Tuesday, July 28, 2015

To help me remember

Random notes 

Friday and Saturday at the farm were great. Granny fed the kids lots of brownies and ice cream and peach cups. On Friday around lunch time, the kids and I went to visit Harriet and then mom took granny to visit uncle AD and then mom went and did some grocery shopping. It was just a lot of hanging out and playing. Papa held Elizabeth constantly except for when I was feeding her and the kids and I had fun going out and playing on the swing set for fifteen minutes at a time until we had to come in from the heat. We read old books, played Lincoln logs and the exercise bike and the little black bike. I really loved that time with granny and papa and I loved that all three kids did as well. Last time, Abigail was throwing up, Brady wanted nothing to do with granny and papa, and elizabeth wasn't born yet. This time, it was just great all around. Brady loves granny. I think it helps that she gives him all the edibles he wants (including a brownie at breakfast Saturday morning sometime around 8am. ; ) Food is her love language. 

Driving back was as eventful as driving there. Two potty stops for Abigail (I've got to start limiting fluids in the car!), a stop for gas, stop for food, stop to feed elizabeth... It took about 5.5 hours. It's a four hour drive. Ha. Whoops. 

Saturday night, I showered, did laundry, put the kids to bed (longest bedtime ever it the guitar is deluxe!), and hung out with mom and dad. We went to bed late again. I think I fell asleep sometime after one. 

I set my alarm for 7am so we would for sure not be late. We got to the church building by 8:35. 

Monday I woke up with a unique feeling. It was because I hadn't woken up between when I went to bed and when my day started. It was only six hours, but it was uninterrupted. Woohoo Brady! That's wonderful when you don't wake up at 4am and make me sleep on the floor in your room for the next multiple hours! So, I mowed the lawn. It's very different from when I was a kid. The landacaping has changed a lot but I still really enjoyed it. The day was just whatever. Mom and I didn't have any fun plans. Just focusing on packing and getting Brady and Elizabeth to nap well. And we left in enough time for mom to run into the varsity on our way to grab ius some onion rings and a frosted orange. ; ) delish. I am so exhausted right now that just thinking about the last twelve hours might kill me. And I'm at the airport again. Just like I was less than five hours ago. 

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Clara's baby blessing day

Today was packed. I am exhausted. I was up at 7 to get ready. At church by 8:35, and not getting the kids to bed til 9:30. We spent alllll day at Liza's and it was jam packed with constant family fun and plenty of good eats. Maybe I can catch up more on my writing soon? Probably wishful thinking. I've taken too many pictures to even weed through right now but I swear I will eventually. Hopefully. ; )  Right now, I just need to sleep. And cross my fingers that Brady won't wake up. Wishful thinking. 

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Grandma Virginia

I have way too many pictures from today but I don't have time to go through them right now. I just wanted to make a quick note to say that my heart is both heavy and light that grandma Virginia passed away this morning. Even though she's Christopher's grandmother, she has always felt to me like one of my own. Like a grandmother that I didn't meet til later in life and didn't get to see very often but felt such a deep connection with. I know I'll be continuing to reflect on my memories of her in the next several days leading up to her funeral and will hopefully be able to gather my thoughts enough to write a post. But in the meantime, I'm just grateful for the happiness I feel in knowing her and the relief I feel that she won't be experiencing her earthly difficulties any longer. My sweet, precious grandma Virginia. 


Friday, July 24, 2015

Great Grandparents say...

Papa says
She feels right at home here! 
This is better than soup! 

Granny says 
She looks so healthy!
Her eyes just dance around!
She sure doesn't take her eyes off her mother!
She looks like she's trying to read our minds! 

Papa
She's as quiet of a baby as I've ever seen. 
I call her my baby now.
I haven't seen one this nice in a long time. 
"They better watch, I might just swipe you!"
She's a pretty little girl, got a pretty voice to go with it. Well, a pretty name. I haven't heard her fuss. 
It's nice holding her here. 
She's a pretty, little girl. 
"You love papa too!" 
I don't believe I've ever seen one this nice to hold without hollering or slapping her arms around. 
Her little lip! And her eyes! 
Send us a picture. Send this one back to us! 
I haven't heard her cry the whole time. Most of em are just a hooping and hollering. She's just so nice. 
She doesn't raise a storm like so many of em! 

Granny 
She just has so many expressions! 
She sure is a good baby! What a blessing! 
She's cute even with her eyes closedD! 
She has. Little smile that slips through every once in. While and just fades away. She must be one of the lord's special ones. 

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Pocket talking with papa

My heart is so full.  I'm exhausted but I can't fall asleep because my mind is racing with today's memories of perfection. I can't go to sleep without writing a few things down. 

For the past several months, I've been so anxious to get down to the farm. Even two weeks ago, I was so excited to go to the beach, but I was anxious to get to the farm and wished that part of my trip could come first. And even this week I've just felt a bit out of sorts in that instead of soaking up my time in Atlanta, I've just been wanting time to speed up a little so that thursday would come faster and it would be time to go to the farm. Well, today was the day! 

We stopped at the varsity on the way down (Elizabeth's first time) and made a million other stops as well to the point that it was all a bit comical. Two potty stops for Abigail, a stop for Elizabeth's almost blowout of a diaper and then to just feed her because we were already stopped and it was time anyway, and a stop at chick fil a so that Brady could get out of his car seat to poop (didn't happen). The whole thing was funny but the best part was mom and me cracking up at Elizabeth's crazy diaper and yelling "mayday! mayday!" ...and maybe Brady's grunting too. ; ) It was all great. And the drive was beautiful. I love looking at all the houses and trailers. 


This greeted us. The most perfect sight ever. I think they must have been waiting for at least an hour out there, putting up with the gnats and heat, just to welcome us. 


Brady started taking off his shoes and got distracted by the softness of the rug. It was hilariously precious. 

A much appreciated miracle of tonight... the kids were really well behaved (they actually were for all of today) and played so well together all night. It was really cute. 

Getting ready for dinner. I mean, supper. 

Brady ate granny's partially eaten power bar. Because he finds food. And then eats it. 

My plate. See that tomato on the upper left side? That was Papa's. Granny dished him that slice of tomato, and as soon as she wasn't looking, he put it on my plate. I laughed out loud so I know he knows I saw him, but I didn't eat him out. I just ate both tomatoes, as any loving granddaughter would. also, mom made fried catfish and hush puppies and cheese grits last night for dinner and packed up leftovers to bring down to the farm tonight (at my request). I skipped breakfast this morning, ate varsity for lunch, a granola bar for snack, and fried food for dinner. I'm the epitome of health these days. So really, papa was doing me a huge favor with that extra tomato slice. 

I'd put Elizabeth down for nap in my room right before dinner but heard her fussing ten minutes later while we were eating. It's unusual that she would do that but I didn't want to miss dinner time with granny and papa so I is it brought her out and held her while I ate. As soon as I finished, papa and I went to his chair so he could hold Elizabeth. This is the picture I took immediately after putting her in his arms. I've been looking forward to that moment since I first knew I was pregnant. 


She promptly fell asleep. ; )

Holding both girls. 

This is papa's pocket talker. It is AMAZING. His hearing has been super bad for a long time so we almost never get to talk. And when we do, I have to yell. But with this... I can talk in a quieter than normal voice and he hears everything wonderfully. It's amazing to see him laugh at the things I say about my kids and ask follow up questions or tell me a story about something I've mentioned. I told him about the kids and their interests and swim lessons and the beach and showed him pictures on my phone. We talked for close to two hours. TWO HOURS! When previously we've only said "how are you?" and "how's the weather?"  It's called the pocket talker and it's amazing. Meanwhile papa saw me flipping through pictures on my phone and was all "you just have to touch it and move your finger like that?!" Ha. We had a good time.

Abigail got out the creepy and earless bugs bunny jack in the box. Brady is terrified of it. He's not in this picture because he was curled up and hiding/huddling on my lap. 

Papa kept holding Elizabeth while I put the kids to bed. He held her for almost three hours. Papa looooooves babies. 

I clicked this article on fb about best business schools. Stanford is rated number one... it typically is, no surprise there... and my honey was pictured in the Stanford picture! Lots of surprise there.  Here's a zoomed in shot of it and this is the article. http://www.businessinsider.com/best-business-schools-for-your-salary-2015-7
I looked at the picture and the thought came to me "it would be so funny if honey was in this. But the odds are slim to none. Until I saw that everyone was holding these red bells. We have one (that our kids have broken) somewhere in our house. So I looked at it and zoomed in to confirm. Yup. There's my husband. The pic must be pretty old since he graduated in 2011. Still cool. And crazy at the coincidence. 

I'm hoping this situation doesn't ten into a problem tonight. They keep gravitating closer. 

Even after I moved Elizabeth. They got closer again. Sibling love. ; ) 

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Paper towels in mom's ward

Today wasn't the most stellar Sunday I've ever had. 

Saturday morning, Abigail woke up with a dry diaper. So last night, since we were back at grandma's, home from the beach, Abigail asked if she could try wearing undies to sleep. It's a pain, but I try to encourage her enthusiasm for learning to stay dry at night. Against my better judgement, I gave in to her requests. Also, I'm not a very nice mom and I'm trying to be better at that... It's really difficult for me. Anyways, she soaked everything. I don't know how much she drank before bed, but she was literally soaked from head to toe... Like even her pillow needed to be washed. I was nursing Elizabeth when Abigail got up and I heard her taking care of herself. When I went in her room, I found her dirty clothes and a whole pile of used wipes. At home she knows to use a wipe or two to clean herself off until I can give her a bath... So why she used 50+ wipes this time is beyond me. It was almost an entire pack. Whatever, I encourage independence in my kids and these are just things that happen when kids learn. Anyways, I gave her a bath while my wonderful mother stripped the bed. 

The next few hours were pretty standard. The kids ate, I showered, we all got ready for church. Elizabeth fell asleep while I straightened my hair.  It was all going well enough. 

Elizabeth woke up fifteen minutes into sacrament meeting. Not part of the plan. And she was fussy. Occasionally she has off days where she's fussy and doesn't nap well and is restless and upset when she eats and is just generally out of sorts and not her usual self. Luckily those only happen every ten days or two weeks or so (and sometimes just for an afternoon and not necessarily an entire day) but sadly for me, today was it. She woke up and wasn't happy about it and despite my best efforts, cried through the second half of the sacrament and I took her out the second it ended. I stayed in the mother's lounge with her for the rest of that hour. She was still fussy during second hour and I had to take her out for most of that too. I talked in the hall with various abamontes and van sants and then went back into the RS room to try my luck at third hour. Of course Elizabeth woke up the second I sat down. I tried my best at keeping her quiet and was counting down the minutes until church was over. My parents don't have the youngest ward ever, so even my little newborn seemed really loud and obvious. I was so ready to NOT be the visitor whose baby was fussing and crying through all three hours of church. 

Then two lady's poke their head in the door, whispering and pointing at me. I leaned to mom "great, I'm pretty sure Abigail wet her pants."  I go into the hall to meet them. Sure enough. Excellent. I was annoyed at my day even more, but a little relieved for an excuse to just get out of there. 

I went back in to retrieve Elizabeth and was greeted in the hall by a man telling me that it happened just inside the library and he would show me where the cleaning supplies were. I was happy to clean up the mess because I don't mind my own child's bodily fluids and I would have felt horrible if someone else had to clean it up, but here's the humorous part of the story... The cleaning supplies. He hands me a squirt bottle of cleaning solution and a little stack of folded paper towels and says, "here, I think this'll be enough" and leaves. I close the library door (no one was there and Elizabeth was still noisily fussing a bit) and get to cleaning. First things first, unfold the paper towels to lay them on the floor. Anyone want to venture a guess how many the guy gave me to work with?  Three. Like one, two, three. I almost laughed out loud. I used the three to soak up the mess and then sprayed some solution down. I almost left it like that because umm three... he gave me THREE paper towels to work with... But I remembered that it's my church building and I'm not going to do that. I went to the cleaning closet and tried to find more paper towels. I couldn't find the same ones he gave me but found a roll and used that instead. Hopefully I cleaned up well enough. Then, I headed down the hall to find Abigail.

I'm glad I asked specifically where her class was (last time they told me the wrong room and it took forever to find her and she cried because she didn't know why I wasn't coming to get her) so I knew where to go. When I arrived, she was happily coloring on the floor with the other kids. I apologized to her teachers and told Abigail we were just going to head home a bit early. She hopped up and was frolicking out of the room when the lady teacher (it was a young couple) was all "oh wait" and with her pincher fingers, picked up Abigail's pair of wet undies (from where?! Maybe the window sill?!) and said "I rinsed them so they wouldn't be sticky" and handed them to Abigail. I was a bit mortified. Rinsed or not, wouldn't it make sense to put them in a trash can liner or at least wrap them in paper towels from the bathroom?  Public service to all primary workers: paper towels would be a nice touch. Anyways, as soon as the door shut, I got out Elizabeth's blanket and had Abigail drop the undies in there because I didn't want them to touch anything and who walks down the hall pinching a pair of wet, dirty underwear? Not my kid, I'll tell you that much. 

Anyways, it was all just the icing on the cake and I couldn't wait to get home and share my humorous sorry with mom when she and dad arrived later with Brady. I know the cleaning supply guy and the lady teaching Abigail's class weren't trying to be rude or passive aggressive because honestly, they were both very polite and friendly about it... but three paper towels and then straight up handing my kid dirty underwear to take home? It makes for a memorable story for sure. 

Anyways, that was my drama for today. I texted Christopher when I got home and told him I'm glad I'll be at Liza's ward next Sunday (for Clara's baby blessing) because I don't want to show my face in mom's ward for a while to come...  Yikes. 

After church was fine. Mom made a delicious lunch of salmon, cheese grits, carrots, broccoli, blueberries, and cherries. We hung out. The kids watched a few New Testament cartoons. Walter and Bekah and the boys came over. Elizabeth continued to take 45 minute naps and be fussy. Abigail and Brady were crazy hyper and out of control, constantly driving me crazy. I had Brady skip a nap because church ended at two and I wanted to put him to bed early, but of course I was too interested in hanging out that I forgot about bedtime til Walter and Bekah left and it was 9:00 and I was beat. Somehow I got three kids to bed though and was able to eat ice cream and unwind in the kitchen with mom. 

What is it about my kids being so wild and misbehaving so much when mom is around? I mean, I know they're crazy excited to be at grandmas and get to play with grandma and grandpa, but shouldn't that wear off a bit with time?! Because it doesn't for them. This is going to be an exhausting two weeks with them and I'm just hoping mom will still love us all at the end of it. ; ) 

I'm optimistic about it though, because somehow my parents still think my little rugrats are fun and entertaining. 

It makes sense I guess. I mean, they did put up with me for a whole lot of years so they're pretty well practiced in this area...

Other notables: 
Abigail and Brady kissed each other super loudly through the entire sacrament prayer despite me hitting their heads and telling them no kissing during prayers. 
The speaker assigned to speak on the Holy Ghost that actually spoke about pioneers, bore his testimony at the end of his talk by playing come come ye saints on the harmonica. After he said amen, Brady was all "I wanna hear that again!" Mom and dad were entertained. Too by I wasn't around to hear it myself. ; )

Driving back from the beach












Saturday, July 18, 2015

Friday at the beach

Poor Brady. This is what has come to pass this week with him constantly running around in a wet, sandy swimsuit and swim diaper. It only happened really mildly when we went to the pool four days in a row, so I'm thinking the sand and saltwater must make it happen way worse. So sad. 

Matching! I have a picture from last year or the year before when I was matching Walter with pjs. Matching sibling outfits is fun regardless of age. 

This was every morning this week of Abigail "eating breakfast" since the tv was on. 









Thursday, July 16, 2015