Aprons, my new passion...

Santa Claus brought Evie this cute new kitchen for Christmas and I decided she needed a cute apron to go with it. I found a free apron pattern online, if you are interested click here. While I was looking through all the patterns, I found one that I am going to make for myself, and I found a great story about how an apron is the homemaker's uniform. This is a concept that really spoke to me as a stay-at-home mom. You know, a symbol that is immediately recognized with respect as someone with a serious job to do. A doctor in scrubs and white coat, a judge in a black robe, a policeman or fireman in their uniforms. And a wife and mother in an apron, that says "I am busy raising these children to be civilized, productive members of society and providing the services of maid, nanny, cook, housekeeper, taxi-driver, gardener, and shrink to my family". As she says in her story, "The Keeper of the House, with a capital K!" I think having a uniform will help me be better at my job too, not letting the dishes and laundry pile up on me, get better at delegating and teaching my children about their responsibilities in this family. I suppose part of the reason this has been on my mind, is as my mom gets sicker and her time gets closer I feel like I have to grow up more and be prepared to be "the Mom". I won't be able to call her for advice or just to vent when my sweet little angels turn into hellions, and have her laugh at me for complaining that my children are doing to me what I did to her. Well, if anyone else wants to join my apron-as-a-uniform movement let me know, we'll have an apron sewing party.

Merry Christmas

A Post-Sunday Hairdo Post

I just had to share the fro that happened after I took out all the braids from her hairdo. Brian said she looks like a lion.

I often have people ask me how I get her to hold still while I do her hair. And the funny thing is she is great while I do the hair styles, but she throws a royal hissy-fit when I take them out. You'd think I was pulling her hair out by the roots. Tonight I got tricky and cut the elastics out instead, but it was terrifying to me. I don't want to be posting a picture of Evie with a drastic haircut to hide where mom took out a chunk of hair!

No Naps on Sunday

You know you are tired when the climbing onto the couch is just too much...

My Christmas Elf...

Evie loved decorating the tree, now if I can only convince her to stop rearranging it...

First Christmas

Yesterday evening we got together for a fun Christmas celebration. We went around and saw each others Christmas trees and decorations and then drove to the park to see the lights. After it got too cold we went back to Mima and Pa Dave's and had a mini gift exchange. Mima and Pa gave the kids new jammies and a Christmas storybook to read. Josh and Elena gave us each our wedding picture that Josh had photo shopped or something, you can see what they look like here. They are beautiful, and mom and dad have the whole set. They look really cool all together. Mom also gave Caitlin, Elena, and myself each a beautiful pearl necklace along with a letter about pearls of wisdom. It was a night of happiness and sadness and just enjoying being together doing some Christmas things. We hope Mima makes it to Christmas, but whatever happens we are making memories everyday and enjoying the time we have together as a family.

Getting into a new routine...

Don't you love when they are small enough to fit in the palm of your hand?

Mima and Lila enjoying an afternoon nap together. We like to spend the afternoons over at Mom and Dad's and just hang out with Mima Kim and all her visitors.

Both Evie and Jake are enjoying the new addition to our family. And people have been very kind in bringing little treats for them both when they bring something for the new baby. Susan Bellomy gave them this little DoddlePro that Evie is holding. She loves it! She will sit and play with it for 30 minutes at a time. Her and Jake used to have a hard time taking turns with the big one, now they sit and draw together. They have also gotten some christmas coloring books and m&m's from some sisters in our ward. Everyone is taking really good care of us.

Welcome to the world, baby girl...

Introducing Lila Faith, born November 30th at 6:52 a.m. She was 7 pounds 9 ounces and 20 inches long.

We went to the hospital on Saturday evening because I felt like I couldn't get enough oxygen and felt really light headed. They checked me over and couldn't find anything wrong and my oxygen levels were 98%, and I was still only dilated to a 2, so they were getting ready to send us home and... WHAM! Contractions started hard and fast and I was at a 4 within another hour and a half. So they said, "Ok, you're staying and having a baby instead." Brian and I were thrilled, Brian especially because he had to work really hard to talk me into going in and getting checked out. I told him to enjoy being right, because it doesn't happen all that often.
One of the best things was Mima Kim and Pa Dave got to the hospital around 4:30, so mom and I were the oxygen sisters. We shared ice chips and she brushed my hair and held my hand and got to be the first to hold Lila after she was born. She was pretty worn out afterwards, but she was there.

Decorating for Christmas

We always kick off the Christmas season by decorating on the day after Thanksgiving and then watching "Scrooge". It was nice for Mima to sit and direct and have all her grand-babies to snuggle. (Well almost all, we are still waiting for Lila to make an appearance...) Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving with lots to be thankful for. We are grateful for our families and friends and all they have done to help us get ready for our baby and taking care of Mima Kim. Hopefully the next post will be the big announcement with pictures of our new baby!

1-800-Schwans?

Tonight at Mom's was the typical controlled chaos of visitors coming and going, and the sweet sisters from the ward bringing in food. Caitlin's in-laws were over to make a cast of Mom and Caitlin's hands as a keepsake. After they finished, Mom decided she wanted to take a shower and get cleaned up and as she was heading to the stairs the doorbell rang. Since she was closest she answered, in her nightgown and oxygen tube. It was the poor Schwan's delivery man wondering if she wanted to place an order. She chuckled and said, "Well, here is where we are. I'm dying of cancer and am on home hospice care until the end and I can't really eat anything. We also have people bringing the rest of the family food... so... we don't really need anything right now." The poor man is probably going to need some serious therapy. His jaw just dropped and he stood there sputtering for a moment. Then mom said, "I know my husband loves your stuff and before I die I am going to teach him to order through the internet so that he will have nice easy stuff to cook for himself." (Like my dad couldn't take care of feeding himself any day of the week...) The delivery man stuttered out, "I... I... I don't know what to say." To which mom replied, "What you do is go back to corporate and tell them that we love your products and they have been a life saver to a woman going through chemo for the last year." At this point I stepped in and let him know she was sincere, but also heavily medicated and her brain-to-mouth filter doesn't always work very well. The rest of us were laughing hysterically, but there might be an opening for a Schwan's route driver in my parent's neighborhood very soon.

No Forward Progress...

I went to the Dr. yesterday and nothing... not even a little bit dilated. This wouldn't be such an issue but we are now in a bit of a time crunch because we want my mom to be around and lucid when this baby comes. My doctor was very kind and told me if I could get to a 3 on my own then they could induce and help the process along, but until then it is too risky to the baby. This is a lot of pressure on my cervix, and not the kind needed... Other than that disappointment we are just all hanging in there and spending a lot of time hanging out at Mima's. She is on some pretty heavy duty drugs, which makes her say some funny things. My personal favorite right now is she tells everyone, "Don't try to hold it in, your head will explode..." So if you come to visit you should be prepared to let all the emotions out because she doesn't put up with anything less. She is kind of like a big budget movie, you'll laugh, you'll cry, and because she is one amazing lady you'll come to offer comfort and leave feeling comforted and peaceful.

Our girly time...

Evie and I have a nice routine going in the morning after our boys leave for work and school. We get some breakfast, get dressed and then turn on Sesame Street and play beauty parlor. I love having a little girl and getting to do her hair and all the fun we have together. This cute hairstyle I found on a blog, I love that there are some really creative mommies out there that share all their great ideas for hairstyles. Many of you have heard of http://www.shedoeshair.blogspot.com , she has some links on her blog to other hair blogs too. It's a great resource if you need some fresh ideas or something for a special occasion.
Evie likes to be the beautician too. I wish I could get a picture of her "doing" my hair. She comes out of the bathroom with a scrunchy on either arm and a comb and brush and attacks my head. She cracked me up the other night when she found a little paintbrush in the crayon box and came into "paint" my toenails. She spent almost 20 minutes pretending to dip the brush in a Lego and carefully painting each toenail a beautiful blue color. I am so ticklish on my feet I had to work very hard not to kick her by accident when she went in between my toes...But she isn't only a girly-girl, this is her and her daddy getting ready to watch the Jazz game last week. I love the contrast between her hair in curlers and the hand-me-down jammies from her brother. The shirt is a football jersey that says bobcats on it, but Evie calls it her "Booo-ser" shirt and wants to wear it whenever the Jazz are playing. She loves to cheer for Carlos Boozer and the Jazz!

Daylight savings?

So, whoever decided that changing our clocks forward or backwards to get more daylight to work by was obviously not a parent of small children. My children came running into our room at 7:00am since they normally get up between 8 and 9, and their biological clocks aren't reset as easily as my microwave. Being Sunday morning, and because we have a late church block, the kids get to turn on the Disney channel and eat cold cereal while we sleep in. Evie decided she wanted a cheese stick instead and brought it in to me to open. I sent her around the other side of the bed to her dad, and heard her sweet little voice, "Daddy? You open dis for me?" Brian's groggy response, "Sure." Evie gave a little huff and said, "Daddy, don't say sure (imitating his growl), say YEAH (in a happy squeal)!" I laughed myself the rest of the way awake, and then shocked the heck out of my family by making blueberry waffles for breakfast. I don't think I have used the waffle iron for almost 2 years. When I asked if he wanted me to make waffles, Jake looked at me with his mouth open then said in an awed voice, "You can make those?" I think I'm nesting. Last night I made roast beef and mashed potatoes from scratch, and did the dishes, and the breakfast dishes too... hmmmm.

Happy Halloween!

Here is a glimpse of our Halloween costumes. Lila decided she didn't want to be left out of the fun!(This was my cousin Sarah's great idea, and boy did it ever get a reaction. People either thought it was hilarious or creepy...)
Here is Evie and Mima waiting to watch the costume parade at Jake's school.
I realized as I was getting ready to post this that I only have one picture of Jake in costume. Not a good mommy moment. My only defense is that I am mostly brain dead at this point. Can you tell what he finally decided on? He is an entomologist. Reaction? Stunned silence? Yeah, he is a funny kid. People would guess, "An explorer? Steve Irwin?" and he would say, "No, I am an entomologist and Evie is the bug that I have caught and am studying." Then he would usually hit her in the head with his butterfly net.

I've been tagged!

Oh! I feel so loved, someone out there (aka Haylee) wants to know all about me!

1. My average time for finishing a project is about 2 years (again... Haylee, sorry) so take that into account if you are thinking of asking me to hem a pair of pants.
2. My current obsession is figuring out how much to cook so that there are no left-overs! My family won't eat them and I hate wasting food.
3. I never make my bed unless company is coming over, and company only really includes complete strangers that I want to impress with my fastidiousness, not those of you who I already know love me and feel comfortable and at home in my mess.
4. I can fit an amazing amount of dishes into the dishwasher, which mad-arranging skills I attribute directly to hours spent playing Tetris.
5. I am unbeatable at California speed. I do pretty good at most speed games, but I have not been beat at California speed. (No one in my family will play it with me anymore...)
6. I can untangle almost any knot that I come across, it is like a puzzle I must unravel. I am especially good at undoing necklace chains that have become twisted and snarled into a large ball in your jewelery box.
7. I cannot pronounce the word peculiar very well, and I cannot say peculiarly at all. My tongue trips all over its self every time I see it and now it has become something of a phobia. (And I am reading a series aloud to Brian where it is one of the author's favorite words...argggh!)
Okay, now I tag Dinee, Mom, Josh and Elena (seperately or together), Mandy, Tiffany, Emilie, and Sarah. If you don't want to, that is okay. But I would love to read all of your randomness...

Cute as a bug!

A ladybug that is...



I finished her Halloween costume today. (I know! Who'd believe I wouldn't be up all night on the 30th to get it done...) Kind of an ironic costume for a child who is terrified of any and all bugs, but we are trying to teach her not to be scared of something she can squish. Actually, I got the wings and headband last year and she is still young enough that I get to pick her costume. Which is why there are no pictures of Jake as yet, because he changes his mind every three days. I'm giving him until Friday to choose and then we are making it!

Our newest cousin!

This is Josh and Elena's baby, Huck. We are so excited to finally have a cousin on the Madsen side of the family. Evie was fascinated with him and kept calling him, "my new cousin". She also very proudly informed Elena that Baby Huck wasn't in her tummy anymore (like she didn't already know that...)

Jake is already planning to teach Huck all the boy stuff he'll need to know, like how to drive a hot wheel, sword fight, be a ninja warrior, and generally be really loud and crazy!

I think the hardest thing with Evie will be making sure she doesn't treat Huck like one of her baby dolls, because then he would constantly be naked and she would carry him around by his left leg...

My Little Copy-Cat

Evie just has to do whatever her big brother is doing. Whenever Jake is working on his homework, she grabs a coloring book and a seat by him to do her "homewurk". She also loves to repeat what anyone says to her. Today I was watching a Law & Order (anyone out there not know what a Law & Order junkie I am?) and when the murder scene was on screen I covered her eyes and told her it was yucky and not to look. After she went back to playing, she would come back to me every 5 minutes or so and cover my mouth with her hand and say, "Is ucky mom... don't yook."


I guess she comes by it honestly. Dinee and I can't seem to help picking out the same clothes for our girls even though we have never gone shopping together since Libby was born, and some of them were gifts bought by the grandparents. They have had several of the exact same outfits including their Christmas dresses last year, and they are both going as ladybugs for Halloween! I had to laugh when on two separate occasions in the last few weeks they have come over for dinner and game night and we pulled out the same jammies. Evie freaked out a little the other night when she got out of the tub and saw Libby in "her" duckie jammies! How cute are they though? I guess great minds think alike...

"Almost Jake... almost."

Ever since she turned one and noticed that her finger would fit inside her nose, Evie is constantly bringing me her "boogies". Nice, right? At least I'm not finding them wiped across the car window or something. Every time we are in the car I hear from the backseat, "Mom, I got a boogie for you." To which I always reply, "Evie! Get your finger out of your nose!!" Today was no exception, only her brother chimed in with this sage advice, "Evie, you can pick your friends and you can pick your friends' nose, but you can't pick your nose. So knock it off!"

Circus Time!

Here are a few pictures of our wonderful night at the circus! It was so much fun and the kids were beyond excited. Evie did very good for being up so late, the show ended at 10:00 pm, the last 10 minutes she would lay her head on my shoulder and start to drift off then jerk her eyes open and pop up so she didn't miss anything! They have the coolest aunt and uncle ever, Josh bought them each a souvenir. A light-up sword for Jake and a light-up, twirling wand for Evie. (I'm wondering how long the batteries will last...) The next day Jake came to me and said with a very serious face, "Mom, I don't know if that was the greatest show on earth, but it was a really good show." My child is very literal, and won't believe that statement until he has seen every show on earth.

Elephant Parade

We had another great adventure with Mima Kim today! We went into Salt Lake and saw the circus parade and then went to the Discovery Gateway for some fun activities. The kids got popcorn and cotton-candy, balloons and balloon animals, and coloring books. We are going to the circus on Friday and they can hardly wait. Evie was so funny, I don't think she blinked during the parade for fear of missing something.

This make me happy?

We have a 1:00 church block, which as anyone with small children knows, is hard. It throws off our schedule every week, as that is right when we are usually having lunch and naps. By the time we get home at 4:00 my whole family is convinced they are going to die of hunger and are just generally ornery. Evie in particular had a really hard time yesterday, too many days with too much going on and no time for naps. We came home and I threw some spaghetti together for a quick meal while she sat in her chair and whined for food. When we dished it up and set it in front of her she dove straight in and was busily chowing down when I asked if she wanted some cheese. (Mizithra, have you had this? It is soooo good on spaghetti!) She looked at me as I stirred some into her bowl and handed it back to her and then asked in a sweet little voice, "Oh... this make me happy?" So there you have it, the secret to happiness is cheese, and lots of it!

When Dad helps out...

Last night was awful, there is no other word for it. Evie and Jake both woke up with growing pains, Jake didn't wake all the way up and was settled back to bed pretty quickly. But Evie, she woke up screaming at about 3 a.m. with a sopping wet diaper and Brian changed her and brought her into bed with us. She would only settle if she was laying with her arm wrapped around my neck and her forehead pressed to mine, not exactly comfortable. Every 10 minutes or so she would start to cry and ask for breakfast, and we would tell her we would eat in the morning. After about an hour of this she started screaming unconsolably that her legs hurt. So we got her some Tylenol and tried to get her to relax, which she did for about 5 minutes and then was screaming for food. Brian, bless his heart, took her out to the kitchen and started feeding her some cereal. But by now I was fully awake so I came out a took over so he could get some sleep before work. Evie finally crashed at about 6 a.m., so Brian let us sleep in this morning and got Jake ready and took him to school for me. (Best-Dad-Ever award!) But I think he was still pretty tired, when I went to pick Jake up from school as he was getting in the car I noticed something looked off about his clothes...

I asked Jake, "Why is your shirt on backwards?" He looked down and said, "Huh. I didn't realize it was." We all need more sleep.

We're back!

I have felt so out of the loop for the last 2 weeks, we were switching our service provider and to make a long story short it took 3 weeks to hook up our new service after we had already cancelled our old service. I won't whine too much about it because it was a good reminder that there is a world out there beyond blogging and email, I can't believe how much knitting I got done. And my laundry is totally caught up (yes, I am bragging about that!) But I missed keeping up with all you out there in blogland and am so glad to be able to email again. We have been crazy busy of course, after one week of school Jake came home with strep which he promptly gave to Evie. They both got on antibiotics quickly and healed physically, but oh my goodness... the whining, the Whining! It has been non-stop for more than a week. Why is it so much harder to heal emotionally from illness? I'm thinking it is my turn to take to my bed for a few days, but then the laundry would be out of control again and I'm pretty sure my family would be reduced to sucking on bullion cubes for food... I guess I'll just have to suck it up and try for more patience.

I just thought this was a great picture that Jake took of Evie doing her best impression of a lounge singer. I love that they play together so well, she is still having a hard time adjusting to the fact that Jake is gone in the morning. Every 5 minutes it's, "Jake at scool? Wif his teachur? Ohhhh.... he be home soon."

Camping with the fam...

We went camping with my family over Labor Day weekend. It was a lot of fun to hang out with Mima and Pa Dave, Josh and Elena and their dog Sparrow, and Caite. Kaleb and Liz came up for one night and brought their cute little puppy, Pandora, with them. Evie was in 7th heaven playing with the dogs. I will say though, that there is nothing like having to hike down the road to a campground outhouse every 15 minutes or so to highlight the fact that someone is sitting on your bladder. It made me very, very grateful for indoor plumbing and a toilet that is 5 feet from my bed in the middle of the night.

Evie's Earrings

I have been meaning to post this for awhile, while we were shopping for Jake's school clothes we made a side trip at the mall and got Evie's ears pierced. This is the first picture I got where you can actually see the earrings. She has little pink stones that sparkle and glitter, she loves her pretties! And the most amazing part was when they pierced the first ear she didn't scream or cry, she just frowned at the girl like, "Excuse me, that was uncomfortable..." In about another week she'll have had them in for a month and then she can change them and wear other earrings. The other pair she has are little gold Scottie dogs, because we all know how much Evie loves dogs. We got these pictures courtesy of Uncle Josh who got an amazing new camera with part of the money he won from the golf channel, so thanks for taking great pictures Uncle Josh!

First Day of School

I officially have a Kindergartner! Today school started and Jake is going to love it. They do things a little differently then they did when I started school, I went with him for this first day and we were only there for about an hour. Tomorrow he will go back for a 20 minute one-on-one with his teacher for an assessment and get-to-know-you. Then he has the rest of the week off. So it kind of feels like school starts next week for us, but I like that they ease these little kids into it and there weren't any screaming, terrified children (or parents) to make him nervous. When we got to his class his teacher sent us on a treasure hunt to learn the layout of the school and classroom a little and get some supplies. He was thrilled that he got his very own pencil box filled with pencils, crayons, markers and so on.

We took Evie over to play with Mima this morning so that I could concentrate all my attention on Jake and this new experience, so when we went to pick her up we all went swimming for a little while. I think the hardest part of this transition will be Evie not having her best friend around in the mornings.