One more post before bed

What a day. It's been a good one though.
We started out the morning by closing on our Forest Ridge house. It was quite the ordeal to get the girls and Ben dressed, fed and out of the house by 9:00, but I made it (barely). Jane was difficult because, as you may have noted from the prior post, she has decided that she doesn't sleep anymore. She wouldn't leave Brent and me alone and was really ornery and weepy the whole time. After that was over with, Jane had her last arts & crafts class wherein she painted her sculpture of a girl and her pencil sharpener. I need to get some photos of her works of art. She's LOVED her arts & crafts class, thanks so much, Emily!
I was about to loose it with Jane by the time we got home with all her crying and misery. I was ready to lock her in her room until she took a nap when Brent's sister stopped by this afternoon and asked if Jane wanted to come play at her house until Brent got off work. Yes. Yes she did. Absolutely. So Cheryl is my hero for today and took my girl all afternoon while I slept and enjoyed my quiet house. When Brent got home with her, she was out cold. Didn't wake up when he got out of the car, didn't wake up when he brought her inside, didn't wake up on the couch, just didn't wake up! I tell you, when she falls, she falls hard. It's so unusual for her to sleep like that, so I took a photo (which she also didn't wake up for)



It made Lizzy mad to see her on the couch like that. I think she wanted Jane to play. I took a video of it because it made me laugh.



Here are a couple of photos of Lizzy today. Her skin is really bad right now and once again, we are supposed to have her photo taken on Monday. Why does her skin always look so bad right before photos? For those who don't understand what I mean when I talk about her break outs, this should give you some idea of what I'm talking about.





It isn't as bad as it sometimes gets, but it's still pretty tough to see her this way. Poor baby is always scratching and claws her face all up and her arms and wrists and legs. I feel so bad for her, and I don't know what else to do.

Tonight we finished up cleaning out the Forest Ridge house. There wasn't a whole lot left, just some wood that we needed to move and odds and ends. I can hardly handle leaving it. It made me so sad to lock the door for the last time. I remember my mom telling me about the house that we lived in before I remember and it seems so strange to me to have no recollection of a place that I lived, even if it was when I was little. I know that our house will always hold so many good memories for me and my kids won't even understand or know anything about it. Onward and upward though. Now we can focus on making this our home and I'm sure that someday I will love it as much as I loved the old house.

a couple of my weaknesses...

My friend Emily's sister, Holly, has an awesome blog that I always stalk. You should visit Creating Cupcakes. She also designs and prints the cutest vinyl wall art I've ever seen and has her own website and etsy shop that you should also visit. I'm still working on my kids' rooms, but I'm going to be in serious need of some of her vinyl as soon as I can pull myself together and get to that stage. (it's possible that I kinda wish I was as cool as her) So on her creating cupcakes blog, she posted this awesome baby swaddler. Yes, I have every intention of purchasing one of these babies for my baby, yes, he will look like a baby fool, and yes, the thought of it brings me a great deal of satisfaction.



This seller on etsy also has other cute things to make your children (and potentially husbands as well) look like adorable little fools. I love it, LOVE it, LOVE it!

In an effort to fit one more plug in this post, I'm ordering a new diaper bag. I feel like I'm justified in getting a new one with every new baby (for Pete's sake, I gave birth, don't I get a new bag out of it?) and I'm not as easy as just being happy with the one that Similac gives you in the hospital, although I DO find that they come in very handy for road trips and as church bags. I'm really excited about it! It is being custom made and I ordered mine off of etsy, but Jessica also has a website/blog with all her bag styles and fabrics. Visits http://www.peascarrotsjleman.blogspot.com/ to see everything that she makes or just click on the link that I've added on the sidebar. The bag I'm ordering is called the 'kate' bag and here it is...





And I'm getting it in 3 of these fabrics...



This is probably very boring news for most people, but for me, it's pretty freaking awesome. Why do I like bags so much? They're becoming a serious weakness of mine. It will take some weeks to get here, but no worries (I know you were all worried), I'll be sure to photograph and post about it as soon as it does.
Ah the material things in life that provide me with so much satisfaction. You'd swear I don't have the cutest children on the planet to focus on or something.

Sleep

I have always realized that sleep is very important to me. I need tons of sleep. I'd say a good 9 hours to feel well rested (preferably between 10-7). When I don't get my 9 hours a night, I tend to get cranky and have headaches and things just aren't good. I can't remember the last time I got 9 hours of sleep. It wasn't until I started having kids that I realized how important sleep is, though.

I have found that the quality of my day is contingent more upon the amount of sleep my children get than anything else. Unfortunately, I don't have good sleepers. I've heard of these people who have kids that take naps and sleep through the night, I'd like to know where you get them from. Am I doing something wrong over here? Lizzy slept through the night really well until she was about 4 months old, then it was all over. Jane got pretty good at sleeping for a while, but she'll go through phases when she can't make it through the night, this is one of those phases. She doesn't get to bed without hysterics, doesn't usually actually get to sleep before 10:00 or 10:30 and generally her daddy bribes her with one thing or another to get her to be quiet. She cries out in the night and comes in our bed with us, then cries more when she has to go back to her room and usually just comes back in. Couple her issues with Lizzy, who can cry for a good 2 hours before she'll give up (because she wants a bottle) and we aren't getting a whole lot of sleep lately. The real problem is that when those girls don't sleep, they are whiny, weepy, they throw themselves on the ground in tears at every turn, if they don't get, like, the right cup (quickly enough) a tantrum ensues and on and on. My mom used to say the little nursery rhyme to me, when I was little

there was a little girl
who had a little curl
right in the middle of her forehead
and when she was good
she was very very good
and when she was bad she horrid

That is seriously the way my kids are. They can be my little angels, but without sleep, they are unmanageable. We've GOT to get this under control before we have a newborn or I'll just have to give up on sleep and good days entirely. Any suggestions?

Even as much as they can infuriate me, how can you not love these little faces in their jammies?




Good thing I love them so much.
This morning, it's 9:00 and they are still sleeping (knock on wood). Let's hope they stay that way for a lot longer. Oh, nevermind. I just heard slamming doors, lots of tears and cries for 'mama'. sigh.

Finally, it feels like summer!

I don't actually have a minute to post, but my kitchen is filthy and I'm not quite ready to clean it, so I'm coming up with something else to do.

Saturday was a busy, fun day for us, especially for Jane. We started out by going to see Kung Fu Panda, (note to self, don't take Lizzy to movies) which I didn't hate as much as I thought I would. It was surprisingly amusing and I think that Brent was really bothered that Lizzy was preventing him from watching all the awesome, animated animal kung fu fights.

After we got home, Jane's friend, Caitlin, and her little sister, Mayci came over while the boys involved themselves in some serious manual labor. I still can't believe all they got done and I hope that Justin isn't completely wrecked today after helping Brent move a 6 foot vanity with a stone countertop, all the cabinetry from our old house AND our furniture over here. Tell him thank you for me, Emily! We couldn't have gotten it done without him.

The girls had some fun in the water and I took LOTS of cute pictures, so I thought I'd share.




Jane, Caitlin and Lizzy



Liz climbed in with all her clothes on before I got downstairs with a change for her. Ah to be a baby and not even care that you are walking around in wet jeans.








This is kinda a funny photo, but Lizzy and Mayci were busting each other up, it was really cute.



Even when she's wet and dirty, I can't get enough of this girl.





I think that these girls each had about 3 or 4 popsicles yesterday. Oops. I suppose I should keep track of those things a little better. Jane is already harassing me to have Cait back over, they are such cute friends.

I'd like to bear by testimony of...

Very quickly this morning, I'd like to bear my testimony of the Don Aslett Cleaning Center
There is a store in South Jordan at about 10600 S. and Redwood Road. One day, when we were in the shopping center, my mom wanted to go over there and so Leslie and I humored her and went. My life has not been the same since. We spent WAY longer than we thought we would (partly because they have a playroom for the kids) and I walked away having spent $80 on cleaning supplies. I tell you, that was some of the best $80 I ever spent. You have to understand that I HATE cleaning and avoid it at all costs, but these cleaners work so well and so quickly, that I almost enjoy it at this point. I am giddy over cleaning supplies. They taught us how to clean a bathroom in 3 minutes with the right cleaners, and I totally can. I have one that can get any sticky, grimy anything off of anything and the best window cleaner I've ever used. Leslie and I bought their start up kit as well as the floor scrubbers, window cleaner and polishing cloths. Everything is concentrated and you buy a reusable spray bottle for each cleaner, so you don't have to chuck all the old bottles. I'm hooked. I want more. I don't think I'll ever buy cleaners from the grocery store again. You can order the stuff online, or just go over to the store, if you are somewhere close. I promise, you won't regret it.

Baby Watch!

So, I had a 24 week appointment with my OB today. I really like my OB, I'm so pleased to have a doctor that I like and I trust since I'm at a new hospital this time around. And the news is... I'm totally normal. I think that this pregnancy may take the cake for being the easiest, least bothersome pregnancy that ever there was (knock on wood). I give you all permission to hate me, it really isn't fair. I started out by having some exhaustion, but almost no nausea, I've lost weight and I'm just now getting back to my pre-pregnancy weight, I haven't had any issues or concerns, I'm measuring right on and things are scooting right along. People keep asking me how I'm feeling and I tell them that I'm so good, I keep forgetting that I'm pregnant. Not only that, time is flying! I take my yummy glucose test next month, which means that it's the beginning of the end. He's a squirmy little man and does lots of kicking, which I find reassuring that he's healthy and happy. I'm much larger than I was at this point with the girls, but that's to be expected. I've already reached the point that rolling over in bed requires a 3 point turn.
I called Brent to tell him about the appointment and he said it perfectly "What a blessing!" It really is. There's so much going on right now in my life that a rough pregnancy may have been the end of me.

Here are some bonus pictures of Lizzy, who crawled into a large tupperware and hung out there for quite a while tonight.









I love babies doing baby things.
I'm posting a ton of them because she was so cute, and this is my blog and I can post as many pictures of my kids as I want to :) And because Grandma (who is stuck in the hospital with a blood clot right now) complained that I hadn't been posting photos of her. Hope that you enjoy them Mom!

Good morning to me

I had an idea that I would follow the babies around for a few days and take photos of all the mischief they get into. I had no idea that when I started yesterday morning, I'd have enough photos within a couple of hours. This how the morning went...

Ben arrives and both babies are so happy to see each other. "Baby!" Lizzy says to him. I don't know if she might be trying to say "bubby" since that's what we always call him. "Zizzy!" Ben always says to Lizzy. And they're off.

First thing they do is find a roll of paper towels and unroll the entire thing.





Ben in particular seemed to enjoy himself.


As soon as that got old, they managed to pull my purse off of the table and proceeded to empty its contents on the floor. They found in there all the snacks from church the day before and ate them.



There were a couple of already opened, day old, partly crusty, half eaten cheese sticks (yuck) and some crackers and apparently a bottle of water.





Yum-o! And no, I obviously didn't stop them from eating all the old, gross food. At least they ate.

After that, they moved over to the tupperware drawer and emptied it out.



They do this a lot, so I just picked it all up and put it away. They weren't pleased about it so...



They got to work emptying it again. Keep in mind that this was all in about the first hour of my day.

In that photo, Lizzy has her silky and "baby." She's such a girl. She walks around with that little doll and wraps it in her silky and says over and over (in a very sweet, girly baby voice) "Baby. Baby! Baby. Baby. Baby!" Wonder what she'll do when Charlie gets here.



This is my favorite photo because of what they were doing. They must have been just pooped after all the fun because they both sat down and were having a little baby conversation. It was hilarious. They were taking turns speaking gibberish to each other and responding as though they were made complete sense to each other. I about died laughing.

Gotta love them.

Seriously people, I LOVE the playground

First thing when we get home from church? The playground, of course!





The girls both love the swings, especially when daddy pushes them.
Brent also found that Lizzy has a love for the slides. She was going down all by herself and loved every minute of it!

The before...



and after...





The only photo of Jane where she wasn't making a "silly face"



Lizzy was so desperate to climb up the big green slide like her sister. It was actually pretty comical to watch. Poor thing thinks she's so much bigger than she really is.

You also may notice that Lizzy's new favorite accessory is a pair of baby legs. When Leslie told me that people are now putting leg warmers on infants, I was very skeptical, but I soon learned to love the baby legs dearly. We have several pairs at this point and put them under everything Lizzy wears to stop her from scratching her knees and ankles until they are raw. They are stylin' AND useful!

Music to my ears

So, many years ago, my mom bought a very nice piano. She recently decided that she wanted to move it out of Las Vegas because she keeps moving around down there so much and, you know, it's a piano, and is notoriously hard to move. Summit wasn't an option for her and she didn't want it at Daybreak, so until further notice, we are the custodians of the piano. It arrived this morning and I'm pleased to have it in our home. For some reason it seems like every home needs a piano, maybe because I grew up with one. But, no matter how pleased I am to have, it can't compare to Jane's enthusiasm.

Her piano time has been VERY restricted, but she's played every second that I let her. She goes through all the sheet music and "plays" a song, then needs a new song and pulls out different music. She DOES put the other music back where it belongs, so far. She informed me tonight that she is VERY good at playing the piano and that she taught herself to play all in one day and that she will now be accepting students who would like to pay her to teach them. I am willing to bet she'd accept gum or pennies. Interested parties should be warned though, Jane's style is very....... creative? unique? unusual? completely random?



It seems that Lizzy is her first student. Here I think they must have been practicing a duet.



I'd like to extend a formal apology to any neighbors within earshot.

Since Jane was a newborn, she's always responded very strongly to music, I think it's just the type of person she is. I think that I'll take some time with her this summer and maybe (with the help of some entry level books written for 5 year olds) I can remember enough to start teaching her a little something here and there. I may try, but it's likely that her artistic mind won't respond to that kind of structure.

Treasuring the moments

In this last general conference, Elder Ballard made the statement that "...the joy of motherhood comes in moments. There will be hard times and frustrating times. But amid the challenges, there are shining moments of joy and satisfaction."

I don't know why this hit me so very hard. I think that it was because in the weeks preceding, I had been really struggling with the kids and I had noticed a couple of sweet moments here and there, but my thought had been that after all the work I go through, a sweet moment here and there wasn't payment enough. After I heard that comment by Elder Ballard, my attitude towards being a mom has completely changed. Now, I take those moments and thrive off of them.

We've had a long day today. We have had lots of friends over, which is great for keeping Jane entertained. We started with a tea party/picnic this morning. I was helping them pour the "tea" and and came inside, I then heard Jane very enthusiastically say to her friends "I love my mommy." My heart melted at that moment. It felt so good that my little girl was loving me enough to tell her friends about it. I've been living off of that moment all day. We've had some exhaustion and some melt downs and some whining and hitting and screaming, but today, it's all worth it.

I love that little girl. I went to breakfast this morning with some of the women in my ward and it was basically mayhem. I had Jane and Lizzy and Ben and every time I take all of them out with me, people get floored at my courage to do it. It's just the way it has to be sometimes though. My friends are so sweet and I kept getting offers of help, but I just kept telling them that Jane could help me. I never realized until that very moment everything that she does for me. I can't imagine what I would do without her. She can be so difficult, but at the same time, she is so in touch with my needs. Instead of being able to play all the time, she stays at home with me and helps me feed the babies and keep them entertained and get me diapers and bottles and even with all the work I give her, she'd almost always rather play with me than any one else. She doesn't get to have me come play outside as much as she wants and she doesn't get to go on outings very often or ride her scooter or any of the things that kids should be able to do, but she bears it with so much patience. I don't know how I never saw it in her before. Somehow, the moments of joy as a mother can be very fleeting for me, but I'm learning to treasure them.



The tea party. Jane really isn't into photo taking lately. All she wants is to make are "silly faces"



Lizzy isn't any easier to take a photo of. I tried to take some of her for my mom, but she wouldn't even look at the camera and walked away when I tried to get close. This is seriously the best photo I got of her and she's playing peek-a-boo. She thought she was hilarious. She is starting to want more and more attention from "mama" or "rah-rah" (she tries to say Laura, I think it's too funny to stop her at this point) I need to make a full list of words that she says.

I didn't get any photos of Ben today, but he's been such a sweetheart lately. You can read all about him on Leslie's blog, but my two cents is that he's adorable and sweet and he loves to laugh and has turned into a really good napper at my house. If only he didn't mess with the TV so much...

What incredible children I am surrounded with every day! I have to write it down when I feel this way, because the feelings may only last until the next meltdown!
Here's to a long, wonderful day.