need more rubbings!" Then you are back to holding the door. This process of door holding, getting in bed, door opening, getting out of bed, continues a few more times. Then you get smart. I am incontrol you say to yourself... right? You go get the bean jar. Minus five beans for naughtness. "No not the beans anything but the beans. Please, mom. Please, no beans." Wow. You have felt like a frantic operator pushing all the buttons you know of, and nothing works. Then the little blue one, the one you forgot about, you push and yeah, you are all back in control. Ahh. Blessed Beans. The baby is screaming the child is screaming but you are back in the drivers seat. Ahhhh. After 15 more minutes of crying this is the result. No wonder most mothers say this is the best time of the day. Some days I concure. (P.S. Do you like MJ's pic. She loves that pink bunny.)

CC's INTERVIEW

She is so excited to go and see her grandma on Thursday. She talks of little else. We made a little chain to count down the days. She pulls one off every morning and counts how many days are left. Then she has to call her grandma and count them for her. I will be updating my blog daily in Utah so you can see our little ventures. Excited because, "There is no place like home." See you soon.

PHOTO SHOT with JESS

Jess took these so cute pictures of the girls. The pink dress belonged to one of my sisters, Tamara or Kimberly. The other one is at my parents home somewhere. The blue dress belonged to one of my dearest friends little girls. In sorting through some of her daughters clothes we came across it. They definitely aren't trendy but they are very much me. I love MJ with her cute fluffy skirt as she is standing next to CC. Thanks so much Jess for taking the time to take these beautiful pictures. If you want to see more pictures from the photo shot, you know where to look. You know who I am taking to ;).

SECRETS BETWEEN SISTERS

CC was whisphering secrets in MJ's ear. She was laughing those hard belly laughs. CC thought it was because of the silly things she was whisphering. I knew why MJ was laughing, the same reason I laugh when CC tells me secrets, it tickles your ears.

TELL THE TRUTH

Here is a conversation I had with CC after I took a pink plastic bag, one of her toys came in, and used it to put one of my quilts in.

CC: Mom, why did you use my pink bag? Tell the truth. If you tell me the truth, I won't be mad.

Cracked me up.

3 BLURRY PICTURES of an AMAZING SKIRT

My dear friend Joy Turner made this beautiful skirt for CC for her birthday. She would said, "Bea-u-tiful, skirt!" She loves it to pieces. I refashioned an old t-shirt of mine for her. The t-shirt is a beautiful rust color and matches the skirt perfectly. I didn't do the greatest sewing job but I am enjoying the thoughts of making another one. The pattern I created is definitely a keeper. I am just going to make a few minor alterations.

ARTIST

Sierra loves to draw. She will draw for hours and hours. Here are some of my favorites from her gallery along with what she said about each.
My family. Dad, Mom and me a Ballerina.
Mothers and daughters. A mother flower and her baby flower in a pot. My mother teaching me how to play with the yo yo.
My mother. Mom is so excited I got more beans for being good. (No those aren't freckles. Those are moles.)
Me a Mermaid, Dad jumping rope. I am swimming in the sea. I love dad very much.

CAN'T... NO SUCH THING.

My mother use to always say, "Can't is a little girl too lazy to try." Whenever we said, "Mom, I can't _______________." (Fill in the blank.)

My mother-in-law has said, "You can do hard things."

I love these words of encouragement that were pass to me from wise women. My daughter today said, "I can't make my bed." I said, "Oh, can't is a what?" She smiled, remembered, and said, "a little girl too lazy to try."

I want to pass this pieces of wisdom onto my daugters. I want them to know, if they work hard they can accomplish all things with their Father-in-Heaven's help.

Is there a phrase your mom always use to say that still sticks with you?

MJ TALK, BEFORE CC BREAKS A LEG.

CC was acting wild. She jumped off the bed and hit her head. She started to cry. I said, "Why did you jump of the bed?" She said, "Because mom I am trying to get MJ to talk." I said, "Baby, that isn't the best way to go about it."

CC has been asking me at least twice a day if we can have hot chocolate with marshmallows. With the heat and humidity it is the very last thing I am craving. I guess she is ready for fall.

MADDIE BADDIE

Look at her eyes. She loves that sissy.

WIND TUNNEL

An industrial sized fan.

Aimed directly under a white down filled blanket.

Is a pirates cave, where fairies can play.

PEEK-A-BOO

8 BEST MOMENTS OF THE DAY
1. MJ's big 4 teeth grin.
2. Cinnamon French Toast made from homemade wheat bread, hot off the skillet, with lots of butter and maple syrup.
2. Spinning the girls wildly in the office chairs.
3. Watching Sierra build an entire village for her polly pocket princesses out of blocks.
4. Playing hide and seek with Sierra and listening to her giggle madly as I walked back and forth down the hall past the linen closet where she was hiding.
5. Making a perfect dinner.
6. Watching Sierra sit still at the kitchen table and eat all of her food.
7. Smelling my babies as I cuddled and kissed them all wrapped in their towels fresh out of their bath.
8. Reading Piglet's Great Adventures to Sierra with our heads nuzzled together.

WEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Had to post this for my family. Thanks Jess!

MY FAVORITE THINGS

Wish I had of gotten a better picture of this. I now know what angle I should have taken the picture at to get a better composition but I still love it. (I know, I know, I am never suppose to blog about Nate, but I had to this once.)

Last Sunday, we were all exhausted. I invited some friends over for dinner. I was trying to do the rolls on the tray when MJ woke up from her nap early. She was still tired. She crawled after me whippering. She wanted to be held but I had to finish putting the rolls on the tray and I didn't have an extra hand. Nate was in taking a nap. I went back to our room and threw MJ on top of him and said in a huff, "Take her for a walk, do something with her. I am trying to finish dinner." I walked out of the room. (Not my most loving wife or mommy moment.) In less than a minutes she stopped crying. I thought, Wow, what happened? I snuck back into my room and peeked around the corner and he was massaging her little back. In less than five minutes this was the result. Beautiful. Perfect. I love my husband. I am so blessed to have him in my life. He is such a good daddy.

NO PICTURES, JUST NIGHTMARES AND FAIRIES

I know Joy, you are skipping this one. :)

Sierra has really bad nightmares. She wakes up constantly. She won't go to sleep at night. When she tells me her dreams, I even get scared. I don't know where she gets these horrifyingly sad images from. Anyway, for weeks now it has been, there are wolves in my room. They are going to climb up the windows and come into my room. They are going to just appear in my closet. Then the monsters. There are always monsters lurking everywhere. We bought nightlights,bribed, and my sister made her a beautiful room, but she still refuses to sleep there.

A few nights ago I was at my wits end trying to get her to stay in her bed. I was sitting there kneeling at her side telling her there is no such things as monsters. I have argued this point countless times. I finally looked her in the eyes and said, "Sierra, I love you so much and your Heavenly Father loves so much. Before we came to dental school your father was given a blessing that said your great-grandma Oma Wilson would come with us to Pittsburgh and watch over us. I know that many nights she sits in this room and watches over you." Sierra asked, "Who is she?" I said, "She is your great-grandma. She died and now she is our guardian angel for a time." Sierra asked, "What is an angel?" I showed her a picture of an angel. She said, "Angels are like fairies, huh mom?" I said, "Kind of, they are kind of like fairies." (What a beautiful moment. I felt at peace and warm as I told her of all the people that loved her and watched over her. I wish I could end this post on this peaceful note. I can't.)

Conclusion: She became so excited at the prospect of fairies in her room that she couldn't sleep. Still no sleep. Then she yelled back at me and said, "Mom, I have an idea." I said, "What now?" She said, "I will die myself so I can be a fairy." I alarmingly replied, "Not a good idea." She asked, "Why?" I told her I would miss her too much. Then this morning I was cleaning the mirrors and she wanted to suck on the ammonia filled glass cleaner. I told her she couldn't because eating it would kill her. She sprayed some on the counter and licked it. What? Yes, she wants to be a fairy. Ahhhh. How do I get myself into these situations?

Moral of this story: Oh parents, be wise (wiser than me.), what can I say more?

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY MY DARLING ANGEL GIRL

Sierra's I am 4 pictures. She is getting so tall and thin.

YEAH, Aunt Emily sent me a package for my birthday!!!

Yummy, I picked out my cake. Pink Jell-o cake. Raspberry Jell-o cake with Cheesecake pudding mixed with cool whip for frosting and fresh raspberries. Yummy.

A present that lasted 12 hours. The child climbs inside and grabs onto the handles and you roll it. Nate said it wouldn't last, but I thought 12 hours was a bit ridiculous. She was sad when I took it back but she exchanged it for more princess Polly pockets, her latest obsession.

BASEBALL

Yesterday Nate took Sierra to a baseball game. They bought a hotdog and sat in the stadium and watched the game together. Nate is the secretary to the Young Men in our Church. They bought tickets for all the leaders and the youth and told Nate if he wanted to, he could take Sierra.

Conversation on the way home from playing at the Nunnery's home today.

ME: Did you have a good time at the baseball game yesterday with your dad?
CC: Yeah, but nobody would let us play.
ME: They wouldn't let you play?
CC: No. Only some other people got to hit and catch the ball. Nobody would let us play.
ME: Really, that's sad.
CC: Yeah. I guess you got to have numbers on your pants, shirt, and hat to get to play with that ball.

ODE TO JESS

Here's to Jess, my Pittsburgh sister who preserved my sanity today. MJ has been breaking through two teeth and has been very irritable. She has just whinned at me for 48 hours. I can't put her down. I can't clean my house. I can't work on the quilt that I want to finish for my growing neice. I can't make dinner. I have to walk and bounce and bounce. Anyway, I begged Jess to let me come over to her house. She spoiled MJ by letting her jump in her jump-a-roo, which she loved and giving her dum dums. After an hour of Jess MJ appeared cured and this was the final result. Heaven, a sleeping baby.

Jess took these pictures. I laugh. Do you think they are sisters? Where do they get that look of death from?

MESSY MADISON

Madison has been making messes for me. Michelle, you can empathize. She tore apart a sewing book of mine. She climbed Nate's bike and got bike grease all over her.

Then she went into the bathroom and emptied a toilet paper roll.

Every day she unloads all the movies off of this shelf. (When this picture was taken she had only started the job.)

Sierra never went from thing to thing discovering and being messy. Sierra mostly enjoyed pushing her physical limits and contracting a lot of bumps and bruises in the process. MJ likes to figure out and explore her surroundings and with that comes a whole lot of mess. Still, I think I prefer it to blood, bruises, and goose eggs.