Flashbacks...

Last weekend Jake asked if he and Evie could have a "camp out" in her room. Since I am trying to get out of the habit of saying "No" just on principal, I said, "sure." I tried to convince them to do it down in the play room, but that idea was vetoed because it was "too scary". Oh well.

Evie has a Dora the Explorer play tent that was a Christmas present two years ago from Uncle Kaleb. It was just big enough for her to lay down, although it made me chuckle when I went in to get them up for church and her little toes were sticking out the end. It made me think of the scene in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy drops the house on the Wicked Witch of the East(?). West(?). Whatever...


Jake had to be a bit more resourceful and build his own tent with kitchen stools and blankets. It took me back to when Josh and I were little and would build blanket forts and sleep in them during the summer. Especially on the night before July 4th. I don't know why, but that seemed to turn into a tradition for us. Sleeping in a blanket fort and then getting up early to go get a spot for the parade on Main Street.


I also couldn't help wondering what age sleeping on the floor in a tent or fort becomes less cool then the comfort of sleeping on a mattress...

They take after their mother...

I love it when I catch a glimpse of myself or Brian in our children. A look, or something they say or do, that you can definitely attribute to one or the other of us. Like Jake...


one of his favorite things is to snuggle in my bed with a good book. Something he got from me.

And Evie...


who apparently inherited my love of unusual animal banks. She found this beauty in the dollar section at Target all by herself, and when she begged to take "Mr. Crabby" home I just couldn't say no.


He just makes me smile. Honestly, if I had found him first I might have snagged him for myself!

And of course we can't forget Lila...



who absolutely loves it when it is time to crank up the music while we do the dishes and dance in the kitchen. You always know when I am cleaning my house because the music is upbeat and loud!

Brian says the other way you know they are definitely my children is that all three of them kick off all the blankets when the sleep and prefer to sleep on a diagonal. I say they are his children because if you stop them in the middle of what they are saying, they have to start over from the very beginning! (At least that is true for the older two, we aren't sure about that trait in Lila just yet...)

What I learned from preschool today...

I learned that taking them to the park to learn about over and under may have been the most genius idea I have ever had...

I learned that I have been doing this mom thing long enough to know that having them all take a potty break before leaving the house was also a really great idea...

I also know enough to take drinks with me...

I learned that I am very opposed to letting children climb up slides when there are other children playing at the park...

I, apparently, am the minority in this belief...

I learned that 9 out of 10 children will respond to a firm but kind tone and the phrase let's take turns....

I learned that #10 will inevitably follow me and my 16 month old around the park and take violent exception to her temerity in using his slide, or his stairs, or his swing while his mother sits chatting cluelessly... seriously...

I learned that simultaneously pushing four preschoolers and a toddler on the swings is a pretty good work-out...

I learned that I am incapable of pushing a swing without making a "swoo-ish" noise...

I learned during our snack time of Babybel cheese (which Evie calls Baby-bop) and animal crackers, that Lila can say animal...

She says it better than Evie, who still says am-inal...

I learned that there are still children who will come up to complete strangers and ask for food...

That really disturbs me...

I learned that it is possible to spend an extended amount of time at the park and not have any blood spilled...

One barked shin, one kicked nose (I told Evie not to follow to close behind when climbing up things, but she had to learn the hard way), and one bonk on the cheek (Bad mommy moment, I didn't catch Lila as she flew off the slide, oops)...

I learned that I am not too surprised that most of the traumas involved my children...

I learned that for sheer entertainment value where 3 and 4 year olds are concerned, you cannot beat pulling over to the side of the road, rolling down the windows, and letting a steam roller roar past you at a whopping 15 m.p.h. ...

I learned that passing the steam roller with the windows down gets almost as big of a reaction...

Now, what do we do tomorrow?

Do bad things have to come in threes?

Today has not been the greatest so far.

# 1-

Poor Evie has a UTI. Yeah. Try explaining to a three year old that even though it hurts she still has to go potty. We are pretty sure it happened because getting her to drink any liquid is like trying to teach a dog to roller skate. You can do it, but by the end both you and the dog are going to be frustrated and emotionally exhausted. I am hoping to drive home the connection between not drinking enough and the pain. I am also going to try having timed "drink breaks" through out the day. I am going to pump her so full of fluid she won't be able to stop going potty! The unfortunate truth is that kids pretty much control two things in their worlds, input and output. So I am working very hard to come up with ideas that are more carrot than stick to get her drinking and regulated again. If anyone has any great ideas I would welcome them gladly.

# 2-

Our oven freaked out last night. I put a frozen pizza in for mine and Brian's dinner. Something that I have done often enough that I was on auto pilot. Push bake, set degrees, push bake again, let it preheat. Ding goes off, oven preheated, stick pizza in, push timer, set minutes, push start, walk away. About 12 minutes later I was smelling something burning, went in to check on it and WHOA! That pizza was charcoal. That's $2.50 I'll never see again. I could not for the life of me figure out what I had done wrong. It was like I had set it to broil instead of bake, but I kept checking and rechecking and if I had hit broil then it would say it on the display instead of bake. But every time I would push bake and set the degrees, the broiler would turn on instead. Brian came in to take a look and flipped on the light in the hood... and it reset the clock. Awesome. This is really not the time for a major appliance meltdown as we just spent all our "extra" money to get the van ready to register.

And so far there isn't a # 3- but I can't help feeling a vague sense of dread... waiting for the other shoe to drop... something to hit the fan... the open-faced peanut butter sandwich to fall peanut butter side down on to a clean floor. I see I've made my point. I'll stop now.

A couple of highlights from the last week...

This is pretty much what Lila has looked like for the last week or two. Drool down her shirt, pouty lip, and big tears. She is working on the last of her four molars, so hopefully my happy, sweet baby will be back soon.


This just made me laugh. Just before I snapped this picture I had glanced over and Brian was playing on his phone while Lila was dozing on his chest. Two minutes later I looked up and Lila had the phone and Brian was asleep. I love how intent she is on whatever she is doing. She didn't even notice me getting up and getting the camera.


Now we can play "Can you find Evie in the messy room?"


This was Saturday afternoon. We decided to go for a drive and I was rushing around, packing the diaper bag, finding jackets and shoes for everyone, and making sure everyone went potty before we left. I realized that Evie hadn't come out of her room after I sent her to get her shoes on, and it was awfully quiet. I went to check on her and found her fast asleep...


She had been playing hard all day with her cousins and helping plant seeds in her Grandpa's green house. I felt bad for her when I had to wake her up after only a 5 minute cat nap, and she had finger marks all over her face from sleeping on her hands like that. We did have a nice drive and she was probably the least ornery child at the end of the night, so I guess a quick nap did the trick.

Thank You Jiminy Cricket...

I went to JoAnn's today to hit the big spring sale. I got some very cute prints in bright patterns to make some shorts and capris for Evie, a cute yellow cotton with little green turtles to make her a nightgown, a pretty green and gray floral print to make a skirt for myself, and some bubble-gum pink satin and organza that Evie just fell in love with and begged for a dress out of. It was 3.99 a yard when it had been 9.99 a yard, so I said yes. Everything I picked out was at least half off and some of them were in the clearance section and were only 1.50 a yard! *score*

We got to the cutting table and Jake helped me unload the bolts of fabric on to it. He stepped back, looked at the stack and then looked at me. He frowned and said, "Ummm, Mom? Don't you think you should work your way through the fabric you've already got at home before you buy some more? Because you really have a lot of fabric already." The lady cutting the fabric laughed and said, "I see you've already started your 'man lessons', because you sound like every husband who comes in here with his wife." Jake said, very earnestly, "No, really! She has, like, a hundred pounds of fabric!" I pointed out that I use that fabric to sew many things for himself and his sisters, but he wasn't convinced. Fortunately after that he contented himself with counting the number of yards I was getting and telling everyone that passed by how much it was. He did redeem himself slightly by also telling the other people waiting in line that I was the ultimate crafter and that I was going to teach him how to sew.

As we were waiting to pay the entertainment for the crowd continued as Jake rather loudly started to formulate a schedule for me to sew so many projects each week so I can use up the hundred pounds of fabric I have lying around. It's hard to listen to your conscience when you are wishing you could chuck him out a window...

Preparing for the future...

Tonight was a grab hamburgers at Arctic Circle because it is 8:30 pm and we're still out running errands and there isn't a clean dish in the house kind of night. I also thought the indoor play ground would let the older two run off some steam and get rid of the fidgets from being snowed in for the last two days. Jake has unfortunately reached the stage where an indoor play ground just isn't big enough to work off the excess energy. It was while my instructions to stop trying to kill himself were being ignored as he repeatedly jumped off the top of the four steps up to the slide, and trying what I can only assume was his version of parkour, that I had a stroke of genius.


I want to make a bank like this for Jacob, with a fourth slot called "Not-Such-A-Good-Idea Fund". The money that will be saved in that section will be used to pay for damages when he does something like throw a ball through a neighbor's window. It will also be used to pay medical co-pays when he hurts himself from jumping off a roof or trying to build his own zip-line in the back yard. The hope being that if he has to pay for the stupid stuff he does, he will think twice before doing something stupid. When I told Brian about my great idea he disagreed with me and actually said, "I don't want to take that experience away from him, jumping off a roof is a right of passage and he is going to do it at some point in his life no matter what you do."

Fine, but when he jumps off of a roof, I am not paying for it...

Happy Easter

We had a very nice Easter weekend. We spent Saturday with my family watching General Conference and doing Easter crafts and nibbling on treats. On Sunday we had Easter dinner with Brian's family and the kid's had another little egg hunt with their cousins at Grandma and Grandpa's. A weekend full of family and fun.

Silly Lila, she was a little confused by the whole basket thing...


On Saturday Brian took the kids for a ride to see if they could find the Easter Bunny out delivering treats to peoples houses. (He has a great story about Jake sneaking along the fence and up to the garage, to get some sunglasses out of Brian's car, so that he wouldn't scare the Easter Bunny away if he happened to be at our house right then.) But while they were out looking that silly bunny came to Pa Dave's! When they got back there was a trail of candy into the house and straight to Lila's basket.

When Lila saw the candy she squealed and said, "Nummies!" By the end of the day can-ee was her new favorite word...


Evie was most thrilled by the fact that the Easter Bunny somehow knew that she wanted Peeps more than anything! She also enjoyed getting a new fish kite, some pink bubbles and a little plastic watering can... now if Spring would just warm up enough so she can get outside and start using them...


Jake's basket was harder to find this year. Apparently it's been hidden in the same place for the last 5 years, and it threw him a little that it wasn't in "the" spot. But he found it with only minimum help from Caite and Patrick, and he also got some bubbles and a kite. (Hmmm... it's almost like that Bunny can't wait to get these kids outside to play.) Jake also got some color changing Hot Wheels that he wasn't so sure about at first. He thought they were too creepy, until he realized that they are multiple color changers.


But here is how we spent the first day of Spring Break. Sitting on the porch watching it hail... notice we are all wearing sweats and long sleeves. I hope this weather warms up soon, I was really looking forward to going to the park, having picnics, and being outside during the break!