2015 Family (Stay at Home) Vacation

We've been planning for over a year to go on vacation to the beach. But then Steve's car broke, again. So we downgraded to a stay-at-home variety, but to keep with the theme, we did a "Ladybug Girl at the Beach" staycation.

Steve took Thursday off work, but we didn't want to take Emilia out of school for two days during her first full week of school. So Thursday morning, Steve looked for cars. Then, after Emilia got out of school, and Cecily woke up from her nap, we planned on going to a place called "Sandy Beach" right here in Springville. But Cecily got a late start to her nap, and I had a bunch of running around to do that afternoon, and Steve had a backache from driving all over the place. So we postponed the beach part until Saturday and instead, we went out for burgers & fries, then went to Nickel City and all the girls got to pick out treasures (prizes), then went to Farr's Fresh Ice Cream and gorged ourselves on sugary milky goodness.

Friday, Steve let me sleep in, and when I got up we watched Home. Have any of you watched it? It was awesome! Witty, and touching, and laugh out loud. Emilia and I cried at the end. Then after Cecily's nap, we went to 7 Peaks (a local water park with a wave pool, tons of water slides, two kids areas, and a lazy river) for 4 hours and had a blast wearing ourselves out in the water. We played in the waves of the wave pool and Emilia even tried one of the big waterslides, so she faced a fear, just like Lulu. I didn't take any pictures of these festivities because I wanted my phone to still work at the end of the day.

Saturday, Steve was going to buy a car in the morning, but once he had a mechanic look at it, we changed our minds. While he was gone, I got the kitchen floor mopped, and Emilia had a soccer game. Once again, after Cecily's nap, we headed to "Sandy Beach," which is a beach off Utah Lake that is very sandy, but the best part is that the water is warm, and it's only about a foot or two deep for a good hundred yards out into the lake. After Cecily's mad dash after the duck last week, it was good to know she wouldn't sink into a drop off when we turned our heads. We built a fire, roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, searched for seashells--Emilia found another live clam, but didn't want to take it home this time--and made footprints in the sand.

Best vacation we've ever had as a family, hands down. No stress, no packing, no trying to sleep five of us in the same room. Except for the lack of tide pools and real seashells, I'd say this vacation was better than any California beach vacation we could have taken. Wahoo!

Oh, and did I mention that the sunset was amazing? It was. And I took lots of pictures.

The Monday before our vacation, Mira was feeling sad that Emilia has started school and she hadn't. So I took her and Cecily to the Bean Museum. They wanted pictures with all of the statues outside.

One more random pic for you. Mira told me she had ear plugs in. They were really just puffballs. Goofball.

Little happy moments

It was a rough week with lots of happy points thrown in here and there. The girls were all kind of cranky this week.

For example, I posted this on Facebook about how our Saturday night went: Today was good, until this evening, when two children wailed that I had made something as awful as cashew chicken for dinner, one threw her bowl on the floor in protest and was sentenced to her room--from which position she yelled at us until she consented to come pick the food up off the floor and eat it (yeah, I'm mean and unsanitary like that)--one put My Little Pony stickers all over my white shelving, one put all the cat food into the cat water, then opened a water bottle onto the livingroom carpet, one got out of bed 4 times (the last one being at 10pm when her throat hurt so bad, she couldn't possibly sleep until she had a Halls), and the cat got locked in the bathroom because she kept attacking the children. The evening got better again when my husband went to the store and bought Burnt Almond Fudge ice cream, of which I ate a large bowl. Upon finishing said bowl, I decided I probably made it feel bad because I hadn't been very "in the moment" with it, so I tried again. Much better.

Emilia started school on Wednesday morning, so Steve gave the girls father's blessings on Tuesday night. Mira starts preschool a week from Wednesday and she is super excited. I'm excited, too. I think it will be good for her to get away from me for a while. And it will be good for her to have another authority figure tell her 'no.' At least that's what I'm hoping. Here are some of the high points: Cecily and Mira found some stickers one morning. Mira decided to use them to 'decorate' Cecily. She has some on her cheeks, arms, and neck. They were both excited about these decorations.

Another morning, I was working on my laptop in bed when Mira came in to tell me something. She spotted this guy out the window. That's a three point buck about 10 feet from the window. She then mentioned another deer, which I couldn't see from my vantage point.

Getting up, I saw this guy. He is a six-pointer, I think. Hunting season anyone?

Friday night, we were going to go to the library as a family, but we didn't realize that the library closes early on Friday -- 6pm! So we had to change plans. We ended up going to the new Springville Reservoir again. This time I had my phone and took pictures. The sunset was amazing! And we all had fun splashing and building.

At one point, Cecily saw a duck and decided to run after it. I thought this was cute until the duck ran into the water and Cecily kept right on going. She would have drowned herself if she hadn't tripped on a rock about a foot into the water and dunked herself in the freezing mountain water. After that, she only had a diaper on.

Emilia built a river. The fact that the water ran down in a rush was a proud accomplishment for her.

Mira mostly project hopped. Sometimes literally.

Steve built a castle. Which Cecily tried to destroy so many times, we had to build a couple for her to smash and throw into the reservoir.

I built a kitty in an attempt to show the girls, they didn't just have to make castles with sand.

Saturday morning, Emilia had her first soccer game. Steve yelled himself hoarse and Grandpa Watts was quite enthusiastic, too. Emilia did really well considering she had no idea what was going on. We need to show her a real soccer game this week, and work with her on being aggressive. Her team won, I think, 2 goals to 1.

Saturday afternoon, Steve let me go to the library and write for a few hours. I was glorious. I finished outlining the novel I'm working on and wrote most of a chapter. While I was there, Steve came with the girls to return and check out new books. It was funny to watch him get the girls out of the car, with Cecily nearly running into the street before he noticed, then everybody grab hands and trail inside.

I am the cat's favorite human in the house. I'm pretty sure she thinks she owns me.

I will have to take some school pictures for Emilia and the other girls this week and post them. Have a good one!

Philosopher Emilia

I have LOVED the supplements I've been taking to help with my depression. Them, along with exercise, have helped me feel normal, capable, confident, and hopeful about life. But they're a little harder to maintain than prescription drugs, and that has been evident in my life over the last weeks. I'm figuring it out, and I like this better than the side-effects of prescription anti-depressants. If anyone is struggling with depression and would like to know more, I would love to talk about it. Give me a call or email me.

Despite a few days where I did not want to leave the house, or play nice with anyone, the week ended well. I also decided to try to potty-train Cecily this week. That didn't end well. Maybe in 6 months... 

We took a trip to the library Monday, so we would have plenty of books to entertain us while we were holed up with potty training. We ended up making these funny pictures on the computer in the kid's section.

We had a ward ice cream social Tuesday night up the canyon. Emilia also had soccer practice. She was frustrated at her first practice, because everyone else seemed so much better than her. Steve took her out Monday and practiced with her for an hour or so, and Tuesday's practice went much better. Her wisdom and faith surprise me and delight me at times, and this was one of them. When she got in the car after practice, I asked her how it went. She told me, "It was good!. Better than last time." I told her she had done well and suggested a couple things we could work on, like not laying down in the grass when the ball wasn't near her. I told her she had to pay attention to the ball, because if the other team got in in the goal more than her team, the other team would win. Then she said, "It's okay, Mom. We're having fun. And that's what's important, right? If we don't win, but we have fun, it's still kind of like winning." Yup. That's right, Emilia. That's right.

She had another practice Thursday afternoon. I had writing group that night, and Steve had friends over to play a new game while I was gone. We went for a walk one night. Friday night, I think. Saturday we got to go to the originally named Sandy Beach. Emilia found a live clam and brought it home. Before we left, I told her, "I'm okay with you bringing it home, but it's going to die if you do. As long as you're okay with that." She was okay with it dying. Not sure where philosopher Emilia went on that one.

I finished (mostly) my bedroom last week. Here are some pictures taken with my phone of the finished product.

And a cute picture of our kitty, just to round things off.

Tuesday the Great

My favorite day this week was Tuesday. Cinemark Theaters does dollar movies for kids during the summer. Apparently the times differ by location, but here they are every Tuesday at 10:00am. Three Tuesdays ago, they were playing a Chipmunks movie and I asked Emilia if she wanted to go, or do something else she wanted to. She didn't think Chipmunks looked that great (I don't blame her--not with the new ones anyway), so we looked at upcoming weeks and found that Nut Job was playing this last Tuesday. She thought it looked HILARIOUS. So for two weeks, she asked me constantly if it was movie Tuesday yet.

I was a little worried when we went that Cecily would be a pain, running around, or screaming for snacks, but she was a little angel. She sat on her chair without complaints, and when Mira said it was too hard for her to sit on her own chair, she shared hers. About 1/2 way through the movie, Cecily came to sit on my lap. She sucked her thumb and sat quietly on my lap the whole time. It was so sweet to cuddle with her for the better part of an hour. Everybody thought the movie was a crack up and they were quoting it all the way home.

After lunch, the neighbor girls were outside, so my girls played with them for a few hours. At 4:45, we had an appointment to take Flame for her first shots. Once again, all the girls were super excited, and they learned about being good pet owners. Since then, they have felt a lot more comfortable picking her up and playing with her. She's little and tends to bite and scratch them in play, but she has been quite good about letting them drag her around the house and make her houses. They even did a pet salon one day where they set up their little chair, put a pillow on it, sat her on it and then combed her with no less than three different combs. She sat on that chair for a good half hour just letting them be pet groomers.

Then Tuesday night, I got to visit a girlfriend of mine. We organized and decorated her craft area. It was fun to chat and organizing is always therapeutic for me.

The rest of the week was harder. The younger two were quite cranky. I don't know if Cecily is growing, or not getting enough sleep, but she was in destructo mode for 5 straight days. Gah.

Today, my whole family is getting together at my house as a goodbye get-together with Megan and her family before they move to Colorado on Friday. We will miss having them close by. One more excuse for us to visit Colorado, I guess. :)

Three Cuties (and not the orange kind)

I have cute kids.
Just thought I'd put that out there. :)

All the girls LOVE our cat, which mostly gets called Kitty instead of Flame.

This week was a good week until Saturday, which wasn't especially bad, it just wasn't good, over and over and over. I shouldn't complain, though. Like I said, it wasn't bad. It was just one of those days where it seemed like something went wrong with EVERYTHING I tried to do. I went garage saleing in the morning, and, trying to be nice to both Mira (who was up already) and Steve (who was not), I brought Mira with me. Mira got stung by a wasp, again. I came home and decided to measure our flower bed so I could get edging to hold the bark up. I ended up breaking our tape measure. I went to Home Depot to buy edging only to find the stuff we wanted was "online purchase only." But I did end up buying Steve a new grill clearanced from $330 to $99.

We decided to take the girls to Springville's new reservoir. And forgot all the sand toys and floaties. It ended up being fun, solely because other people were not using/keeping track of their sand toys and we were able to borrow them and build a sand castle. Emilia made some excellent decorations on the castle and dug a formidable moat. Mira worked very hard at making wet sand. And Cecily tried to destroy it. Luckily she didn't succeed.

All of them reading on my bed next to me while I worked on my computer. It seriously makes me so happy that they love books so much.

After a nap, I tried to take me and Emilia and Mira to Costco for dinner and some grocery shopping, only to arrive 15 minutes after they closed. We ended up going to IHOP and Walmart, which was all probably more fun than Costco.

Same day, different location. Lots of reading. :) That's our library.

I have been making an effort to put my kids first, so this week I tried to do things with them every day. We went to the library, the splash pad, and the reservoir. We rode a carousel, looked at children's art, and had a picnic lunch on the lawn. We started reading a new Oz book. Ozma of Oz this time. (We already finished The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Marvelous Land of Oz.) And we had three playdates.

This is Cecily's face every time we play the How to Train Your Dragon theme song which Steve purchased on Amazon.

Mostly what I learned, is that I have cute kids. Inside and out.

Fun Friday and Facebook Funnies

We slowed down a lot this week. It helped that I am feeling extra tired (thyroid issue maybe?), so I didn't want to be going going going.

We cleaned, and I made real dinners (not breakfast or tuna sandwiches) four nights this week! Steve had game night, and I had writing group.  Tuesday I went to Megan's house to help her get it ready, and then I took pictures so Ben could get her house listed. Did everyone hear she's moving to Colorado? Don't feel bad if you didn't. I found out through Facebook.

My parents are moving too, though not to Colorado. Probably just down here by me and Ben. Yesterday my family had a wedding reception to go to in Farmington, so we went up to my parent's house after lunch and helped them work on painting and decorating. I hung shelves. They looked perty. :)

Friday was Pioneer Day. It's a Utah holiday, so Steve didn't get it off. But for some reason, the state lets us do fireworks around the holiday. And since we had some leftover from the 4th, we decided to do them that night. I love fireworks so much. Mira hates them. We brought sound-deadening headphones for her to wear and she still crawled in the car and cried everytime something big boomed.

Prior to fireworks, I took the girls to the splash pad, then we went home, had dinner, grabbed daddy and went to The Cocoa Bean. I like that place more and more. Every time we go, we have a great experience, and the food is super tasty. Their sugar cookies rival my mom's, which is saying something. And their frappes are WAY better than Starbucks. I've had their hot chocolate and their cupcakes, too, and both are very good. I'm not a big fan of those things normally, so they bight be stellar. I just wouldn't know.  This last time, Emilia accidentally knocked her hot chocolate off the table and made a huge mess all over the floor. Not only did the great employees mop it up, but they made her another hot chocolate so she wouldn't have to go without. I was very impressed.

Recent quotes from Facebook:

7/24
Mira was telling me something about her husband, when I decided to ask how old dear Steve-olatcho is.
Mira: Ninety-six.
Emilia: But you told me he was 4! The same age as you.
Mira: Yeah, but he had a birthday.

7/19
Mira's primary teacher just posted this. It's too funny not to share:
Mira told her, "I have a husband, but he is only pretend...My husband's pet is a rat. He washed it so it doesn't look icky and it doesn't smell bad. He poops a lot.
*Pauses for a moment and realizes what she said*
The rat, not my husband!"

7/12
I just sent Mira and Emilia to a neighbor's house to see if they wanted extra zucchini and squash. When the girls got back, I asked if the neighbors took it.
Emilia: Yeah. They wanted *all* of it.
Mira: And I gave them my acorn. In case they had a collection.

7/12
It never ceases to amaze me how repetition doesn't get repetitious for kids. The other day in the car the kids were eating free popcorn from the hardware store.
Mira: What if this was popcorn world?
Emilia: Then you would be made of popcorn!
Mira: And you would be made of popcorn.
Emilia: And signs would be made of popcorn.
Mira: And street lights would be made of popcorn.
Emilia: And the Dinosaur Museum would be made of popcorn.
Mira: And the sky would be made of popcorn.
Emilia: And chocolate milk would be made of popcorn.
Mira: And dogs would be made of popcorn.This continued for our entire drive. Thank goodness it was only 20 minutes long.

7/2
Cecily: I carry you?
Me: You want me to carry you?
Cecily: Okay!
-----------------------------
Mira: What are puzzles?
Emilia: You know what puzzles are. They have pieces that you move around until they're in the right place.
Mira: So they're games. Puzzles are games.Emilia: No. They're not games. They both have pieces, but there's no versing in puzzles.

6/26
Yesterday, Cecily started out the day by dumping her bowl of Cheerios upside down on the kitchen floor. She then pulled all the boxes of art supplies off the shelf and dumped them on the floor, including opening the box of markers and spreading them through the living room and dining room after drawing all over her arms. She took all the dragons out of her play book, took them to every room of the house, then jumped up and down on the book, breaking the box that holds the dragons. Mira decided to cut her hair while playing outside somewhere in here, and then Cecily, feeling like someone was one-upping her, spilled a bottle of bubble solution on the carpet in the hallway. Oh! I forgot she also dumped 250 (give or take) mini hair-elastics on the bathroom floor. And then when I made the other girls pick them up (while I cleaned their room), she filled a cup full of water and dumped it on them. So far this morning, Cecily has dumped her entire bowl of uneaten cereal on her chair. Can I quit now?

6/18
I made pork fried rice for dinner with some less-than-stellar cuts of meat. Emilia was chewing up a piece of it and complaining.
Emilia: Ugh! This fat. I can't chew it. I don't like this fat. I don't like any fat at all!
Mira (incredulous): Not even Santa's fat?

6/4
This morning, Cecily woke up and was talking to herself in her crib. Then I hear a sneeze, an enthusiastic, "Bless you!" and a surprised, "Thank you!" Cecily sleeps in her own room.

5/26
"Mom, you shouldn't sleep on your hairdo. It makes it look all crazy."

5/25
When I went in to get Mira out of the shower, she had already crawled out and put a towel on her head. When she saw me, she grinned and said, "I'm Lizard Bagonda!" Then she picked up a towel and held it over her chin and said, "Lizard Bagonda is a girl, but she has a beard." Lizard Bagonda has continued to take turns poofing Mira in and out of the house, telling us about her Gandalf-like wizard staff that provides magical sparks. (I love her imagination.)

5/14
Emilia and I went on a date on Saturday. We only had about 45 minutes to spend and 1/3 of it was driving to where we wanted to go. I told Emilia on the way home that I wished we had more time for our date because I feel like I don't see her much these days. Her response? "Yeah, that's because I like playing with my friends more."

5/14
The awesomeness that is Mira lately:
This morning, she was beatboxing in the car--"Mmm-pshh-aww, mmm-pshh-aww, mmm-pssh-mmm, aww aww aww aww."
---------------------------
Yesterday in the car:
Mira: Who's that big slimy guy in Star Wars? Is the big slimy guy the boss of Darth Vader?
Me: Jabba the Hut? No, he's not the boss of Darth Vader.
Mira: Yeah. Jabba the Hut. He looks like my scrape.
Me: Your scrape looks like Jabba the Hut?
Mira: Yup! We need to watch Star Wars again.
----------------------------This morning before family scripture study, Mira brings the helium balloon she got three days ago into the bed room, which now floats about 2 inches above the floor. She sets it on the bed. Beaming, she says, "Mom! My balloon learned how to sit! Good balloon."

5/8
Mira was playing with our "little legos" (translate: regular-sized, non-duplo legos) and was giggling about switching the guys heads around. A moment later, she comes to me and says, "Mom! I can't find the hair of that guy who walks on the sky." She walks her fingers along the air to demonstrate. "You mean Luke Skywalker?" I ask. Her eyes light up. "Yeah!"

5/5
Mira (from outside): Mom! Mom, mom, mom!
I open the door.
Mira: I gotta go potty and I don't want to go in my panties.
Me: Hurry.
Mira (walking up to the toilet): Don't worry, don't worry. Here's a spot, here's a spot. Stay positive, stay positive!

5/2
I was laying in bed with Mira after we all read scriptures the other morning when she told me, "You have a shirt crack."
Me: What does that mean?
Mira: You know, like when my pants fall down and I show my butt crack, when your shirt comes up it's a shirt crack.

4/21
Cecily is such an actress. We were reading stories (in just a diaper) and she ran back to her room to get another book. When she came back out, the diaper was gone. I say, "You're naked! Where's your diaper? Where'd it go?" She gives me this baffled look and says, "Wha?" I tell her, "Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about." She grins and runs back to her room.

4/1
Mira: Only a few things make me happy. Birds in the sky, hot tubs, and people I know.

3/22
Cecily stole my phone earlier and started up Netflix, which, of course, Mira and Emilia were drawn to like moths to a flame. Ten minutes later, for no apparent reason, Cecily gets up and starts running away. Mira chases after her. Now, imagine, two pajama'd girls running around in a cartoon-like chase with Mira trailing behind and not-so-calmly stating, "Cecily, you're going much too fast!"

Last night, Cecily was up late because we were playing at a friend's house. Near 9:30, she gets up on my lap and flings playing pieces across the table, smashes my cards, spreads a pile all over, and reaches for more. I tell her no and tell Camber, "She's such a turkey!" Cecily then looks at her and goes, "Bah-ha-haaaa."

Emilia: Mom, I have four names in case I have four kids.
Me: Okay.
Emilia: Two are boys and two are girls.
Me (choosing not to burst that bubble): What are they?
Emilia: First is a boy--Ricardo. Then a girl--Annie. Then a boy--Andrew. And a girl--Andie.
Me: You want to name your children Annie, Andrew, and Andie?Emilia (straight faced): And Ricardo.

3/15
Every time we ask Cecily to say "Nana," she does the sign for banana.

3/14
As I was driving home from the doctor's office yesterday, I decided to stop at the grocery store to get some chicken. I turned the corner, off the main road, and then half-way down the block, remembered I had something else I could use. So I drove around the block back to the main road. From the back seat I hear Mira say, "Mom, we're driving in circles." On the way home from Costco last week she asked, "Are you sure this is the way home, Mom?" That kid does not trust that I know where I'm going. On the other hand, I was impressed that she realized that we had driven in a circle.

2/28
During lunch--
Mira: The noodle is benouncing a whole new world!
Me: Is the whole new world your tummy?
Mira: Yep. They like it there.

2/24
Steve was telling the girls that his new job wouldn't throw cool parties like his old one. Emilia jumped up and pronounced, "Tomorrow, go to your boss and say, 'I quit!'"

2/22
From a different room I hear Emilia squeal.
Emilia: Mira, what are you doing?
Mira: I'm trying to marry you. Now hold still.
Emilia (sounding scared): No, don't! Don't do that! You can't marry your sister!

2/20
Mira colored just Fluttershy's boots.
Mira: Do you like my drawing, Mommy?
Me: They are so colorful. I can't wait to see the rest.
Mira: You'll get there eventually.

Emilia turns 7

Emilia's birthday party was this week. And most of my week was consumed with getting us ready for it. But I tried not to be crazy-Godzilla-mom about it. Just crazy mom.

Dragon's eggs we made as party favors. The kids went on a dragon egg hunt and then we "incubated" them in order to hatch their baby dragons.

Their baby dragons. I love how they turned out.

I ended up asking my MIL Wilda to help me sew dragons because I knew I wasn't going to get them all done and get everything else done for the party. Lucky for me, she got her knee replaced a few weeks ago and had some time on her hands. Probably not so lucky for her, but I am super duper appreciative of her help.

These next pictures are of the decorations

We made it to the library this week. And the splash pad. I took the younger girls to the mall playground and Emilia had a playdate with a friend from school. That was my attempt to not be a terrible mom while stressing out over party stuff. Somewhere around Monday night, I decided that stressing wasn't making anyone happier and it certainly wasn't going to get my to-do list done faster. This realization helped me calm down until Thursday night when I officially freaked out again.

My mom and dad came down Friday morning. Mostly because my dad agreed to help us mud and tape the wall that Steve closed up last Saturday. But my mom came because she was invited by Emilia to her birthday party and it was easier for both of them to come down at the same time. I am also super duper appreciative of their help! My mom being there kept me sane throughout the day. She took the girls to their end-of-summer library reading program party. Which they left 1/2 way through because it was "just so BORING."

At one point, my top layer of cake broke and started sliding off the cake. My mom was especially helpful in keeping me from having a melt-down at that point. We made it into a canyon and Emilia thought it was totally cool. Crisis averted.

Yesterday, there was a family reunion for Steve's mom's side of the family. I'm glad we went for his sake. For my sake, I kinda wish they made child muzzles. My kids were out of control. Then tonight we went to my parents' house to celebrate Megan's and Emilia's birthdays. They were much better today.

The clouds were beautiful on the way home from the reunion. We even saw a rainbow. I felt like it was God's way of saying, "It's okay. There is beauty in the world. Not just screamy, whiney, difficult kids." And I felt loved.

Cecily fell asleep on the way to my parents' house. She snored. It was cute.

This is the cranachan I was telling you about (I made ours without the whiskey).