Festivities and a quest

The end of October is always busy because places around here start having a lot of free stuff for families and I feel this compulsion to take advantage of it whether it kills me or not.

Monday, Great Grandma Watts's residence put on a Halloween party for the resident's families. We went last year and had a lot of fun, so we were excited to go again. Unfortunately, it didn't go nearly as well this year. One of the attractions last year was that there was a magic show. But the room they held it in was a pretty small room and they crammed chairs in there to seat everyone and then wheeled and walkered residents in at the ends of the rows. So nobody could get in or out or have leg room or take a kid to the bathroom when needed. Cecily was tired before we even got there, so after about 30 seconds was trying to climb the random grandma at the end of the row. The woman resident behind us was giving us dirty looks because she wasn't able to see, or she thought we were going to try to take over her saved seats, or maybe she was just afraid Cecily would try to climb her too. I don't know. Mira was also tired. She lasted three minutes. Finally, I handed them both to Grandma and Grandpa Watts, who were two rows behind us in chairs that weren't blocked by two walkers, a man in a wheelchair and a territorial 80 year old. Emilia lasted around 20 minutes before she broke down in tears. She was loving the show, but the magician was picking volunteers, and he was only picking from the kids that were seated on the floor up front. Life is so unfair! Finally the show was over and we took the kids around trick-or-treating at the resident's doors. They had some treats for everyone, too, which Cecily devoured because she was tired. That girl is going to be in trouble as a teenager/adult. She thinks eating will solve all of her problems. If she's hungry, she eats. If she's tired, she eats. If she's mad, he eats. If she's sad, she eats. It's ridiculous.

Wednesday, I took the younger two shopping. Everybody needed some clothes for winter and Mira was excited to get some new leggings. They were troopers: four stores and two hours later, I took them to the "Treehouse" to play before heading home.

Cecily and Mira going down the slide. Cecily is so fearless. And she LOVES slides.

Mira watching a gaggle of children play king of the hill. She's not really into playing with kids she doesn't know.

Thursday was Steve's birthday. I didn't take any pictures that day, so you can have the picture from last Sunday that I told you I would give you this week. We gave him our presents before he left for work, I made him the dinner he requested (chicken sandwiches and french fries), and he went to a friend's house to hang out that evening. Nothing amazing, but I hope it was a good day for him.

Friday, we got a babysitter and went on a date to celebrate his birthday. We went to the Cocoa Bean and got frappes (the Giradelli white chocolate raspberry was divine) and then to Barnes and Noble to pick out a book each. He was also really nice and allowed me to return the clothes from the Wednesday shopping trip that didn't end up working out. I didn't have to do it with 2 to 3 small people in tow, and he got to listen to the BYU football game on the radio, so it was a win-win, I think.

Saturday, we took the girls to a pumpkin patch here in Springville. They had a bunch of stuff for the kids to do, so we were there all morning. We had a bunch of small stuff to finish up while Cecily and Mira (thank goodness) napped. That night, some friends came over and played games.  It was a pretty good day.

Mira in the mini maze.

The girls with daddy after they buried him in corn,

A nice family shot?

The adorable Miss Mira buried in corn.

Daddy taking Mira and Cecily down the slide the first time. Cecily would have gone down it for the rest of the day if we'd let her.

And last, but not least, I went on a quest this week to bake 7 different kinds of zucchini bread in order to use up the last of my zucchini. I did accomplish the goal of making 7 different zucchini breads. I did not, however, use up all the zucchini. I also tried to make V8 Splash juice by juicing some of my carrots and tomatoes. I of course added other ingredients, according to a recipe I found online. It ended up tasting pretty terrible. I should have know when the recipe called for pumpkin that it was going to be a little weird. Then I decided to freeze some in  ice cube trays because then I could throw it in smoothies and not waste it. Because it wasn't good enough that I would just drink it. I'm such a glutton for punishment sometimes. Not only was it messy to juice everything with my parents' juicer, but then I had to use the blender to mix it all together. I'm not used to blending juices, so I didn't realize that when you start it, the juice sprays up--all over the clean dishes next to the blender on the counter. Then, when putting the trays in the freezer, one tips over, dripping juice down the entire length of the freezer, where it freezes, of course. So then I have to spend a 1/2 hour heating a dish rag in order to unfreeze the juice enough to to peel off my freezer and all the food on the right side. Bah.

A couple of my monster carrots that were juiced.

This week was better

Last week we all got sick. This week we were all better for the most part. Ces still has gunk in her eyes, and I still cough occassionally, but we're all functioning normally. Yay!

On Monday, I kept Emilia home from school, just in case she was still contagious from her fever. She was fine all day, so she went to school Tuesday just in time to make it to her class field trip to the pumpkin patch. She was excited about playing in the "corn box" (a sandbox type thing with corn kernels instead of sand), petting the pigs and picking up the chickens, and picking out the biggest pumpkin.

We gave the girls a bath Tuesday night and since she slept on wet hair, Cecily woke up rocking a David-Bowie-esque 'do Wednesday morning. Of course, she wouldn't stand still long enough for me to take a good picture of it. This is the best I got.

I was taking pictures of Cecily, so I had to take some of Mira, too.

Mira kissing Cecily's foot. I don't know.

I've been struggling with my depression lately. Exercising was enough after Cecily was born to stave off the lows, but it's slowly but steadily been getting worse.  I'm trying some supplements to see if I can improve my mood without having to deal with the side-effects of depression medication.  I only started this week, so the jury is still out on that. But on Wednesday, I decided that I NEEDED to look good even if I was staying home all day. I just needed the self-esteem boost.  I think I succeeded.

Mira needed in on the picture taking again.  She's so adorable.  Look at that perfect skin! I love being goofy with her.

Emilia had fall break on Thursday and Friday. Since we didn't take a family vacation this summer, we decided have a "staycation" this weekend. I had so much fun playing and spending time with my kids. It was wonderful.

Steve took Thursday afternoon off. We had an early dinner and then took them to the Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point. This was the most expensive thing we did all weekend, and my least favorite.  The museum opened last April and has been crazy busy ever since. If we had gone on a school day during the day, it probably would have been fine, but since it was fall break for the entire county, there were too many kids there for any of us to really enjoy it.  Although Steve says he had fun.

Friday morning we decided to take the girls to the Provo Rec Center. They have a new multi-million-dollar facility with a kid-friendly pool.  The kid-friendly part wasn't as good as the one we played in when we went to visit the Nelsons last month. This one had water spraying and splashing everywhere and the young kids were always afraid to go up to the top. Cecily loves slides, but she didn't want to go down more than a few times because she kept getting doused in water when she got up the stairs.

That afternoon, Emilia, Mira and I went on our first geocaching outing. We found three that were near us. Mira was enamored. She keeps asking if we can go treasure hunting again. Then that evening, the two older girls had a birthday party to go to, so Steve and I enjoyed a quiet dinner with Cecily.

Saturday we decided to go to the Clark Planetarium and watch a show and then go on a hike to Ensign Peak. My mom was nice enough to watch Cecily for us, since the star show would be right during her nap.

Mira and Emilia "on Mars."

 The show was fun.  It made me extremely motion sick, but it was cute. Mira cried during all but the last 10 minutes because she was scared of how dark it was. But now she says, "The show was so fun!"  Silly kid. The Planetarium had a bunch of exhibits to look through, too, so we took a while and looked through them all.

Walking on the moon.

Our hike was a short hike--about a 1/2 mile, and there wasn't a lot to look at on on the way up. The girls started complaining about 10 steps in. "Are we there yet?" "How long will this take!?" "This is too hard! I can't walk another step."  Finally I told them to pretend they were Twilight Sparkle trying to make it to the top of the Crystal Castle and beat King Sombra. There wasn't another word of complaint. Although, I was called Spike the rest of the hike.

A view of the city through the trees.

The great Salt Lake is back there blending in with the sky.

The view from the top.

The monument at the top. Emilia pretended the ball on top was the Crystal Heart.

Mira's face. Haha.

I couldn't see the screen, so this was my best guess. Not bad. Downtown is behind Steve's head.

After our hike we got Papa Murphy's pizza and ate it at my parents' house. Today we're at Nick and Wilda's again celebrating Steve's birthday. I'll put the pictures up next week. He'll be 39 on Thursday. Hard to believe.

We're sick and Costco wasn't helping

Everybody but Steve got sick this week. Cecily and Mira both had double ear infections when we went to the doctor on Tuesday. We went in because Mira kept saying her ear hurt. And then her cheek. And then her ear again. Then we went to pick up the prescription. Talk about a quest!

I told the doctor to send the prescription to a pharmacy that was between their office and our house. When we got there, they said the doctor had actually sent the prescription to the sister pharmacy that is in Springville (the town we live in). They were willing to transfer the prescriptions, but then they let me know that they wouldn't have enough for both girls anyway. Would I like to get one girl's prescription here and the other one there? Umm...no.

So, I told them to leave it at the other pharmacy. Then I bought some donuts and some ice cream to treat the girls when we got home and got back in the car. On the way to the other pharmacy, I called Steve to bring him up to date. He suggested I get the prescription at Costco instead, since we needed gas and some essentials anyway. I thought, "Hey, why not? It's almost lunch time. We can get pizza for lunch and check everything off our list at once." So I called the doctor's office and had them send the prescription to Costco instead.

It wasn't until I parked at Costco that I remembered I had ice cream with me. *whacks head with palm* Too late now, though. I'll just cross my fingers that my kids eat fast and it doesn't melt all over my car before we get back out here.

I requested the prescription and bought my essentials. The pharmacy tech said it would be about half an hour, so we got our food and ate. It took us almost exactly half an hour. "How fortuitous," I thought. Silly me. The girls were getting really cranky and Mira looked like she might fall asleep in what was left of her pizza, so we rolled over to the pharmacy to pick up our prescription. Here is where the pharmacy tech tells me: "Oh, well, it took us longer than we thought because another pharmacy ran that prescription through your insurance, so we had to call them and tell them to back it out. Then we had to run it through our system. (And apparently they couldn't start filling it during this process.) So it's going to be another 20 minutes."  Are you kidding? "Do you have any idea what kind of meltdown my kids are going to have in the next 20 minutes?" I wanted to ask her. But I didn't. I just gave her a look and said, "Okay. I guess I'll walk around for 20 minutes," with a meaningful glance at my screaming children.

I ended up taking them out to the car and filling gas while we waited, so I guess it was okay.  Mira fell asleep on the drive home and took a 3 hour nap. Wahoo! Right? It would have been a bigger Wahoo! if Cecily hadn't refused to nap ALL DAY. She screamed in her crib for over 2 hours (not consecutively) that day and then went to bed at 6pm.

That night I decided to have insomnia for 5.5 hours, so Steve was a nice hubby and stayed home from work on Wednesday to take care of us all.

Thursday I had writing group. Which is basically girls' night out with a theme. :) I love going. I feel blessed to have 6 women in my life that I relate to and can laugh with (you know, other than family).

Since I'd had a number of bad nights of sleep. I got a sore throat and a cough out of the deal. Nothing terrible, just annoying.

Friday, we went up to my mom and dad's house. We hadn't seen them since the first of September. Unfortunately, two of my three girls had fevers for at least half the day, so they spent it sitting on the couch, watching movies with Nana. I'm glad we got to see her anyway, though. Kids need their grandparents.

Saturday, I made salsa for canning with produce from my garden. I got all these tomatoes from ONE plant. I swear the compost we got from Haylee's dad was magic. Everything I grew this year was three times as large as a normal crop.  Below the tomatoes is a picture of me with one of my onions.  That sucker is like the size of Cecily's head. Craziness.

Today, everybody but Steve stayed home from church. We don't need to pass on whatever it is we've had this week. We stayed home from Grandma and Grandpa's house, too because cousins were there and didn't want it either. I ended up making T-bone steaks, creamy garlic pasta, and broccoli, with zucchini brownies for dessert, so we didn't do too bad. :)

Here's to a better week next week! (At least, less sickness.)

Life is good. And normal. Pretty much.

Looking back at the pictures I took, we had a fun week.  Most of it was just stuff we do normally, but I'm enjoying my kids a lot more now that they are all a little older. One out-of-the-ordinary thing we did do was go to a BYU football game. Steve and I went while the kids stayed home with a babysitter.

Steve's sister Heather and her family and Grandma and Grandpa went to the game, too. Emilia REALLY wanted to go to the game, but it didn't start until 8:15pm and went until midnight. It was going to be a little cold and I didn't know if she would get bored sitting there that whole time.

Looking back, I think it would have been fine, but oh well. We'll have to plan to go next year with the girls.  The game was TERRIBLE, though. We had 4 guys get injured, including the Heisman-contending quarterback. Then we lost to a team we were expected to beat by 3 touchdowns. Tragic and depressing on so many levels. Bleh.

Anyway...we also went to the park a couple times, 

worked on our fairy house, 

watched General Conference, 

Cecily wasn't feeling well. It was fun to cuddle with her.

Found out tonight that she probably got hand, foot, and mouth disease from cousin Lincoln.. Pray no one else gets it!

had a "dance party," and 

(I) worked on hanging some more stuff on the walls and Halloween decorations.

A few other random things: Mira walked into the kitchen the other morning and said, "Why is the praying mantis right there?"
"Right where?" I ask.
She points to the wall in the living room, so I go look. This is what I see:

Needless to say, I helped him outside.

Emilia melted my heart with this the other day. I found it in her backpack when I was cleaning up:

The color on these is terrible, but Mira is cute, so you're getting them anyway.

In other news, Steve has accepted the job at Oracle. We're not sure when he'll start; they're still processing paperwork.  But thank you to any who sent prayers and good thoughts our way. I'm excited for him to start this new adventure!