recaps

i am so blessed.

wednesday was a fun day.  i wish i had written about it when i actually remembered it because at the end, i was all "this has been such an amazing day!" but now i can barely remember what even happened to make it good.  we were out of the house by 9:30 for visiting teaching at a playground and then more visiting teaching at another friend's house.  we got home at 12:30 and chris (still not sure why, didn't even ask) had stopped by home for a bit for lunch.  he took off just a few minutes after we got home but it was fun seeing him.

thursday we went to a splash pad in castle pines.  it's awesome because it was really nice (isn't everything in castle pines?!) but much smaller than the splash pad in centennial.  and way way way less crowded.  sooo i had zero anxiety trying to keep an eye on abigail while keeping brady out of the sun and not running around the whole time.  my friend and i just parked ourselves at a little table in the shade and hung out and snacked while we watched the girls run around in the fountains and in the playground area.  i so wish i'd known about this a few months ago but i'm already excited to take the kids back next summer when brady is old enough to run in the fountains too!  brady fell asleep in the car so when we got home, i had some great one on one time with abigail.  we made oatmeal banana cookies* (cookies is a generous term for these things since every ingredient is healthy and they have no added sugar but abigail loves them just the same) together and really, it was just great girl time.  kind of a blast from the past of before i had brady and we did that sort of stuff all the time.

friday we returned a whole ton of books to the library and picked up a hefty stack of strawberry shortcake books i put on hold online.  then we swung by kohls because i had one of those $10 off any purchase cards that i needed to use before tomorrow.  i normally shop their kids clearance but the last few times i've been severely disappointed.  needing a new swimsuit, i shopped that section instead.  i found ONE that i liked alright that was modest and in my size.  70% off and using a $10 off coupon means i just got myself a new $40 swimsuit (welll, the top half) for $1.50 and it didn't even take all day and driving around to tons of stores.  which is the best part because swimsuit shopping is the worst.  well, maybe not the absolute worst but it's pretty bad.  on my way home, i dropped abigail off at her friend's house (okay, maybe they spend more days together than not but it does warm my heart when she randomly starts talking about how much she loves elle) while i headed home to get brady down for a nap and get stuff done.  later, my honey got home by 5:00!  who even knew that was possible?!?!  and we all hung out as a family for a loooong time and enjoyed feeding brady his weight in food.  to say he is obsessed with real food would be a major understatement.  for dinner tonight he got probably a half cup of mashed up sweet potato, a third of a banana cut in chunks, and an egg yolk mashed up in some jarred food.  and i would have kept feeding him except that christopher told me he was worried brady would get a stomach ache.  ha.  maybe his full belly will mean he'll be an awesome sleeper tonight.  his sleep has been uncharacteristically good lately and it's pretty exciting stuff!  and he's pretty much weaned from his reflux medicine which is also pretty exciting.

saturday- my parents come in town for the long weekend!  so ridiculously excited!  let the games begin!

*the blog i got this recipe from adapted it from 3 tablespoons of oil to just 1 tbsp oil and 2 tbsp applesauce.  i am apparently fresh out of applesauce but i had a ripe pear.  so i peeled it and mashed it up to an applesauce consistency and it worked just great.  and brady enjoyed the leftover "pearsauce."

* maybe if i get my act together i'll post pictures from these days.  just maybe.

BFF siblings

abigail always slept with her head jammed into the crib bumper... most often curled up with her little bum in the air.  brady sleeps like a guy... always sprawled out.  

she's kind of obsessed with hiding.  and this is what hiding looks like.

photography by abigail

my job manning two kids at the playground... just got easier.  not that it was terribly demanding to begin with... but still.

they have so much fun riding together.  hopefully that continues... forever.

gorgeous

sorry brady... not the most flattering angle.  but we know it's just a diaper.

hanging out, quick trip to the playground, lots of overlapping nap time. we'll call it a success.

today made me giddy

today was a simple day... but i got to the end of it and felt butterflies in my stomach and just excited about life.  why?  i couldn't figure it out for a while but then realized it was because my day was just great.

here are a few wonderful things about my day:
both kids, and myself, not waking up until 10am.  brady isn't feeling well and had a rough night.
abigail ate all of her breakfast.  and we all ate together.  like the dollhouse family.
we got out of the house by noon... with no yelling.
brady and abigail were so well behaved at walmart and brady slept for the majority of the trip.
abigail didn't whine about lunch... and ate a TON.  plus some.  and then finished off our entire tupperware of cantaloupe.
both kids went down for nap easily and their nap time overlapped for over two hours.
i was able to make dinner in peace... delicious toasted almond chicken.  and even eat dinner with honey in peace.
because honey got home before 5:30!!!
abigail took her three year old stubbornness down a few notches.  no fights today about going potty!
that girl says the darnedest things.  and loves to pray alllll by herself.
my christopher did four days of dishes and occupied the kids and fed abigail (a whooooole ton of food) in the kitchen while i took a long phone call for my calling and prepared a family home evening lesson on faith and prayer (passed off a personal progress goal with that one!)
we had so much fun as family... just talking and hanging out.  in the kitchen, in brady's room, just totally hit the spot.
both kids went to bed at the same time... again, without a problem.
i actually got to hang out in bed with my honey for a while before he fell asleep!  that neverrrr happens.
i worked on personal progress (i'm kind of obsessed right now) and read scriptures and journaled for a long time after we turned out the lights.
i'm blogging!  the day of!  this is why i blog.  to preserve these moments.  i love my life.

out all day

saturday morning was pretty funny because all i could think about was getting out of the house to run all the errands i had on my mind.  and after a crazy rough week at work, all honey could think of was a lazy day relaxing at home.  we compromised and hung out together in the morning (although i was still running around the house getting things done) and in the afternoon, i took brady to run errands, while abigail and christopher stayed home to play and have nap time.  and then we all went out for a family date.  a perfect compromise.

honey made us french toast for breakfast.  i think he was going to bring it to me in bed but brady woke up so my honey delivered breakfast in brady's room while i got him up for the day.  french toast is super sweet but not filling so i made myself oatmeal.  as i was eating it, i got a text from my friend sawah asking me about oatmeal!  beat you to it sawah!

check it out!  another train!

my mother in law gave me a cricut for christmas... like four years ago.  this was the first time i've used it.  i had to get myself acquainted with it a bit... just trying things out to prep for our yw activity tuesday.

leaving to run errands.  i had to drop off a baby gift, drop off something to my RS pres, and make returns to target, costco, and ross.  so cleansing getting all of this out of my house!

we were gone for a million hours.  he slept for about 30 seconds in the costco parking lot (while i was finding a spot... and then woke up when i got him out of the car) and 20 minutes at ross.  that's a whole lot of awake with a cranky baby.  but he's still just so sweet when he's asleep.

family date.  we go here often because we have discounts... and every time we go, we joke about being on a documentary about fat americans that overeat unhealthy food.  because what else should you talk about while you stuff your face with tons of rolls with honey butter, fried cactus blossom, steaks, fries, and a sweet potato covered in butter, sugar, and marshmallows?!  i stuff myself til i literally feel sick to my stomach and then walk out of there with terrible feelings of gluttony and self disdain.  yet, what i would give for a roll and honey butter right now...

and then we rounded out the night with a trip to petsmart.  our favorite was the tank of spastic fish that scatter when you hold your hand up to the glass.  abigail thought it was so cool she could control them (although she was confused why it didn't work when she tried it with a different tank of fish) and my honey kept making jokes about being harry potter and having a fish act on america's got talent.

fake food and diy potpourri

thursday night i left my honey at home with the kids so i could go to a presidency meeting at my secretary's house.  my christopher is always so willing to watch our kids when i have things going on.  thursday night he was just slightly less than happy about it though because he'd woken up at 5am (as usual but it's still exhausting) and had had a super extremely rough day at work.  my meeting was at 8 and brady woke up at 8:30 (timing with his naps has been tricky with dropping the swaddle... i swear we'll eventually get back on schedule) and was wide awake.  all of this is really not relevant... why do i always share so many details?  anyways, towards the end of the meeting, he was texting me and anxious for me to get home so he could go to sleep.  i told him we were allllmost done.  then i told him i was just leaving.  but i stayed a little longer talking with my friend.  so then, as i was walking to the car, i told him i was just leaving again.  

i clicked to unlock the car, climbed in, grabbed the keys from my lap, and... couldn't find the car key to start the car!  i had driven my christopher's car and he had recently taken his key off my keychain and put it on again.  sooo he must have put it on a loose link because it came off.  well, it was pitch black and i spent a good while using my cell phone light to try to find this key.  i knew christopher was getting impatient for me to be home and that brady needed to eat and was probably getting fussy and tired.  but ohmygoodnesswherewasthatkey?!  then i got an obviously annoyed text from my honey "let me guess... you're just leaving again?"  ha.  i guess i'd cried wolf too many times.  so i told him i was looking for the key and would be back asap.  eventually i got desperate enough to call kylee and tell her i was still parked in front of her house and i needed a flashlight.  she brought out a huge flashlight and we laughed as we searched every inch of my purse and the car.  one of her first comments was "wow!  your car is so clean!"  so i had to tell her, actually, it's because it's not my car and our kids never ride in it.  three minutes later, kylee pulls a dried orange out from under the passenger's seat.  so much for that "clean car."

she put the orange in the cup holder (i think?) and we laughed some more trying to guess how old it was.  eventually i found the key (lodged down between the driver's seat and the console) and texted chris that i was on my way home.  he responded and told me that his mood had deteriorated fast in the last hour and that when i got home, i should probably just let him be.  i really love those warning texts because it completely avoids so many situations where i would get offended about something that didn't concern me, just because christopher was having a bad day.  so when i got home, he handed me brady and went to bed.  

today he had another crazy horrible day at work but sucked it up and put on a good face when he got home.  he wasn't home more than two minutes before he said "you put fake food in my car?!" and handed me the petrified orange.  

i laughed out loud telling him the story from the night before.  it literally looks exactly like the potpourri my mom has in a basket in her kitchen.  this naval orange has shriveled down to the size of a clementine and is as light as air.  

 

i think the last time i bought these oranges was the beginning of june.  so here's my three step do it yourself recipe for homemade potpourri:

1. send your husband to work with an orange for a quick and healthy snack

2. have him forget it under the seat of his car

3. retrieve it three-ish months later and put it in a decorative basket

made my day.

day three at home

friday:  weather didn't cooperate for the splash pad so we stayed home instead.  i'm really loving these stay at home days.  i don't know why i feel so much pressure to get out and do stuff.

check it out.  the happiest kid around.

you know you're doing something right when your three year old says "look at this mommy!"  it warmed my heart.

the only thing better was that she asked me to help her find the high chair and added brady to the senario.  she did this 100% on her own, with absolutely zero guidance from me.  as i said, it helped me feel like i'm not a disaster of a mom.  and i like that feeling.

someday i'll stop sneaking in to his room to take pictures of him while he sleeps.  not today though.

they can't make eye contact without laughing and smiling.

she took apart her bead bracelet from the golf tournament.  then she sat her pantsless self (they got dirty during lunch) on the fireplace and strung them all back on.  she makes me proud.

 

 

 

abigail asked if the dishes in the dishwasher were clean or dirty.  when i told her they were clean she asked if she could put them away.  not exactly how i would have arranged them but they're all in the correct place and it saved me some time.  she genuinely enjoys being helpful and i appreciate it so much.

this giant green bush?  we've tried to kill it multiple times but it keeps coming back.  at the beginning of july, honey cut it all the way to the ground.  literally cut it even with the dirt.  six weeks later and it's as tall as he is.  so he cut it down to the ground again.  grows like a weed.

 

it's a train!

i didn't ask for an explanation...

a productive thursday

pictures

i was awake for over 2.5 hours.  woke up before three, heard christopher wake up at 5:11 (his body refuses to sleep any later than that) fell asleep sometime around 5:30 i think, heard christopher's alarm, heard him shower and get ready, woke up with brady at 6:30, and woke up for the day with abigail at 9:15.

i have a 16 gig memory card in my big camera.  i never delete pictures off of it and we've had it since abigail was a month old.  i took this picture and saw what i'd never seen before "card is full."  i'll admit... i wondered if this day would ever come.  almost 14 thousand pictures is a lot for one card.

this was the previous picture.

brady is afraid of the ball pit.

went ballistic (no pun... is that a pun? what is that?  intended) and wouldn't put his arms down.  meanwhile abigail is saying "cheeeeeese."  

 

 

i love putting him down, leaving to do something for a few minutes, and then coming back to the surprise of "where is brady now?!"  seriously, not sure why i find this so entertaining but i totally do.

 today was day two in a row of not leaving my house (with my kids) and it was great.  they do really well when we're out but it always means that the rest of our day is going to be rough.  abigail acts out like crazy after we get home from a morning out and brady's naps are off.  and somehow it makes our kitchen messy.  like random objects from my purse all over the island?  no clue what that's about.  anyways today and yesterday were great.  we played in the playroom and doll house, abigail and i have logged hours of reading her stacks of library books, brady has been so happy, i haven't worn makeup in three days, and we've all been a little less stressed and rushed about life.  

tonight we had an amazingly productive presidency meeting tonight and, as always, i had a generous to do list for myself by the time i went home.  i'm in such a productive mood tonight (i deep cleaned my kitchen and even mopped my entry way and bathroom!  and the best part was that abigail was my perfect hanging out buddy just sitting on the kitchen chair to stay out of the way while she chattered and told me stories) that when i got home, i put brady to bed and tackled every action item on that list (except for the two that require a phone call that will need to be during daylight hours) and so tomorrow i can just worry about following up with people on all of the emails i sent out.  great news since we're hopefully going to the splash pad tomorrow.  crossing my fingers our outing out is as enjoyable as our days in.  i tell myself that abigail will appreciate these things.  today, she randomly told me sorry for something she had done thirty minutes earlier.  tonight while i was mopping, she was eating her [nasty, plain] greek yogurt while i was mopping and she said "thank you for painting my fingernails and my toes."  she has a good heart.  it made my day.

random day of pictures

wednesday was the birthday of my favorite eldest sister.  this is how i celebrated...

i still really love those cheese eggs on toast (have i mentioned that i add cream and it makes them simply to die for?!) but i have another breakfast favorite too...  oatmeal!  a half cup of oats, one cup water, 1/4 cup flax seed (i'm currently out, and so is costco, and i'm really not happy about this... it's healthy but really, it adds amazing texture) and microwave for 2 minutes.  then stir in a few shakes of cinnamon and some brown sugar.  a little whole milk, a little whipping cream (not whipped), and one whole peach cut up (or a cup of diced strawberries).  it is knock your socks off incredible.  i guess you could make it healthier if that's your thing but i like sweets/dessert for breakfast and this hits the spot.  i might even prefer it to peach cobbler.  similar but doesn't give you that gluttonous nauseous ioverate feeling.

abigail plays with her dollhouse all day long.  sometimes brady and i join in on the fun.  when we do, we all like to play with "our" dolls.  i'm the mom, abigail is the blonde big sister, and brady is the little baby boy (sadly, his doesn't come in blonde but he doesn't seem to mind).  and when christopher gets home, he's the dad.  we all know our place.

i gave abigail a haircut.  i love and hate it.  mostly hate it but it was necessary.  her hair barely grows (it's been the same since she was 18 months old) and so thin and fine.  it was growing longer on the bottom but not on the top and since it was so thin, it just looked like a stringy little mullet.  as her mother, i thought it was cute because it perfectly resembled my hair at that age but honestly, if i looked at her through unbiased eyes, it looked just plain bad.  so i cut it.  i evened out the bottom and gave her a little bob.  i kept as much of the length as i could (the right side was significantly shorter because she doesn't ever twirl knots with her left hand) while evening it out as much as i could.  chris says she looks like a boy and i say she looks like she has a helmet haircut.  anyways, it was necessary and so even though it totally changes her look and makes her look so much less like my baby pictures, i try not to cry about it too much.  someday it will grow, right?!

my friend, jodi, dropped off a few new nail polishes for me on friday (she's always getting fun stuff for abigail and me and dropping off delicious treats so even though my toes looked absolutely horrendous all week, i'm going to pretend it was just a coincidence).  as soon as abigail saw my freshly painted toes, she begged me to paint hers too.  it took a few days but finally happened and i painted her fingers too.  she looks so adorable with painted fingernails and it's such a flattering color.  so i'll try to forget the fact that she "ate off" all of the polish on her right hand.  it's just her toes and her left hand that are blue but it's still pretty cute.

 

i can't stop sneaking into brady's room to take pictures of him while he sleeps.  i hit the timer button on my baby app when i put him down and then when it's been between 15 and 30 minutes, i sneak in and take pictures of him.  he's just so adorable i can't help it.

abigail is all over the place.  there should be a support group for parents with three year olds.  em said her three year old is only good or bad.  abigail is allllll over the map.  good, bad, and every single thing in between.  lots of in between.  i am comforted though that she said her little girl was terrible at three but it completely awesome now.  it may be a long tunnel but there is a light at the end!  also, abigail would sooo greatly benefit from learning to tell me not to yell.

i'm an idiot.  my three year old still wants to sleep in a crib but i occasionally push her to try out her bed.  three times in the space of forty five minutes, she came downstairs.  three strikes you're out, so i put her in her crib and she came downstairs again.  it wasn't even until fifteen minutes later that it clicked and i realized she must have climbed out.  ha.  not a successful nap day.  (today started out with tantrums to nap in bed, getting out of bed, tantrums because i insisted on the crib, and then i broke down and gave her a binky and she fell right asleep.  struggles.)

this guy's naps have been shorter... like an 1h20 instead of 2h20.  my days have been much less productive as of late.

i put brady in his bumbo and then ran to my room for a minute to look up a recipe on my computer.  while i was doing that, i heard a thump from the kitchen and thought to myself "oh no!  brady fell out of his bumbo!" but when i listened, i didn't hear any crying.  so i thought maybe he'd just grabbed the thomas book that sits on abigail's little wicker toy basket and the book falling to the floor was the thump i'd heard.  umm nope.  it was definitely brady  jumping out of the bumbo.  and he was just happy as a clam about it.

monday morning my honey left for salt lake.  wednesday morning he flew from slc to st george for a quick meeting before coming home.  i wasn't expecting him until later and didn't have a real dinner ready so i told him i'd make him an egg salad sandwich.  he said yes, he'd like french bread and no, the bread didn't need to be toasted but he'd like his sandwich with a little bit of love on top.  that guy's texts always makes me smile.

i think greek yogurt tastes horrendous.  but that doesn't stop me from buying it when i find a good sale.  this time was my first buying the greek gods brand.  i got two containers... one plain and one vanilla honey.  reading the side of the vanilla honey container it said it was a good substitute treat in place of ice cream.  i scoffed because i know how bad greek yogurt tastes.  but when i tasted it, i was blown away (i later checked the nutrition label and it has a whopping 32 grams of sugar per serving... that's why it's so delicious) and repented... purposefully scooping it out to look like ice cream.  the funny part?  my christopher and abigail both independently made comments about how i was eating ice cream.  so delicious.  it is still "healthy" for you when it has 32 grams of sugar and 14 grams of fat per serving?!  because we polished off that 24 oz container of it in less than 24 hours.

abigail has never liked baths.  as a baby, she rarely cried and rarely laughed.  friends would always tell me how their kid was soothed or excited by bath time but abigail always seemed pretty indifferent.  that's the same story now except it's accompanied by an intense fear of washing her hair.  so imagine our surprise when chris was showering and asked abigail if she wanted to shower.  i wasn't there but apparently, she just immediately stripped down and got in!  chris called me in to see it.  you can't see the water in this picture but seriously?!  all over her hair, face, ears, and she was enjoying herself!  is it weird if your three year old still sleeps in a crib but has already graduated from baths to showers?  not conventional... we'll see how this pans out longer term.

 

sooo, although my very favorite part of the day was actually talking to liza on the phone... which i didn't get a picture of... because were talking.... the rest of the day was pretty great too.  happy birthday liza!  i'm glad your birthday was so awesome!