Week in photos

The kids aren't technically allowed to eat in the living room, so I make them sit on the tiled kitchen floor bordering the carpet. Doesn't always work that way.



Jocelyn looking like a Frenchie while playing doctor.




A crayon pouch that I made for Samuel and Jocelyn's friends birthday. I love making these things! They are so fun to put together and fairly simple. I just love corduroy too.



And Cecily, or Ceci-poo, as we endearingly call her. I love that she still falls asleep on my chest. And I love that her body is still shaped like a little frog.

30

Feeling 30.

This is what it looks like to be 30--Just so you know. You can look forward to it too, my young friends (haha).


Um, I don't feel like I'm that old. But I don't feel like I'm a teenager either.

Today, before I fell asleep in church (that was my nap for the day, oh, and while the kids watched the first half of a Curious George episode), we were supposed to be writing down our roles in life.

These are mine.

I am a Mother.

I am a wife.

I am a sister, daughter, grand-daughter, aunt and cousin.

I am a friend.

I am a creative person.

I am an aged actress (you have to pronounce age-d). Like the old and decrepit prima-donna on Cats that sings Memory, the only good part of the entire show.

I am a mediocre housekeeper.

I am learning.

I am no longer in my "prime."

I am a taxi-driver, dishwasher, housekeeper, personal chef, seamstress and laundress. And all for free!

I like to sew.

I like to study genealogy.

I love to watch movies from home.

I love to shop....for my kids :)

What else?

I am a college graduate. I miss going to school, but not doing the homework.

I enjoy running (when it doesn't hurt).

I love to talk.

I love to eat but not cook.

So, those are what I could think of in 10 minutes. This weekend was great. I asked my sister-in-law to babysit the two oldest (thanks again Emily!) while I went up to SLC and shopped. I bought a few things for myself but mostly for the house and kids. My mom came up too. We ate at this delightful Greek place with Rose and Gledis (No, I didn't thy their moose-kaka, name that show :) And then I had a scare with poor planning. I told my SIL that she was off the hook at 1pm after she dropped the kids off at a birthday party. And Tyler was supposed to be done with his gold tournament at 2:30 when it ended. Well, he wasn't done and Emily wasn't answering her phone bcse she was preoccupied. So I started calling friends/family to desperately ask (talk about embarrassing) them to retrieve our kids (who had already stayed past pick up time) and finally we got a hold of Emily and she came to the rescue :) Thanks Anna for letting them stay longer!
Then we went to Gourmandise and had French pastries :)



Then we did some more shopping :) I got home later than I wanted to but I had the whole day off, it was wonderful. And I got a lot done too like exchanging clothing and buying stuff with birthday gift cards (thank you Victoria Secret and GAP!!) so I felt like I was accomplishing a lot!

On my actual birthday Tyler made yummy muffins in the morning. And I talked on the phone a lot :) And I requested Tyler make this dish. It was on the menu at the Greek place for $23 and we made it for about that much, but it fed 4 of us with leftovers! We didn't have fresh cream otherwise it would have a sauce on it, which would have made it even better. It's Israeli Couscous (can be purchased at International food stores) with shrimp and scallops. Yummy!!!!! I LOVE this kind of couscous. It's light yet filling. And it's not as bland as regular couscous.



Then Tyler was so warn out from de-veining these itty bitty shrimps (hey, they were only $2 a pound!) for an hour that he wouldn't make me a cake. So I made brownies and ate them with our favorite ice cream, earnestly chocolate from BYU Creamery.

It was a lovely day!

I hope the whole week will be fantastic as we pack up and move down the road to a slightly bigger place! Wahoo!!

Love you all!

Insert foot in mouth

I am loving this warm weather! Finally, the kids can go outside and play for hours. Well, some challenges come along with this, however.

First, I have to become the yard nazi. I need to work on teaching the kids to pick up their toys, strollers, balls, etc after they're done playing. I want our toys, equipment to stay in nice condition and they won't if they're stuck in the sun and rain.

Secondly, I have to remind the kids that they can't play in the front yard. Being as we currently live in the basement of a house, I can't see them when they're in front. But they are allowed over to one of our awesome next door neighbors who have a trampoline. They have permission from both me and the neighbor to jump on it without needing to ask first.

But today I went outside to check on them and they were not in the backyard. They were not on the trampoline. I wandered around to the front and they were nowhere to be seen. Luckily, the Bishop and the young men were rota-tilling yards for a project so I felt a little safer knowing there were people, ie witnesses around. I asked the Bishop and he hadn't seen them in a while. So I called our neighbors (Mother Beaver, as my kids call them) on the other side. Phew! They were over there. I did not put them in time-out because it was a safe place to go and they are always welcome over there. However, there was a visitor at this neighbors house, who happens to live behind us which leads me to the last disadvantage of playing outside.

Lastly, we get to gather all the stray balls and toys that land in our neighbors yards. Luckily, I know most of them. However, the one behind us has a reputation. Perhaps, it is just gossip, but I had heard from another neighbor that this lady is a bit finicky. A bit particular about her space, shall I say. So when Samuel accidentally threw his boomerang into her yard I was torn. I didn't want to lower him over the tall fence for fear of tearing his pants, or worse, his skin. And how would he get back over? Plus, what if she saw us doing this gymnastic feat? How would she react? Then, I didn't want to go over and just knock on her door and ask if we could go and find it because I am a lazy wuss. I thought about just going through her front yard into her back and getting it myself but then I feared she would see me and call me on it too. So instead, I did the wrong thing, and told my kids that she was "mean" and that she wouldn't want us to go over and get it. I told them she (gulp, eek) was like "the beast" in the Sandlot, their new favorite movie. Now, I've never met this lady before. I've only gazed into her huge window and seen her living room. She only lives in the house 6 months out of the year anyhow and we've never been formally introduced. I was only judging her character from hearsay, ie, gossip.

Well, after I called the neighbors to send the kids home they came running out saying, "she's not bad! She's inside right now, and she's not bad! You lied to us!" Oh, crap. The lady was visiting next door at the same time as my kids and they made the connection. I was mortified when she actually came out the door! Oh, no! I don't know if the kids told her I told them that she was a bad lady. I honestly hope not. And if they did, I won't ever know. Luckily, we are moving in a few weeks....Samuel, of course, told her that he wanted her boomerang back and she obligingly offered to hand it over the fence. And that anytime the occurrence was repeated to just wave my arms and she'd most likely see me through the big window and she'd help us out. I couldn't tell if she really was a grumpy lady or my kids had told her the truth.....I've got to be more careful what I say with listening ears around!

Moral of the story? Don't be a wuss? Or don't always judge according to ward gossip and find out for yourself the truth. And don't lie to your kids because it may come back to haunt you.

My posts get rather lengthy and I do apologize. Melissa, how do you keep yours so witty and short?

Motherhood moments and musings

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I thought I would take a moment and remember why I love being a mother. Or rather, why I love learning how to become a mother as it is not my favorite thing to do in the whole wide world. So curse me, if you will. It's truly how I feel. Motherhood does not come naturally for me. I have to work at enjoying. Sad but true. But more on that in another post. This is a post to reflect on why or how I am coming to truly enjoy it.

So, somehow I slept in this morning. So did everyone else. I suppose that's why. Cecily woke up twice in the night. The first time was like 40 minutes after I finally dozed off. I was hitting that REM phase (I think) and finally into deep sleep. You know that wonderful blissful feeling of relaxation and delight? And then she awakes. Like a record screeching to a halt. I have the hardest time with that feeding. I do it half asleep. She's lucky if she gets her diaper changed then because I am half-conscious. It's not safe, really. She could easily slip out of my arms they become so relaxed. Anyway, she woke up again at 5:45 AM. I don't know if she's actually hungry some of these times. I just wake up to her stuffy nose and my fear that she's suffocating. So I fed her and got to sleep by 6:30AM which is usually when Tyler gets up but he didn't. So I fell back to sleep until after 8 when Jocelyn announced that is was time to wake up.

Today I made green eggs and....pancakes for lunch (because I didn't wake up early enough to make them for breakfast, besides, Tyler doesn't like this pancake recipe). It was fun to watch the kids watch the yellow eggs mix with the blue dye and magically turn into green! A great art lesson. I tried to make it a moment for them. I think Jocelyn just thought I was weird. hm.

Last week I was able to go to a play with the kids. It has been much too long for that. I was more excited than they were. It was a children's theater piece. An adapted version of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. It was hard explaining that it was a play and not a movie. They were growing impatient waiting for it to begin. Then they saw the paper program with a picture of a life sized mouse on it and began to get scared. Then they grew excited as the music started and a grown man/boy came out of the red curtain. Their eyes widened at the mouse. It was such a thrill to watch them take it all in. I remember one of the first plays I attended was The Secret Garden for my 13th birthday. It was magical. I loved taking this play in for the first time with them. The audience was full of kids and the sound system was loud enough so I didn't mind when Jocelyn loudly asked things like, "When is the mouse's mouth going to open?" (he had a fake mouse head on that was sort of meshy and his eyes and mouth never moved). or "Why are the lights turning red?" or "When is the mommy going to come home?" It made me laugh. I think I had a smile on my face the entire hour (even when it dragged on near the end).

This week we discovered that Samuel is the only one of his pre-school friends whose name does not begin with the letter "J." He has Jimmy, Jair, Jared, Jameson, Jordyn and Johnny and Jocelyn. Crazy, eh? Good lesson in the letter "J."

Jocelyn reminds me of myself as a kid. She likes to wear twirly skirts (or any skirt or dress, for that matter). The weather has been gorgeous this week and the kids have been playing outside. Jocelyn likes to twirl with a doll or stuffed animal and sing. It's so fun to watch because I made my own "music videos" in the backyard when I was a youngster too. Except no one else knew it but me :)

Here is a picture of our little Cecily. I love it when they fall asleep like this (when she's not burritoed up). She's almost 2 months old already. She's getting fatter by the day. And she's getting stronger but still a bit wobbly with her head and body. She still curls up and cuddles on my chest too. Her hair is lightening up and I love to look at her everyday. I try not to pop her little baby zits or clean her ears out with my pinky while she's eating or scrape the green goo out her eye. It's such a temptation but such an annoyance for her, especially when I have long fingernails.

The end of the mommy moments this week.

Help

I never gave due credit to my help during the last 6 weeks. As mentioned earlier, I was terrified of having 3 kids. Still, sometimes, I do feel overwhelmed by it. But I could not have adjusted so well without help. This post is detailed due to the fact that I want to remember it. I don't expect you to read it unless you are looking for your name :)

First, my husband. Tyler was there when I brought the little critter into this world. What a blessing to have a supportive husband and who had confidence in my abilities to give birth so easily to Cecily.



Then my mom. She came down while I was in the hospital and helped out with the other little cherubs. She spoiled them by taking them to McDonald's, letting them pick out a toy at the grocery store, and took Sammy to the BYU bookstore, in which she let Samuel pick out his very own book or toy. He chose yet another dinosaur book complete with more plastic dino's! They loved the time with Granmda.


In addition, I live in the best neighborhood! My neighbors on both sides helped out too. We have an older couple on one side and they dropped a box of Krispy Kremes by. Then the other side, Elizabeth, had Jocelyn over several times to play with her little girl, Ruthie. Anna, Sammy's pre-school friend's mom, and my friend too, has helped by taking Samuel to/from pre-school or watching the kids. My old roommate, Melissa, also helped by bringing by two meals and taking the kids to a park to play. Our home teachers brought a meal by, the sister I visit teach did too. And my visiting teacher went the extra mile. She provided us with 3 delicious meals!! Then she came over and cleaned my bathroom, did the dishes and mopped my floor!! She's a saint. Other gifts have been given as well. Phew! I was surprised and grateful for the love and support offered and greatly received!

And last but not least, my mother and sister-in-law. My MIL came out when Jocelyn was born and assisted me while making her blessing dress. I was grateful she was able to take a week off to stay and help us. Stephanie came also because she wanted to help and do some missionary shopping too. Plus, Lori, my MIL, was helpful as usual. Doing dishes, laundry, kid stuff (like taking them to the museum), cooking, rocking Cecily in the middle of the night, more laundry, constantly working.



Stephanie is a great young single adult. She played forts, imagination games with the kids non-stop. She put them to bed, did the dishes and other housework. Somehow she read my mind and knew that I had been wanting to clean our leather chair for quite some time but never got around to doing it. (Okay, it was just so filthy you could see that it needed cleaning), she dusted, vacuumed, scrubbed the shower glass door (using Comet) so you could see through it again! She was amazing! She'll be a great mother and elementary ed school teacher, when her time comes.

I realized something sort of amazing while they were here. It took 3 busy women to do all the work of 1 typical woman. My house was spotless and the kids were taken care of but it was because 3 of us shared the work. We all three were working constantly. They rarely rested or did anything for themselves. I was able to nap, of course. Tyler helped a little too by taking Samuel to school or Cecily to get her billirubin checked.

Motherhood truly is a full-time job!!! It's exhausting and never ends. Tyler and I didn't want them to leave. And, to be honest, this is like one of the only benefits that I see in polygamy. Yes, I'll admit that. Or better yet, the life of a celebrity who has a personal nanny, trainer, chef and housekeeper. Kind of a scary thought, eh?

So thank you all for the help! Kudos to you mothers who have come before me and set a good example. I love help and am not afraid to take it!!