Wedding photos... for real this time.

Busy weekend...

It feels like I haven't sat down for more than 2 seconds at a time this weekend, unless it was during a test drive. Saturday was mostly spent car shopping for a new "commuter" car for Brian to replace the Jeep. (That could be a post all on it's own, due mostly to the fact that Brian and I were on very different pages as to what exactly constituted a good commuter car. But it is done and though I am not too excited by the new car, I am not unhappy about it either. And I don't have to drive it everyday, so it doesn't really matter what I think about it anyway...) Tucked into all the business of life were some cute and funny moments I wanted to record before I forget.

Jake and Evie had a Primary Activity on Saturday morning. They had a man from the Utah Kite Flyers Association come and talk about kites, and give a demonstration of some indoor kites. Then the kids put together paper kites and ran around the parking lot trying to fly them in no wind. There were two designs to choose from, a beetle or a butterfly. And quite naturally the room tended to divide along gender lines. Except for my son who, without the least bit of self-consciousness, came up to me as I was passing out the butterflies and said, "I've studied the aerodynamics of both designs and I believe this one will fly better." He then happily settled down to color his like a Monarch butterfly. I love that kid.

On Sunday morning while we were driving to church, Jake announced from the back seat, "I am SO excited for Easter...or should I say... egg-cited?" We laughed and I said to Brian, "He is SO your child. Not that there was any doubt, but if there was that would have proved it!" Jake laughed and said, "It's true Dad, you only have about 25% of a normal person's sense of humor." Ah.. math jokes. That's our boy.

But Evie had her moments too. One of my favorites was during Sacrament meeting. We sat in the foyer because our chapel is currently under construction so they are holding Sacrament meeting in the cultural hall. And it is not to fun to try to keep 3 small children quiet and still on hard folding chairs in a room that echoes for more than an hour... so we sat in the foyer. A mother walked by with her beautiful little girl who is probably 2 or 3 years old, and was adopted from an African country (I believe). Evie quite excitedly (and quite loudly) pointed to her and said, "Look Mom! She's just like on Princess and the Frog! You know, with a brown face!" I said, "Yes she is as beautiful as a princess, isn't she?" hoping that the mother wouldn't think that my pointing three year old was being rude. You just have to love the ingeniousness of children...


I also had to get a picture of Evie's Rainbow Bright outfit that she picked out on her own when I told her to change out of her Easter dress. She is wearing a valentine's tee-shirt, pink and red striped pajama pants, the rainbow striped jumper I made her last summer and some hand-me-down rainbow jelly sandals... her fashion sense and color palette just make me happy!

Baf-time

In the last 6 weeks or so, Lila has mastered using the stairs. This makes my life simpler in that she can now go downstairs to the toy room and play with the other kids. She loves being able to keep up with brother and sister and I love that I don't need to be her sole source of entertainment anymore. This also makes my life more complicated in that I have to make sure the laundry room and bathroom doors are shut, and remind the older kids to keep an eye on her so she stays out of my sewing room. Most of the time she is really good and just happily plays with the toys. But today I was folding a batch of laundry (again... for the 4th time... not that that is an important point of this story...) when I hear Evie yelling up to me that Lila was in the toilet. ARRRGG! I ran downstairs hoping that what ever she was dunking in the toilet wasn't electronic or too expensive, and also that she hadn't been playing in the bathroom for 20 minutes or so before Evie thought to let me know what was going on. I came around the corner saying, "Lila! What are you doing?!" to see that she, quite literally, was IN the toilet. As in, standing with both legs soaked to her knees, in the toilet bowl. I just stood and stared for a moment, then said again, "OH NO! What are you DOING?!" Lila smiled happily, pointed down at the water, and clearly said, "Baf!"

Ideally there would be a picture to insert here, but I didn't think it would be good parenting to leave her standing in the toilet while I ran back upstairs to find the camera...

I lifted her out, and stood for a moment while the water streamed from her jeans and socks, then wrapped a towel around her and took her to the laundry room to strip her down. From there it was upstairs and straight into the bathtub. I scrubbed her down and she squealed and laughed and splashed happy to have achieved her end goal. Which leaves me very nervous and thinking that she has been rewarded for her bad behavior... I guess next time I will just have to hose her down in the yard. Sneaky child.

Wedding photos

After all the build up and sewing I helped with for my cousin's wedding this last weekend I bet you are excited to see how it all came together.

Too bad.

These are the only two pictures that I have from the reception:


Evie "dancing" with Caite and Patrick. (It's hard to cut in when you are under 4 feet tall...)


Patrick with our cousin Tiffany's baby, Kaia. He is getting those daddy skills ready!

I didn't even get a picture of my cute kids all dressed up together.... or all together... or even dressed up for that matter. I did get a picture of each of them on the way home, from right to left across the back seat.


Lila, slumped to the right.


Jake, slumped to the right.


Evie, slumped to the right.

...that or Brian had just taken a sharp corner.

My aunt Lynnett did take a lot of great pictures. So I will hopefully have some pictures to share soon of us all looking nice, dressed up for the wedding. And at least one of Evie in her roll as flower girl. She was pretty dang cute with her way curly hair.

A little ray of sunshine...

I really lucked out and found this adorable dress at Kid to Kid for $8, and it was brand new! Some new white shoes and a cute little yellow flower hair clip and Lila is ready for Easter.

...well, almost ready. I am working on a cute little bolero style shrug for her as the weather can be iffy during the early spring around here. Time to knit like a mad woman!

How we celebrated...

St. Patrick's Day fell on my day for teaching the preschool. It was kind of fun coming up with a little "green" party for the kids. We started out by watching a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse where Pete the Leprechaun is hiding his pot of gold from Mickey and the gang. By the end of the show all four of the kids were singing, "Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue... don't forget there's Purple too! Rainbow colors for me and youuuuuu!"

We had green jello, green punch, and sour cream and onion flavored crackers (because they came in a green package) for snack time.

(Cute kids all in green!)


We made some green cookies too!


Keeping it nice and simple I just added green food coloring to one of those mixes where you just add an egg and some butter and have cookies in 20 minutes. Quick is good when entertaining young children...

And they still tasted great!


While the kids were downstairs playing for a little bit, the "leprechauns" came and left them each a little surprise, some dollar store bubbles and a green glow stick necklace.


They had so much fun hunting for the bags hidden around our front room. I love how such small and simple things can be so exciting to a three year old. That kind of unbridled joy just makes me happy.


I had to get a photo of Lila sporting a tiny pony with her holiday hair bow. She thought she was in trouble for getting into the pantry cupboard...


Once she realized I just wanted a picture she was all smiles.


Hope your St. Patrick's Day was as fun as ours!

Evie's Special Mommy Day!

Two months in and still going strong, I love this new tradition! This month was Evie's turn and I was having a hard time trying to figure out what to do for our special day out. Then I saw an ad on TV for Disney on Ice. Evie has become a Mickey Mouse fanatic this last year and I thought that would be an extra special treat! I started to look online for tickets and pricing, and my sweet husband volunteered to go to the venue box office on his lunch hour and buy the tickets to save us the $20 in "convenience fees" they were charging. Thanks Brian, for making it possible for me to have this one-on-one time with our kids.


My sweet Genevieve, I love this girl to pieces! She was sooo excited to get to see the princesses!


They told us that if you got there early they would have an area to "Meet the Princesses". I was thinking it was going to be along the lines of Disneyland where you'd get to wait in line to shake her hand and have a photo op... wrong! We got there way early to stand 4 ft. away behind a velvet rope while they stood on a stage and waved. Lame. If I'd known how it would be I'd have spent more time finding a better and closer parking space instead of walking 3 city blocks through a crowd waiting for a St. Patrick's Day parade... oh well.

I'd have also gotten us breakfast first, instead of overpriced cotton candy and popcorn.


Breakfast of Champions! It's all part of the special fun day, we get to bend all the rules...


Ready for the show to start! These were the four sections of the program, Cars, Little Mermaid, Lion King, and the new Tinkerbell movie.


Evie was so excited to see Mickey and Minnie! She spent the rest of the show asking me in a not too quiet whisper, "Mom! Who's coming out next?"


I have to admit, as much as I like the skaters, the Cars section was probably my favorite. It was so cool to see them driving around on the ice!


And they were fully animated, their eyes and mouths moved. I find that kind of thing fascinating to try to figure out how they make it all work.

(And a side note for Emilie, I totally teared up when it started and during the big finale... what is it with us and Disney?)

I was having a hard time telling if Evie was even enjoying it at all. She wouldn't clap or smile or laugh during the show, she just stared at the ice intently the entire time. But on the drive back she didn't stop talking about her favorite parts and seeing Mickey Mouse! (She is going to be so fun when we finally get to take her to Disneyland.) I guess she just didn't want to risk missing anything during the show.

I was excited because the night before Evie told me she wanted to get Chinese food for lunch. But then she changed her mind and we went to Arctic Circle. I wonder what age taste will finally trump a play land?


Hey Evie, how's that cheeseburger?


She loved the new purple bunny she got with the kid's meal, she wouldn't put it down for a second.


My cute girl, I just love how happy she is in this picture. I had to laugh because most days she never stops chattering at me, and when it was just the two of us she hardly made a peep! I was telling Pa Dave about it, and he pointed out that at home she is competing for my attention, and that day she didn't have to. So all I have to do to get her to be quiet is sit down and give her my undivided attention? Why didn't I think of this sooner?! Oh yeah, because I have more than one child...


One final note: I can see unlimited potential for entertainment with this fairy flower hat...


Sweet fairy baby.


Jake is a good sport even when his mom is making him wear a girly flower hat.


Proof that Evie has to do everything that her big brother does.

Language lessons...

Today has been one of those days. My internal clock is all sorts of screwed up because of daylight savings. I slept Sunday afternoon away and couldn't fall asleep until almost 7am. Bleech... Then up at 8:30 to scramble the boys out the door and get ready for preschool, which is at my house this week. Phone call from Brian at 9:03 to tell me that the Jeep has flat out died and he is stranded on the side of the freeway in rush hour traffic. Awesome. Decide the best course of action is to call a tow truck and pick him up at the mechanics and then take him to work. Wait for him to call me when he gets to the mechanic. Phone call at 9:27 wondering where in the heck I am as he is still waiting on the side of the freeway for the tow, and realize we had a serious miscommunication. Oops. Fortunately his mom is able to pick him up and take him into work as I wouldn't be able to make it out there and back before preschool. 10:30- Preschool kids arrive. 11:15- Lila pitches complete melt down as we are trying to do our workbook pages. 11:30- kids are playing in the toy room, Lila is down for a nap, I am getting ready for our art project when Brian calls with the good news/bad news. Good news: Our car insurance will cover the cost of the tow. yea! Bad news: Starting estimate for car repair is around $1000, and no guarantee that it will fix all that is wrong with the Jeep. Farewell Pearl. You've been a good car, but a not worth another grand or so investment. We will miss you. (p.s. Sometimes being a grown-up sucks.)

The rest of the day went more or less smoothly. I fought against napping so that I can sleep tonight, but that left me a somewhat grouchy mama bear. I can't be positive, but I believe the phrase "...come upstairs again on pain of DEATH!" may have crossed my lips once or twice. Finally 6 pm rolled around and we loaded up into the van to go pick up Daddy from work. Despite my anxieties over driving in heavy traffic and going a different way then I am used to, we survived and didn't even get lost or have to back track once. Once there Brian wanted me to bring the kids up so he could show them off to the few co-workers still around. Sure... why not? The kids were excited to get to see where Daddy works again, so they were more or less well behaved. And a nice lady that sits by Brian gave them each a sucker, ensuring that they were too busy stuffing their mouths with sugar to get too loud.

Brian excused himself to use the bathroom before we left. Now anyone who knows my husband, knows that it is going to take him at least 10-15 minutes for a bathroom break. He has OCD and the hand washing ritual isn't quick. After we had been waiting a while Evie turned to me and asked, "What is taking him so long?!" I looked at her for a moment and then said, "What always takes him so long." She mulled that over for a few seconds and then announced in a rather carrying voice, "Oh! He had to go poops!" Good thing the people Brian works with are fairly laid back...

But the best conversation of all was when were finally on the way home, stopping by way of Brian's parent's so he can borrow his mom's car while we figure out what to do next. Randomly from the back seat I hear this,

Jacob: Well. I am English.

Me: No you're not.

Jacob: Yes I am.

Me: You are an American.

Jacob: No. I am English.

Me: Okay, you're a pretentious American.

Jacob: Well, someone who speaks French is French right? I thought I spoke English, so I must be English.

Me: Oh. Yes you do speak English, but you were born in America so you are American. Your nationality is based on where you were born.

Jacob: Oh, okay.

Evie: What am I?

Me: You are American too.

Evie: No I'm not! I don't speak English, see watch! Glah-ble lah-ble guh.

Apparently my daughter is a Gibber, because she speaks gibberish...

Playtime...

The other night I overheard Evie say to her brother, "Hey Jake, let's play 'Mommy and Daddy' !" Instantly on high alert I went in and asked Evie what they do when they play 'Mommy and Daddy'? She said, "Oh you know, watch a couple of TV shows and then go to bed..." I was both relieved and a little chagrined at how accurately my three year old has my life pegged.

Tonight I turned to Brian after dinner and asked, "Hey, wanna go play 'Mommy and Daddy' ?" His look of shock was quickly replaced by an ironic grimace when he realized I meant go watch a couple of TV shows before bedtime...

How long does it take a bruise to fade?

I may have mentioned once or twice on here about Evie being a somewhat less than graceful child, prone to walking into walls and tripping over flat surfaces...

The other night I was just settling into bed, looking forward to a half an hour (or so...) of quiet reading time. I had been relaxing for less than 5 minutes when there was a truly awful noise from the kids room, followed by a heart-rending howl of pain. You never really know how fast you can move until you hear one of your children scream in pain and terror...


She had fallen out of her bed and managed to catch the side of her face on the corner of her dresser as she fell. Poor baby. Fortunately it didn't cut her, just a lovely long welt and bruise down her left cheek. If you look closely she also has a black eye and bruise on her forehead that had just reached the yellow/green healing stage from a few days earlier when she had the lid of the blanket box dropped on her face. (Unsympathetic mother that I am, I chastised her for playing in the blanket box before I kissed the hurt better...)

Have I mentioned that she is going to be a flower girl in a wedding next Saturday? I apologize right now Janessa, I have tried to explain to her that you don't want a flower girl that looks like a prize fighter... I don't know how much she was listening to me though.


I took Lila in for her 15 month well check at the doctor's earlier this month. Her stats really surprised me, she was 70% for height, 30% for weight. I have never had a child under the 50% for anything, so she is definitely my smallest baby. Of course, her head is still in the 90%...


...which is probably why she looks like this. Huge bruises all over her gigantic cranium.


She bruised her forehead last Saturday when she fell off a chair at my Grandma's house. A day or two later she tripped over the rocking chair rockers and went head first into the door jam at full speed. This one scared me bad enough to scramble for a flashlight and check her pupils while speed dialing the doctor's, and after 3 kids I don't scare that easily. But it ended up being nothing worse than a goose egg and very prominent bruise, which was hitting the lovely greeny-yellowy stage until tonight when she slipped in the tub and smacked the exact same spot for the third time this week! I am worried she is going to have a soft spot on her head if this keeps up, my poor top heavy baby.

Nightcap anyone?

Twenty minutes before I snapped this picture I was getting after Evie for climbing in and out of bed.

I went in to check on her and ...


The girl can accessorize in her sleep. Brian says it's proof that I keep the heat turned too low.

A special day with a special guy...

This post is long overdue, last month Jake and I went out for some special Mommy/Son bonding time. We had been having a rough patch, he and I. He was having a hard time listening and following directions (like many 6 year olds...) and I had been feeling a tremendous amount of guilt about how quick I was to snap and snarl at my boy. He had also been going through some really tough emotional times, dealing with missing his Mima Kim. I decided that it would do us both good to have a little one-on-one face time. So we set a date for the first Saturday in February and left the girls home with Daddy.


Me and my little man. Boy, I love this kid! So the rules of this day were that he got to make all the decisions. And I was going to relax and just enjoy rediscovering the world from his perspective.


We started off with breakfast at McDonald's. Hot cakes on Styrofoam plates... it was delicious. Then I just sat back and let him play on the playground until our next destination was open.


We went to the Gateway Mall. Jake was intrigued by the photography potential of these waterfalls, I actually have several pictures on my camera that he took. (I don't know if he was more interested in the water, or the fact that I was letting him play with my camera...)


Then we went to Build-a-Bear because Jake got a gift certificate for Christmas. I love that as much as he is a rough and tumble boy who likes to play ninja and pirate, he still is a tender kid who likes stuffed animals and can make a wish with all his heart.


His new friend is Mitchell the Monkey. He is a skateboarding monkey... that just makes me smile. I love the helmet and knee and elbow pads. Safety first.

After making Mitchell we wandered around the Gateway for awhile, poking into a few stores. Then we went to see a movie. "The Tooth Fairy", about a hockey player who becomes a tutu wearing tooth fairy, perfect entertainment if you are 6. And not too bad if you are hanging out with a 6 year old for the day.


Then we were on to lunch at... you guessed it... Mickey D's. (That's the risk you take in letting the kid make all the decisions.) It was actually quite fun to hang out in the chaos of play land with out checking my watch every three seconds to see if it was time to leave.


Not only did I sit back and watch him play, I wowed him with my amazing b-ball skills.


That's right, this mama's got some mad skills. Plus I was the only parent up and playing with my kid instead of yelling at them from across the room. I don't say that to be judgmental, only that it was a light bulb moment for me to remember how much fun getting hands on can be. All too often I am too busy being harried and frustrated with my kids, instead of just enjoying their company.


The last stop of the day was a haircut for him at Cookiecutters. And one last picture of my handsome boy. Thanks for such a fun day Jake! I love being your mom.

I had such a wonderful time just relaxing and going with his flow, that I decided that this is going to be a monthly occurrence in this family. Once a month I am going to take one of my children out for a special Mommy time. I want this to be a tradition so that as they get older they will still have room and time for me in their lives. Plus it will help me to stay in touch with each of them and their needs as individuals, and help me remember, even when they are at their worst, that I actually do like my kids.

A post containing both a piggy and the police....

Just a quick post to let you know that I haven't disappeared forever. I have been very busy this last week helping a cousin with some wedding sewing. (Pictures are posted on my other blog if you are interested in taking a peep.) Today was a nice, slow paced, relaxing type of day. I had some friends from my knitting group over during the day and enjoyed a morning of knitting and a play date for the kids. Later I loaded my kids up to run a few errands, one of which was looking for some new pants for Lila. And so we ended up at Target...

You know how they say that when you stop looking, that's when you'll find it?



I don't how many of you might remember my post last year about the tragic demise of my previous bank. There has been a void in my heart, or at the very least on my dresser, since that sad day. My loose change has been tossed negligently into a small piece of tupperwear, which, let's face it, is nothing more than function without form. I have been searching in vain for over six months, when suddenly I turned the corner in the store and there was a heavenly chorus in my head and a stray beam of sunlight fell on to this little piggy. Even though I thought that I could never again be happy with a prosaic pig for a piggy bank, with this one it was love at first sight! A paisley painted pig! (I've always been a sucker for alliteration...) Truly a silver lining on this stormy day.

Caite has been staying with me this weekend as all our men folk wandered on down to St. George for the yearly testosterone-fest known as Hearts and Clubs. (Basically they play golf all day and cards all night as an antidote to the winter blues...) I went to pick her up this evening from work and turned off my head lights while waiting in front of the theater. After I drove through the well lit parking lot, it took me about two blocks to realize I'd forgotten to turn them back on. Just as I reach over and twist the knob to turn them on, the night behind me lights up with flashing red and blue. Crap. Thank heavens my newly renewed licence arrived today in the mail and I have all the current paperwork in the van. The officer told me he pulled me over because I was driving without headlights, and I actually used the phrase "brain fart" in explaining why that had happened. (You'd think being raised by a cop would make me not get so flustered around law enforcement types, but I so rarely get pulled over that it is just overwhelming.) While the officer was looking over my information back at his car, Caitlin turned to me in a near panic with huge eyes, held up her bottle of Sobe juice and said, "Oh no! I can't have an open container in a car!" I laughed so hard I could hardly catch my breath to reassure her that that law only applies to alcohol. It was a mighty effort on both our parts to calm down before the policeman came back with my i.d. and sent us on our way with a mild warning to remember the headlights. We were so giddy I don't know if he would have bought that we were just high on life and entertaining to each other with our stupidity naivety...