Christmas visitors

This last week has been busy!

Last Sunday, my family got together to celebrate Christmas. We all gathered at Ben's house and opened gifts and ate lots of tasty food and played games.  A pretty typical family gathering for us. Fun and relaxing and filling.  And I didn't take a single picture. Erg.

Monday, I knew I had to get my house clean and my laundry done and girls bathed because Tuesday the Nelsons (with Jane and Meg) were going to be here and I knew I was going to be at Grandma and Grandpa Watts' house for most of the week.

Grandma had craft activities for the girls to do Tuesday morning. They all made mice out of acorns and little birds nests out of the tops of acorns.  They turned out really cute. I was actually out Christmas shopping when this happened, but they all look like they are having fun! :)

Tuesday night we had the Watts' traditional family Christmas Eve dinner and then a little program. The kids acted out the Christmas story from Luke 2. Except Emilia. She wanted to be a shepherd and in the commotion someone else was given the shepherd costume. She was bawling that she didn't get her part. But she was very mature and calmed down quickly and came and watched the rest of it. When it was over, she put on the Mary costume and was happy the rest of the evening. Until we had to go home, of course.  No pictures there either.

Wednesday was Christmas. We unpacked stockings and opened gifts from each other. I had a small meltdown because I felt rushed to get back to the Watts' but felt like we didn't have time to relax as a family.  My good husband figured things out with me and we had a good rest of the day. The girls got to open even more presents from Grandma and Grandpa, including new Christmas dresses, which they wore to church today.  I (and Steve) got a brand new knife set! I wasn't expecting that, but I look forward to using my shiny, new, sharp knives.  Once again, didn't take a single picture.

(Do you see a theme here?)

Thursday, Nick (Grandpa Watts) wanted to have an outing, so he took us all for a ride on Utah's commuter train, the Frontrunner, up to Salt Lake where we walked around Temple Square and then had lunch at the new City Creek Mall. This was a bit of a misadventure for us. I thought Cecily had a fever when she woke up that morning, but Steve thought I was overreacting.  Well, at lunch, she was burning up and threw up on Steve twice.  Mira was also sick with a cold and REALLY cranky. We decided to take our girls home right after lunch, so we headed out to catch the next train while everyone else went to the Joseph Smith Memorial building so they could go to the top of a "skyscraper."  Jane is really into skyscrapers right now. Well, on our way out, Mira dropped her brand new replacement stuffed siberian tiger. She got one when Nick and Wilda took us to the zoo, which she lost about 6 weeks ago during a trip to the grocery store.  For Christmas, we got her a new one, and since everyone was bringing a toy to entertain them on the train, she picked her new "Stripes" as her toy.  We kept telling her that she needed to let us carry him while we walked around downtown so she wouldn't lose him, but she was cranky and sick and even more stubborn than usual.  So exactly 1 day after she got him, he was lost again.  Somewhere between the food court and the elevator (all of 150 yards) he fell off her lap and someone picked him up and kept him. Frustration with Mira and mall-going-humanity ensued.  The sad part is, I don't think she learned anything from this.  She kept asking if she could play with Stripes the whole way home on the train. And the funny part is, after we looked over that 150 yards three times and asked at the customer service counter and left our name and number in case anyone turned him in, everyone who had gone to the "skyscraper" beat us to the train. Sigh.

I did get a picture though! Ha-hah!

The 4 girls. Jane is glaring at Mira because Mira kept asking if
she could have Jane's bunny since she didn't have Stripes.

Cecily being very happy despite being sick.
Kate and Nicole and Grandpa Nick are in the background.

Thursday night, the Strattons came from Arvada and we hung out with them and had a lovely light dinner. (Strattons are Steve's second sister and her family. The Nelsons are Steve's third sister and her family.)

Friday, I wanted to have a little bit of a quiet day. Steve had to work, and everyone was either skiing or ice skating, neither of which I was going to attempt with three girls, two of whom were sick.  Nicole did bring her older girls down for a couple hours in the morning, but then we just had naps and took down Christmas decorations in the afternoon.  I helped serve at a wedding reception for the son of a family in our ward that night.

Saturday, we headed back up to the Watts'. The Strattons and Tristan and Nick and Wilda went to try out the Flowrider at Provo Beach Resort, but the rest of us stayed there and had lunch and hung around.  After lunch I went to exchange some Christmas gifts.  I'm excited about the scarf I got! While I was out, Heather (Stratton) called and invited me to join all the girls for pedicures.  It was so fun and I now have silver sparkly toes. Yea! Then we had pizza for dinner, put the kids to bed and us girls made necklaces and crocheted scarves while the boys played board games.  So fun!

The Nelsons and Strattons headed out to see the other sides of their families today, so we stayed here, went to church, and had breakfast for dinner after everyone except Emilia had afternoon naps.

Except for the kids having colds, I would say we had an exceptional week. Thank you to all of my family who spent time with us.  I can't think of a better way to spend the holidays!

This week in the fastest post ever

Or the fastest post I can manage.  I'm kind of long-winded.

Last Sunday we had a birthday dinner for me at my parents house.  I got some fun gifts: money for new clothes (which I have already spent :)), a vegetable steamer that goes in a pot, and a Ninja food processor. Yea for small kitchen appliances!

Ben and Haylee came over with the kids Monday so Steve could show Ben his new game, The Lord of the Rings Card Game.  They played and our kids played and Haylee and I talked.  It was good.  We're doing it again this week.

I worked on Christmas gifts most nights, we did lots of Christmas shopping, I actually got some exercising in.  Cecily has been sleeping better at night--though not during the day--and I haven't been sick, so I've had the energy to exercise.  It's been wonderful. Exercising really lifts my spirits.  Emilia was sick home from school for two days because of a fever and a cough, but wasn't too under the weather.  She napped one day and I had all three of my children napping at the same time for about an hour.  It was bliss.

Friday night, Steve's work paid for us to go see the second installment of the Hobbit.  I was unimpressed.  The free admission probably wasn't worth the babysitting money we paid. But oh well.  At least I got a date with my husband.  That's worth something.

Yesterday morning, Steve and I were discussing what we needed to get done for the day in our bedroom when Emilia comes in and says, "You guys have to come see what I made!" Usually this means she made a big mess in an attempt to make something she thinks is cool.  I was a little apprehensive because I just cleaned the living room on Friday.

This is what she made:

It was her worm-mobile.  In the cartoon show Wild Kratts (that she loves right now), the characters get "creature powers" and one of them is about worms.  The Kratt brothers drive a "worm-mobile" around trying to figure out why worms come up out of the ground when it rains. (This is after they shrink themselves to the size of a worm, of course.) Emilia is in the front seat of her worm-mobile, Mira is in her seat behind her, and Daddy and I are on the couch, which was behind Mira's seat.  She even had cup-holders (you can see hers next to her chair). The Christmas bulb under her foot was a light that she could shine on things, and she used the wand in her hand to steer. It was quite cute.

I realized when I went to write this post that I still haven't posted about our trip.  I guess I will have to try to fit that in soon. Probably not this week.  Maybe after Christmas. We'll see.

Thanksgiving and being sick

I've missed a few weeks now.  I was doing so good, too. I think I will be able to get back into the swing of things pretty easily, though. 

The reason I missed the first two weeks is because I was sick both Sundays.  Totally not fair to get a nasty, I-can't-talk-for-two-days cold, and then two days after recovering, get the stomach flu. I suppose getting the stomach flu is inevitable when cleaning up after two girls who it took by surprise at 3 o'clock in the morning three days apart. Don't think about it too hard, but Emilia was stuck on the top bunk and I ended up cleaning the mattress, all her bedding, and the carpet until 4:30am, at which time Cecily decided it was a good time to eat.  Lots of lost sleep lately.

During that time, we also got a visit from the Nelson family, including Emilia's favorite cousins, Jane and Meg. The girls had a blast playing both here and at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Emilia got to be VIP at school the week she got sick, too.  Her teacher was so nice and extended her VIP privileges another week, since she was sick for two of the five days, and since I was also sick a different two of the five days, she didn't get her VIP poster (the kind that tells about her and the things she likes that they hang next to the door for the week) until the day before she got sick.  When she did get her poster, though, it was stinkin' amazing. :)

After recovering from being sick the second time, it was time to get us ready for our vacation.  We have been planning to visit the Nelsons in Arizona since they moved there in June, and Thanksgiving seemed like the time to do it, since Steve would have two days off anyway.  Emilia has been praying multiple times a week for six months, "Thankful we can see Jane and Meg at Thanksgiving." So, even though we had just seen the Nelsons the week before, we packed our car to the gills and headed to Arizona last Sunday.

Of course, we had planned to leave Saturday morning.  But Steve got the flu.

I'll tell you about our trip in another post.  But I will say that it was SO wonderful to see so much family.  I love you all tons! I am very grateful to have been able to see and catch-up with you.

And now I am grateful to be typing this from the comfort of my own bed.  We made it home safe a few hours ago.  I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!

And here are some videos of my cuties being cute. Just click on the link(or copy and paste it into your browser address bar if it doesn't show up as a link) and it will take you to the video.

Mira dancing.  She's got moves.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=631452653562878&l=5286392777866183375

Mira making Cecily giggle:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=631456030229207&l=4511431601330025117

Cecily giggling:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=631459350228875&l=7656933992104363058

Halloween Madness

On Monday, I recuperated from last week and did a little shopping for fall clothes for the girls. Tuesday, I had to go grocery shopping and take our clothes to a laundromat because Home Depot couldn't deliver our new washer until Wednesday (and then we missed them anyway--apparently when you knock on our door at 7:15, we sleep right through it). Wednesday, Emilia had her Kindergarten Halloween Program, and then our ward did a Trunk-or-Treat at 5pm. I'd never heard of a trunk-or-treat until I moved to Utah. Basically all the families who want to participate, park in a parking lot and hand out treats from their trunks instead of having the kids go door to door. I painted the girls faces a little different this week. Mira was a tiger.

And Emilia was a leopard.

Grandma and Daddy came to the program. A shortened version of it is at the bottom of the post.

After trunk-or-treat, we had dinner and then carved pumpkins.  Emilia didn't like sticking her hands in, but she liked pulling the seeds out of the muck.

Mira, was all about getting dirty.  She stuck her whole arm in and clean out at least as much as I did.

Our finished product.  Emilia wanted it to look like a kitty.  I think we did pretty good.

Thursday, Emilia got to dress up for school again because they had a costume parade.  I wasn't able to go because it was right in the middle of nap times, but she said it was okay that we didn't make it and she had fun seeing all the different costumes.

At 3:30, Steve's work had a party.  It was pretty lame. They said they were providing dinner, but all they had were barbeque beef sandwiches and some veggie trays.  My kids ended up eating cookies for dinner. Perfect for Halloween, right?  I decided to go as a gypsy, because it was the only costume I could think of that I didn't have to buy anything for.

Steve's finished costume included wings and gloves.  He's holding his tail to the side.

The three kitties were adorable, again.

Here is Emilia's recital video. The sound on it is terrible, so I added some captions to help with understanding the words to the songs. But mostly, you should just watch Emilia, because she's so cute. :) I find it especially funny that she keeps shushing the boy next to her because she thinks he's singing too loud. Funny girl.

5 different lists

I make lists.  When I'm stressed out and overwhelmed I make lists of all the things I (think I) need to get done. Then I can prioritize and check things off and it helps me to feel more calm.  It also helps me to weed out the things that I feel like need to get done, but really they don't. Like the skirts I kept telling myself I needed to sew for Emilia and Mira's costumes--that they didn't ask for, but I thought would be cute.  They got crossed off my list really quick this week.

This week, I starting making a list and then had to break it out into 5 different lists because I had so much going on...
Monday: Trick-or-treating party
Tuesday: Meeting for activity on Saturday
Wednesday: Steve's birthday
Thursday: Steve's game night
Friday: Steve going to BYU Football game
Saturday: RS activity, Primary Program practice, dinner with Watts'
Sunday: Dinner with Frohlichs

Most of my week was spent gathering, making, and organizing stuff for the Relief Society activity on Saturday.  (Relief Society is the women's organization for our church.) We were having breakfast with some musical numbers, four twenty-minute classes, lunch, and a keynote speaker. I am on the activities committee, and I was put in charge of flyers and table decorations. I decided for table decorations, I wanted to do flowers and fall grasses, plus (perhaps) acorns, painted tree branches, or pinecones. We didn't have much of a budget for the decorations, so to make my vision a reality, I needed to cut wildflowers and grasses, arrange wildflowers, find or purchase vases, gather pinecones and tree branches, and decide on table arrangement of said decorations.  It took A LOT of time.  Mostly because I'm a perfectionist crazy and enjoy decorating.

This is how some of the flowers turned out.  I forgot to take a picture on Saturday of the tables. It was a busy busy day.

Monday, we had trick-or-treating.  Steve's grandma (so the kids' great grandma) lives in an assisted living complex in Orem.  Monday, they had an activity where the residents could invite family to come watch a magic show and go trick or treating within the complex.  I had Emilia and Mira's costumes done (not that they were complicated), but Steve's costume still had a long way to go.  I wasn't planning on trying to finish it Monday, but since it was going to take so much work, I decided it would be nice if he could wear it more than once. So I worked like a mad-woman to get it complete enough to pass as a cohesive costume. I sewed the stuffed gorilla skin into a wig, sewed the horns to it, made a dragon foot, and sewed a tail. I think it turned out pretty good.  And the kids loved the magic and candy, too.

Tuesday during our meeting, Steve texted me to let me know our washing machine died. With water still in it, of course.  Poor Steve spent a few hours draining it after I got home.

Wednesday was Steve's birthday.  He had to work all day, and somehow he managed to mess something up on their server at the last minute and had to stay late to fix it. So, not only did he have to have a cold dinner, but I had to leave him to put the girls to bed by himself so I could go buy a new washer.

Thursday was Steve's game night, which I felt he deserved since he didn't have a great birthday.  And Friday, he was offered a ticket from a friend at work to go see the BYU home game, so I had the girls by myself all day. Emilia was really cute.  When she found out Daddy was at a football game, she wanted SO badly to go.  She offered to pay for tickets out of her allowance! We'll have to use some tax return money next year to get the family tickets to one of the games.

Sunday, was our Primary program.  This means during the first hour of church, the kids sing the songs they have been learning over the last year and give lines about the theme. Since Steve is the chorister for Primary, this was a big deal for him. Saturday afternoon--an hour after I got home from my activity--Steve and Emilia had practice for the program. They spent two hours there and as soon as they got home, we headed to Nick and Wilda's to celebrate Steve's birthday.  They made a scrumptious dinner for us, we played Boggle, and had cake and ice cream.  Sunday, my whole family came over to celebrate Steve and Alison and Cari's birthdays, so we had to make sure the house was clean and ready for a houseful somewhere in there on Saturday.

This post feels a little disjointed, but I have no idea how to convey all the things that went on this week in a cohesive way. Unless I write even more than I have already. Yeesh! 

The girls playing with Daddy when we went to visit for lunch.

The girls using the bench seat to read books together. I love it.

We can be normal

In thinking about the past week, I couldn't think of anything ridiculous we did. Amazing, right? No misadventures for the Watts' this week.

Tuesday night we all went to DI together, and since Steve got home from work later than I anticipated, it was a late outing for the girls.  So they were crazy. (read: Mira was running all over the store screaming and being totally defiant. Erg.) We needed to go to DI because Steve wants to be discord for Halloween.  Since I'm going to be the one making most of his costume, I didn't want him waiting until October 27th to figure out what he was doing.  We did some research the previous week, so we knew the direction we wanted to go, and on Tuesday, we did the shopping.  If you don't have small girls in your house, you probably don't watch My Little Ponies, and therefore you don't know who Discord is.  He is a "bad guy" who causes chaos in Equestria.  The character is voiced by and based on the character of Q from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Here is a picture of him:

So far, I've gotten his horns done and cut up a poor, innocent stuffed Valentine's gorilla for a wig to sew them to.  Steve helped me, and we both agreed that it felt a little weird cutting him to pieces even though he'd never done anything to us.  Hopefully he'll feel good serving a purpose as a hairpiece.

On Friday night, we took the girls to a pumpkin patch here is Springville that has a ton of activities for kids and is totally free.  It's called Jaker's Pumpkin Patch.  They had free wagon rides pulled by a tractor, some cages with small animals like goats (or sheep--I didn't go over there, so I'm not sure what it was), pigs, and a mini llama, some slides made of that black-ribbed construction tubing set on hay bales, a jump pit full of corn kernels, a mini-maze for the small kids, a "fort" for climbing on, and a large "maze" for the bigger kids, which was really just a place to run around in.  The only thing that cost money were the pumpkins and we didn't even buy any of those.

Steve and Emilia figuring out which way to go next.

Mira coming out of the maze (in pink).

After the sun went down it was pretty freezing, so we packed up and headed to a new place in Provo called "Cubby's" for dinner. We enjoyed our dinner and no one exploded or fell or backed into anything. Wahoo!

Saturday was mostly uneventful.  I was frustrated with not getting anything done and not being able to get anything done, so I ended up sifting billions of rocks out of the dirt in the bed in our back yard in an attempt to find a place to plant iris bulbs I got for free from a neighbor.  Honestly, it was more like sifting dirt out of my rock bed as the rocks made up about 3/4 of the volume of what was sifted. I supposed that's what I get for living this close to a mountain.

In the afternoon we watched the BYU football game online.  It was a crazy game! BYU barely won 47 to 46. BYU made records in both how many plays were made (115) and how many first downs (41). BYU had over 600 yards of offense and gave up 120 yards in penalties.  Insanity.  But it was a really fun game to watch. I didn't even crochet like I usually do watching games.

I also got to go see a chick flick with my friend Gina Saturday night.  We saw Austenland.  It was good to get out. And it was also good that Cecily didn't need to eat while I was gone. She WILL NOT take a bottle, so Steve would have been up a creek (read: crik) if she had needed food.

One last thing...I tried to do a post on this earlier in the week, but my phone hasn't been functioning well since it's almost out of storage and I haven't figured out how to delete (or decide what is) unnecessary stuff.

Emilia really impressed me a couple times recently. First, her school did a fundraiser a couple weeks ago.  It was a "walk-a-thon." The kids collected donations (either per lap or single amount) and then one day at school, all the kids ran/walked laps on the track for an hour. They each got a card like the one above, and someone marked the card each time the child completed a lap.  One lap=1/4 mile.  Emilia showed me her card when she got home.  She did 18 laps! That's 4.5 miles--in an hour.  And she's only 5.  I was floored.

Then, a few days ago, she came to me after school and said something about being VIP.  For kindergarten, each week, one child is highlighted, and that person is called the VIP.  They bring a poster telling about themselves, and they can bring a treat, and they get special treatment for that week.  She started out by saying, "Mom, when I'm VIP, I'm going to pick Sam and Jarom to get Smarties with me."  I didn't realize they got to pick 2 people to get smarties with them, but I wondered why she would pick Sam and Jarom instead of her friends Elli and Alexia.  I asked her, "Aren't you friends with Alexia any more?"  And she responded, "No, I am friends with Alexia. But Sam is so quiet, and Jarom hasn't gotten picked in a long time." That just melted my heart and made me proud to be her mom. What a sweet girl I've been blessed with.

Halloween's a-comin'

We've had a busy week, mostly because Halloween is this month. Mondays are my laundry/cleaning/grocery shopping days, so they're not really fun for the kids. When Emilia was at school, I decided to spend some quality time with Mira. She wanted to build with legos and we made a house and a cake. She was very proud of her creations. (And she loves a good "cheese" smile these days.)

When we got bored with Legos, Mira grabbed my phone and wanted to take pictures.  So we got a little goofy.

On Tuesday, Emilia's class had a field trip to "Pumpkinland." We've gone there for the past two years as a family, so I knew it was a fun little place for the kids. Emilia wanted me to come with, so I volunteered to help. I told her teacher that I would have my two other girls, but I would be able to watch a couple extra. We were supposed to be at the school at 8:30am, but of course, I didn't make it there with the three of them until 8:45. Mrs. Miner had assigned me two other girls from Emilia's class, which was quite do-able, I thought. "Make sure you keep track of the kids," she tells us. The kids, including Emilia, loaded up on the bus at 9am, and I put the other two back in the car and we all drove up to Pumpkinland. Mira was not happy that she couldn't ride the bus with Yaya (Emilia). But I wrangled her in. Then, as soon as we get out of the car, she throws a fit again. But it's a screaming, nobody-can-understand-anything-at-that-pitch, type of melt down, and all the other mom's are there to witness it. I can't spend 10 minutes reasoning with her, because I have to go get the girls from the bus, because somehow everyone seemed to get there faster than me and Emilia and her friends are staring around wondering if I forgot about them. Mira, still screaming at the top of her lungs is going back and forth between pounding her fists on the ground in a tantrum and running after me, screaming that I'm leaving her. I finally get her to calm down as we're walking into Pumpkinland, but by now the two other girls are paying no attention to me. There is a short corn maze to start out the Pumpkinland experience, so we head in. About 3 minutes into the corn maze, my diaper bag starts sagging down and rubbing on the wheel of the stroller. I bend over and figure out a way to keep it from falling down again, and by the time I look up, the other two girls are gone. Disappeared. I look down every aisle and there is no sign of them. I'm calling their names. Nothing. Emilia's calling their names. Nothing. Great. I'm the mom who lost the only two kids she was in charge of. I run into Mrs. Miner, and she's really nice about it, but I can tell she's not going to trust me with kids on an outing ever again. We finally found them at the playground that's all the way at the other end of the park. Everybody is supposed to load up by 11, so at 10:40, I make them pick out their pumpkin and stand by the bus, so we can't lose anyone again. Emilia is riding home with me, so someone else can have the spot on the bus, so after the other two are loaded, I get my girls in the car. As I'm loading, two buses from another school pull into the parking lot. They are directly behind my car, but I can't wait for two buses worth of kids to load up and get settled before I leave, so I back out, slowly. Wham! I totally run into one of the buses. Turning around, I quickly pull forward, but I see two women giving me the "Oh wow!" look. I figure there is no way my car did any damage to a school bus, so to avoid any more humiliation, I just pull out of the parking lot. It's not until I pull into the gas station at Costco that I realize a plastic covering on the back of my car fell off somewhere. I drove back when I was done with errands and found it, thank goodness. But I am never volunteering to help with Emilia's class again. Not if I have to take the other two girls with me. Nope, not ever.

Emilia, Mira and other kids from Emilia's class by the giant pumpkin. This is before I lost the other girls.

Emilia and Mira in the smelly "petting zoo" area. They had fun.

For some reason, Tuesday afternoon, I randomly decided Mira needed to try potty training again. This torturous experience is just too traumatizing to put into words.  Therefore, I will skip to the part where Steve and I decided Friday morning that, for the sake of the sanity of our entire family, we will just have to try again another time.

This decision made our trip to "Barnyard Boo" Friday morning much easier on me. We've been to Barnyard Boo as a family for the last couple years, too. This time, we went with my mom, Megan and her kids, and Haylee and her kids.

Both my girls decided to be cats this year.  Emilia has decided that cats are the coolest animals ever, and Mira just wants to do everything Emilia does.

Their costumes were really easy.  Just all-black clothes. I painted their faces with inspiration from the face painting at Steve's work party a few weeks back.

 Emilia rode the pony, but Mira was having none of that.

 There are a couple buildings that resemble an old western main street.  One of them was called "Miss Kitty's Dance Hall."  I'm pretty sure Emilia really thought she and Mira were co-owners of said building.  Here is them dancing with Cari in the "dance hall."

 We did the wagon ride as well.  Here's a picture of Megan's brood.  She took a picture of mine, so I don't have it. :)

 They had a couple games set up that the kids could play.  I was a little disappointed.  In previous years, they had face painting and each game gave the kids a little prize.  No face painting or prizes this year.  Here's Emilia and Mira "boo-ling."

Then Saturday, we went to the zoo with Nick and Wilda.  We had a wonderful day.  They took us out for lunch at 5 Guys Burgers and Fries before heading up to the zoo.  They took Emilia and Mira on the carousel, and let them buy a souvenir before we headed home. Then, when we got back, they took us out for ice cream at Farr's Fresh, one of mine and Emilia's favorite ice cream places.  It was exhausting, but we had a great time spending the day with Grandma and "Bumpa" as Mira calls them. And we made it the whole day without any misadventures. Thank goodness!

The gorilla's were on the same level as us.  When one started walking toward Mira, she was so cute! She started crying and ran the other way.  She's no dummy! That guy was big!

Emilia didn't mind the big animals.

Mira really likes elephants. You can see one behind her.  They had a mommy, a daddy, and a baby elephant at our zoo.

Emilia was SO excited to sit by the big cats. There may or may not have been tears because someone else was on them when we got there.

Grandma with the girls.

Daddy and Mira. The only time they'll be taller than a giraffe. :)

A little hard to see, but there is a sea lion there behind us.

The grizzly bear didn't bother Mira nearly as much.  But he wasn't looking at her either.

Today, we had church, Nick and Wilda came for dinner, we Skyped with the Nelson cousins, and some friends/neighbors came over to play Dominion after the girls were in bed.  Life is pretty good.

Crazy week

This week has been so busy!  I feel like I wasn't at home for more than a few hours all week.  Not that it was anything exciting.  Monday, Steve had the afternoon off, so I took Emilia to pick some more raspberries while the other two were napping.  Then, after some pancakes (with fresh raspberries), we headed to the Provo Temple for family night. We'd never taken Emilia to the temple grounds before. We hoped she (and Mira) would feel the Holy Spirit and God's love for them as we walked on the consecrated grounds, but I think they mostly just wanted to play in the water fountains. Oh, well--maybe next time, eh?

Cecily had two doctor's appointments; one was to see if her head is too flat and to see if she may need a helmet to fix it.  We'll go back in in a few weeks to see if it's getting any better.  I'm supposed to keep her off her back as much as possible.

I also made a couple of trips to pick up some stuff to help me reach my goal of regular exercise.  Exercising seems to keep my depression in check and I REALLY want to fit into my pre-pregnancy pants again.  I hate maternity pants. With. A. Passion.

I also had to make a trip to Costco and to the grocery store. And we visited Steve's parents on Saturday and mine today. So much driving!

Besides a few pictures, that's about it for the week.

I get this smile every time she wakes up and I go in to get her. It makes my heart happy.

Look at those thighs! Such a chubber.

Funny car ride

On the way home from Nick and Wilda's tonight, I laughed pretty hard.  It started out with Emilia asking to play "The Guessing Game," which is her name for out simplified version of 20 questions. The rules are basically Emilia and me (or Steve) go back and forth: one thinks of an item (that isn't too hard to guess) and the other asks (mostly) yes or no questions until it is guessed.
Steve tells Emilia, "No, not tonight, Emilia."
"Why?"
"Because we're tired."
"But I'm bored.  I have to play a game to not be bored."
I say, "How about we play, 'Let's see who can be quiet and not talk for the longest?'"
"That's not fun!"
"Are you sure? I think it sounds fun."
"No! It's not even a game.  It's just a thing.  A boring thing.  It's a rule.  You can't take a rule and make it a game.  That's not fun."
"She's got you there," Steve says.
Emilia continues in the back without us listening too closely, but it goes something like this:
"Rules are not fun games. I need to play a game, or it won't be fun.  So you need to play with me. Play a game. Like the guessing game, because that's fun. You or Daddy can think of something, and I'll guess it.  I don't even have to think of something.  I'll just guess. Then will it be fun?"
"Maybe you can play by yourself."
Emilia is annoyed. "I can't think of something and then guess it.  That won't work."
Mira pipes up then. "I guess! Is it a car?"
"Mom, that won't work."
"Is it a car?"
"But not me and Mira, me and you mom.  It's not a game if it's just me and Mira."
"Is it a car?"
"You guys play hide and seek all the time without me," I say. "And that's fun."
"But that's not the same."
"IS IT A CAR?"
"No, Mira!  I haven't thought of anything."
"Well, think of something," I tell her.
"Okay, I thought of something.  Guess, Mira."
"Is it a car?"
"No."
"Is it a guessing game?" Mira giggles.
"No!"
"Is it a driver?"
"No." Then, excitedly, "It's an electricity line!"
Mira joins in the excitement.  "I guess!"
"Yea, Mira!" I say.
"Mom," Emilia says, "Now you have to play.  You have to play or I can cancel guessing.  We can play or we can cancel guessing.  Those are your choices.  Play or cancel guessing."
"I choose to cancel guessing."
"You can't choose that."
"You gave me the choices, Emilia.  I can pick 'cancel guessing.'"
"But I don't want to cancel guessing.  I don't want you to pick that one.  Oh all right.  I'll play with Mira again."
"I guess!" Says Mira.
"No you didn't."
"I guess!"
"Nah-ah."
"I guess!"
"I didn't even think of anything yet."
"Oh."
"Okay, I thought of something."
"Is it a car?"
"Augh! Mira! Don't guess a car."
"Is it..."
"Nevermind.  It's too late.  There's our house."

Misadventures

It seems like every time we try to have a family adventure, it ends up being a comedy of errors that really isn't funny to us. Whenever I tell the story to our parents, though, they get a big kick out of it.  Perhaps because they've been there.  Perhaps because they're seeing that there is justice in this world in the form of payback for all the crap we put them through.  Or perhaps, because I'm just a really good storyteller with a flair for comedy.  But I doubt it's the last one.

Our misadventures don't begin until Friday afternoon.  The rest of the week was pretty boring. On Monday for family night Steve talked to the girls about service and how we feel good when we give service to others.  I don't think it sunk in, but it was certainly worth the effort to talk about it.  Some day I'm sure it will click. Wednesday, I volunteered in Emilia's classroom.  I respect those moms out there who do it out of the kindness of their hearts.  If I wasn't getting hours toward renewing my teaching license, I'm not sure I would have given it a second thought.

Thursday, when I went to pick up Emilia from school, the first thing she yells is, "I got invited to Lily's birthday party!" "How fun!" I responded.  As we're walking to the car, I find out that the whole class got invited to Lily's birthday party.  And I'm thinking, "Wow, that's a brave mom." I ask where the invitation is so we know when and where the party are, but now we're in the car and she's not sure she put it in her backpack.  "Do you remember when the party is?" I ask.  "I think it's tomorrow," she tells me--very sad that she might miss the party because she doesn't know where the invitation is.  I tell her not to worry.  Nobody sends home an invitation for a birthday party the day before the party. Except Lily's mom, apparently.  Because the next day she brings home the invitation and the party is an hour from now. Oh great.  Luckily I have some extra gifts that I keep sitting around for situations like these.  I throw it in a gift bag, gather up the other girls and head over.  Emilia doesn't want me to leave, so I sit at this stranger's (very small) house with 20 small children, including my cranky 2-year old.  I'm not a small children type of girl. After an hour and a half with 20 of them I was ready to burst.  We high-tailed it out of there and arrived home just as Steve did.  We had frozen pizza, leftovers and donuts for dinner that night.

Saturday started out good.  I went garage sale-ing in the morning.  I got a table for 3 bucks and some tools for my dad before Steve called saying Cecily had been crying for an hour because she wouldn't take her bottle.  I got home as quick as I could and fed her.  After everyone had calmed down, we gave the girls baths and then Steve worked on the yard while I cleaned the Chrysler.  The people who put the terrace in on the west side of our house put a sprinkler system in there, laid a thick black tarp on top of the pipes, then covered that with 6 inches of dirt and then left it for the weeds to grow.  No flowers, no grass, just dirt that gets watered with the lawn.  Before I knew the tarp was there, I decided it would be a great place for a garden.  Steve spent a good two hours digging that stupid thing out. Such a good man I have.

Here's where our Saturday misadventure begins.  We've been wanting to go to a place called Payson Lake all summer, but it's never worked out.  We had time Saturday afternoon, so we decided to go. Steve remembered it fondly from going in his childhood and I had never been there, but thought an outdoor adventure on what might be our last nice Saturday of the year, would be a great use of our afternoon.  After Bubs and Cecily woke up from their naps, we loaded into the car, determined to pick up some KFC on our way.  We had to get off the freeway to go to the one KFC between here and Payson, which was fine, but then we're driving and talking and all of a sudden I realize that Steve is driving past the Payson exit.

"Steve, aren't you supposed to take that exit?"
"No."
"But that's the second Payson exit."
"Nope."
"Yes, it is! This is the second Payson exit."
"Is it?"
"Yes!"
So we drive the four miles to the next exit, turn around and come back.
"Mom, why are we driving by those buildings again?"
"Nevermind, Emilia.  We just went too far."
We get to the entrance to the canyon and the girls are excited because they see cows and horses along the road. The road is really windy (curvy), though and I start to feel a little carsick.  Nothing too bad, just enough to make me a little cranky. As we get close, we start seeing snow on the ground.  "Uhh, I'm not sure we're dressed for this." We finally arrive at our destination and the thermometer on our fancy new car says it's 47 degrees outside.

Emilia showing off the snow

We all pile out of the car and put our jackets on, grab our food and head over to the picnic area only to find that all the tables have about 4 inches of snow on them.  We end up putting a blanket down on some bricks used for a retaining wall because it's the only place that's not wet.  The whole time we're eating: "I'm cold.  It's cold, Mom. I want to sit in the car.  Can we sit in the car? I'm cold. My blanket is falling down!!! I'm COLD!!"  Then Cecily (who, by the way, we forgot about when packing jackets and is dressed in short sleeves and pants) decides she's hungry, so Steve takes the girls to skip rocks on the lake while I feed Cecily in the car.  As she finishes and I get out of the car to get the stroller, so we can go on this scenic walk around the lake Steve was telling us about, I see Mira trip and sit down in the mud by the water.  She's wearing khaki pants.  But I don't know when to give up, so I determinedly get the stroller out, bundle Cecily in a blanket and load up Mira, who also gets wrapped in a blanket.  But Mira doesn't simply sit.  No, Mira, bops and swerves, making the blanket fall, which not only deserves a screaming fit that the blanket is falling, but also makes the blanket all muddy because I roll over it with the stroller.

Here's all of us putting on a good face.  You can kind of see the lake behind us. It was pretty, even if it was cold.

We make it about 1/2 way around the lake and decide to turn around because the sun is going to set soon and it's going to get even colder.  We go back over a bridge that crosses the stream that feeds the lake and Emilia decides she wants to get a closer look at the stream.  We all get out of the stroller and go down.  But when we're leaving, Emilia is in a hurry for the first time today, runs, and slips on the mud.  Now she's got mud on her knees and elbows.  If you know Emilia, you will know how *not* okay this is.  She's whimpering and walking like she's broken her knees, so we take Cecily out and let Emilia ride in the stroller.  At the car (which I've just cleaned, if you recall) I decided everyone has to take their shoes off, but Mira wants none of it, so she climbs up where I was going to have her sit.  After wiping the mud off, I convince her to sit, get her shoes off, then Emilia's.  I put the shoes in the back on an already muddy blanket, just in time for Steve to close the hatch on my head."I'm so sorry! I thought you were clear." Oy.  As we're driving down the mountain, Emilia says, "Tonight is the worst day ever."  You may be right Emilia.  You may be right.

Sunday morning, I'm not feeling so hot, so I stay in bed until 9:15, not sure I'm going to go to church with the rest of the family at 11. But I help get the other girls dressed, and Steve gets his chorister stuff done and food packed by 10:15.  There's plenty of time before church! We might even get there on time this week! So I decided I should shower and get ready. 45 minutes is plenty of time.
Mira comes into the bathroom with me begging for a Starburst.  I tell her no, which elicits a tantrum.
I figure she's just hungry, so I say, "Are you hungry? Do you want some bread?"
Whine-y "Ye-e-es."
"Okay, go tell Daddy, 'Can I have some bread, please?'"
She heads out and I hear her talking to her daddy. As I'm ready to step into the shower, I hear Steve yell, "Don't spit it out!"
We ran out of bread from the store, so I made some Friday night.  Mira's never had homemade bread, so she wasn't ready for the texture of it.  I run out in my bathrobe to see that she gagged on it and threw it up all over her church clothes.
We didn't make it to church on time.

Cecily is 3 months (well, almost 4) and other news...

Cecily will turn 4 months tomorrow, but I only got around to taking 3 month pictures of her the week before last.  I guess she was 3 1/2 months at that point. Today I had a few moments of freedom to finish processing them, so I'll share them with you.

All of my kids have expressive faces. But for some reason, Cecily just cracks me up with her expressions.  Maybe because she is so young still. Sometimes she looks so wise.  And then her face will light up with a smile and your heart will melt.  I adore this kid.

This picture cracks me up. Only the Richaus will get this, but I picture her saying, "Boom-bang-garuk!" Doesn't it look like the Grandpa fist? But in reality she would never be that upset.  She's just trying really hard to get that fist in her mouth.

As for this week's news, we had a decent week until yesterday.  I may even call it a good week. :)

Monday was berry picking.  Not too much during the middle.  Friday, Steve's work had an "End of Summer Bash," which was geared a lot toward the kids.  It was lovely.  The girls got their faces painted and got balloon animals.

I was enthralled with her face-painting technique. They turned out so cool! And it only took her maybe three minutes to finish Emilia's and under 2 to finish Bubs. And that's only because she wouldn't sit still. I convinced Emilia to be a kitty for Halloween so I can try it myself. :D

They also had bounce houses for the kids, a company volleyball tournament (which Steve entered, but lost), a pie-eating and a watermelon-eating contest, and some giveaways. I was (and always am) impressed. They know how to have fun over there at InsideSales.com.

Saturday went pretty well until we were all cranky for dinner and decided to go out. Our battery on our new vehicle was dead and even after we jumped it, it continued to have issues. It's at the shop now to be looked at tomorrow. Hopefully it won't be an expensive fix. But if it is, we'll be okay. Heavenly Father blessed us with Steve's raise last month, so we can afford to fix our car if we need to.  He watches out for us and I feel blessed.

As always, we went to Nick and Wilda's for dinner.  Which was another blessing.  It's so wonderful to not have to worry about dinner on Sundays! And to have the kids know their grandparents is just as important.  We love having family close by.