Call Me Cordelia

Trip to Utah

2012-02-02T20:44:00.001-08:00

All of our family is in Utah. As in, everyone but us. Understandably, we’d love to get back to Utah someday so we didn’t feel so left out all the time. But I stopped feeling as bad when I realized that we spent TEN PERCENT of our time in Utah last year. Yep. One out of every ten days, give or take a few days. So I guess I can’t whine too much.

The day after Christmas we had planned to drive up to Utah. What we didn’t plan on was how long it would take us to play with all our toys/eat all our leftovers/clean the house/pack. So at about four in the afternoon we moseyed on out the door and drove to Moab where we stayed the night in a hotel, courtesy of my dad’s Hilton points. Thank you, Amex. The kids loved it and voted that we do it every drive.

Our vacation goal this trip was “Do Nothing.” And we did. Mostly. It was fabulous after running around the entire month of December. We watched no less than ten movies during our trip, four of them at the theaters (The Muppets, The Adventures of Tin Tin, Mission Impossible III, and Sherlock Holmes: all fantastic!!). We spent a night up at my parents’ gorgeous new townhome in Park City and became extremely jealous of how fantastic it was. If anyone’s looking for a place to stay in the Park City area, check it out. You will definitely not be sorry.

For New Year’s Eve we broke our tradition of doing nothing and went with my family to the Hale Center Theatre. The play began at 10 in the evening, and at intermission they served a great buffet of hors d’oeuvres. They were in the middle of the play when the countdown began, and all the action stopped while we rang in the New Year. For the rest of the play, the actors had to act with dozens of balloons floating around the stage. It was a great evening.

On New Year’s Day we blessed our sweet Bridget Elayne and our nephew Zae was blessed by his father. Bridget was rather old for a baby being blessed and looked massive next to little Zae, who was only a month old at the time (and had been born three weeks early). We had lots of family join us, and we had a wonderful afternoon. It was a bittersweet moment, knowing that this was going to be our last baby blessing. Bridget looked darling in the blessing gown that all three girls have been blessed in. I’ve spoken before about how I love cloth diapers, and one of the reasons that I love them so much is that we never have blowouts. Until her blessing day. The first blowout she’s ever had (quite an achievement at five months old) was in her blessing gown BEFORE pictures were taken. I tried to get it washed and dried in time, but it just wasn’t happening. But she’s still super cute.

The Jorgensen clan. Somehow the Barnes family got out of getting a family shot, but they were there too.

A just-for-fun shot showing how red my hair was. I love it this color, but it doesn’t last very long.

The Church History Library has a special children’s exhibit going on right now that focuses on the church in Latino cultures. The price was right (can’t beat free!), so we took a trip downtown to check things out. It was definitely worth spending a few hours there. The kids had a blast; we boring adults tired long before they did.

Designing their own quilt blocks.

The kids got to dress up in traditional costumes and imitate dancers on the screen. Paul was surprisingly good at it.

We were lucky to have my Grandma Davis with us. We love her so much!

Ashley had work off so she got to play with us too.

These wraps are the best things ever. Bridget was able to sleep nearly the entire time we were at the museum, and I was able to have both hands free to have fun.

Paul fished off “Nephi’s Boat” nearly the entire time we were there. He would not leave that thing.

And they CRASHED on the way home. Always a sign of a good trip.

Final picture that I took from our trip: the girls in pink!

Cousins Bridget and Emily hanging with Auntie Ashley. Emily looks exactly like her mom. It kills me every time I see her.

While we were there we had many game nights, a second Christmas with my family, sleepovers at Hawksridge, fun tubing with Grandma and Grandpa (which resulted in a trip to the first aid tent—can an outing get any cooler than that?), sleepovers with Grandma J, many yummy dinners, and lots of fun just being together. We had so much fun on our trip with all of our family. We miss you all and want you to come and visit us soon!!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

2012-02-01T20:19:00.001-08:00

For Christmas Eve we decided to follow New Mexican tradition and make tamales for our Christmas dinner. Holy cow, is that a time/labor intensive process! I’ve learned my lesson for next time—cook the meat the day before. That was the longest part. It took about five hours for our meat to braise in the oven, and that doesn’t include all the time spent actually making the tamales. They were delicious, though!

I was trying to be all festive and whatnot and bought a glass of “bubbly” (aka Martinelli’s sparkling apple cider). Unfortunately, the glass bottle broke while Aaron was opening it. I wanted to see if it was possible for us to still drink it, but then Aaron informed me that there were shards of glass floating around in the cider. So, no then. It was about 8pm at this time and we were all starving. I’m afraid the news about the cider just pushed me over the edge. I about lost it and nearly had to leave the dinner table in a flood of tears. Yes, that is ridiculous. But I couldn’t help it. Fortunately I was able to pull it somewhat together and we had a very nice, late Christmas Eve dinner, without the Martinelli’s.

After children went to bed, the real work began. Aaron and I built the kids a play kitchen for the kids for Christmas, and of course it wasn’t finished by Christmas Eve. So between finishing the kitchen and wrapping presents, we went to bed ridiculously late. But everything definitely looked amazing. Here was our view before we headed to bed on Christmas Eve:

Yes, the bar clamp came off before kids were up on Christmas.

Christmas morning came bright and way too early. We’ve got 9:00 church, which meant that we would have to wait until after church to open presents. The kids got their new Christmas outfits on and headed downstairs. They were thrilled to see everything that Santa had brought them and were fascinated with the kitchen. It was a resounding success.

Apparently Bridget hadn’t been dressed at this point. She had a pretty new Christmas dress too.

I didn’t get any good pictures of the kitchen. It’s got a fridge with four shelves (and came stocked with some felt food, thanks to Ikea); a four burner stove with knobs that turn; an oven with a plexiglass window to look inside; a sink (which was a dog bowl in a former life) with an actual faucet; a storage space under the sink for keeping pots and pans, covered by a tiered curtain with pom-poms (my favorite part); a handle to hang tea towels on; and a chalkboard for writing menus or grocery lists. It’s actually not quite finished in this picture. We attached a blue back so the food wouldn’t fall out of the fridge. I also have some cute ideas for making it even more adorable.

I made a sausage and egg casserole in the crockpot the night before so that we could have a semi-traditional Christmas breakfast before we went to church. It turned out great—definitely will do that one again. I really enjoyed having church on Christmas. I didn’t think I would, but it was so nice to be spiritually fed before the chaos of present-opening ensued.

The hula outfit for Katie’s American Girl doll, Kanani.

Sophie the giraffe. She LOVES this thing.

New outfit for her Belle doll.

Averi wrote her gift tags herself. That reads “Mom” and “Averi.”

With her new Bitty Twins. Their names are John and Julia, according to Averi.

This was a Star Wars year for Paul. Check out all that Star Wars loot! He was so incredibly spoiled by everyone. The Star Wars Lego mini-figure Darth Vader clock is my favorite.

And for Katie it was an American Girl year. Seriously, our kids are spoiled rotten. Check out those roller skates—aren’t they the cutest?

This was the first year that we stayed home for Christmas, and I’m so glad we did. It was nice to start some new traditions with our family, and our kids loved being able to play with all their toys at home. We missed everyone being with us, but loved being at home. Fortunately we were able to leave for Utah the next day to spend two full weeks with our families!

Making gingerbread houses

2012-01-20T12:18:00.001-08:00

Gingerbread house making has become a tradition around here. Over the years our creations have ranged from the ridiculously complex Martha Stewart gingerbread cake that took (no kidding) three days, 33 eggs, and 16 sticks of butter…

(2007)

to the fairly simple yet adorable…

(2008)

This year’s concoction was a nice in-between. It was plenty big enough for all the kids to decorate, yet still easy to assemble. Note to self for next year: caramelized sugar works GREAT to hold the pieces together. No waiting for frosting to dry, and it was rock solid when hard.

The girls had been playing with their makeup earlier, which is why they have the war paint on.

Yes, every picture I have of Averi during this event shows her stuffing her mouth.

Other December happenings

2012-01-20T11:44:00.001-08:00

Happy babies in Christmas jammies.

Making marshmallows using this recipe from Bon Appetit. Oh, heaven!

Katie’s dance performance. She decided that she wanted to do gymnastics instead of ballet, so this was her last little performance. I’m sad to see her quit ballet, but I’m so excited for her to take gymnastics. I get jealous watching Katie and Paul because it looks so fun!

Reading

2012-01-20T11:35:00.001-08:00

I love to read. Aaron loves to read. Our families all love to read. So it should come as no surprise that once Katie learned, she was hooked. This is one of my biggest accomplishments as a mother. Not only did I teach her how to read, but she actually likes it!

Reading at breakfast. It’s what I do, so I have no room to complain about it. She’s reading Ramona the Pest, her first real chapter book. And yes, that is my bathroom mat drying on the back of the chair.

And because my other kids are super cute too…

(Pictures taken December 8.)

Corrales Christmas Parade and First Snow

2012-01-11T22:17:00.001-08:00

The first weekend in December is the Corrales Christmas Parade. Corrales is a small village right on the outskirts of Albuquerque. Despite being minutes from the city, it still manages to maintain a very small-town, rural feel. A friend of mine has been recommending this parade for a few years now, and this was the first time we’ve been able to make it. It’s very welcome-to-Mayberry. Lots of tractors, trucks, church choirs, and firemen. It was long enough to be worth it, but short enough that the kids never got antsy. They have a bonfire afterwards, but it was a chilly night, and we called it good for Bridget’s sake. She was not happy with us.

Adorable.

Tragically adorable. Look at that pouty lip!

St. Nicholas on a firetruck. Does this seem weird to anyone else?

Root beer floats after the parade. Get it? Floats? Parade? Clever, eh!

That evening Cindy Lou Who put the star on the top of the tree. Interesting fact: this is the first year we’ve had a star. I could never find one I liked at a price I liked. Thank you, Target. You always come through.

Two days later we had our first major snow. I figured all other kids got snow days, so mine should too. We made cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate and played in the snow (well, we didn’t play in the snow; I stayed warm inside like a sensible person). We watched movies and ate popcorn and generally had a grand time.

Turns out my desert-raised kids have no idea how to make a real snowman. I’m sorry to say that the final result didn’t look much different than this.

December Goings-On

2012-01-09T19:54:00.001-08:00

I know that most of you won’t care about this since Christmas is so last month. But I care, and grandparents care, and that’s enough reason for me to write. We’ve been out of town in Salt Lake for the past two weeks, which meant that pictures were home but I was not. So now that the pictures and I have been rejoined, it’s time for the posting frenzy to begin.

We started off the month with a new tradition. I found a cute felt advent calendar in the dollar bin at Target, and it became the hit of the month. I wrote a Christmas activity for every day on a slip of paper and the kids got to wake up and find out what awesome thing we were doing that day. I realized about a week into it that I had been WAY too ambitious. For example, “make and decorate gingerbread houses” is NOT a one day activity when you’re doing everything from scratch. Live and learn.

On December 1st, all the kids got to open a present. Christmas jammies for all!

That same day we also decorated the Christmas tree. Ideally I would like to do this Thanksgiving weekend, but it hasn’t happened yet. So first day of December doesn’t seem too bad.

Of course, we wound up with a million balls on the bottom branches (sometimes as many as five on one branch), but I managed (somewhat) to hold back the obsessive-compulsive inside of me and let the kids do the majority of the work. It’s not as pristine as it’s been in previous years, but that doesn’t really matter.

Averi had been going to a little preschool craft class that my friend hosted throughout the holidays. I only imagine how much time and effort she put into each class. They came home with the cutest projects! December 1st they made a bunch of delicious treats that were devoured nearly the instant we got home. I only had a few seconds to grab my camera before the disposal team got to work.

We started another new tradition this December. I loved the idea of wrapping up a Christmas book and letting the kids read a new story every night. I certainly didn’t have 25 Christmas books, but I do have access to the public library. I cleared the shelves of holiday books and we unwrapped one every evening. This was something the kids really looked forward to, and Aaron and I really enjoyed this new tradition as well. It was so nice to take the time out of a busy December day and just sit together every evening. It really helped bring the Christmas spirit. Our new favorite this year was a book by Kate DiCamillo (who wrote the Tale of Despereaux) called “Great Joy.” It’s one we’ll be adding to our own library.

Today we…

2011-12-18T20:41:00.001-08:00

Listened: to the kids belt out “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” Just one more week, and they couldn’t be more excited!

Ate: orange cream fudge, delicious caramel popcorn, and chocolate chip pie with vanilla ice cream. Oh, yeah, baby. That’s what I’m talking about.

Drank: a cold glass of milk to finish off our pie.

Wore: matching (well, coordinating) dresses for the girls, a handsome shirt and sweater for Paul, and a cute dress and cardigan for Bridget. I tried to do my hair in a Gibson tuck for a fun change. I watched the video and it looked extremely (deceptively, some would say) simple. It would not stay in for the life of me, which resulted in our being far later to church than we should be.

Felt: ready for a vacation!

Talked about the weather: supremely gorgeous and sunny! It’s weekends like this that make me love Albuquerque.

Wanted: a jalapeno popper grilled cheese sandwich. Simply the best sandwich EVER.

Needed: a nap. And the kids were all obliging enough to let us take one, after a few false starts.

Thought: about what I needed to get done tomorrow. Gingerbread houses are on the calendar, so we need to get to the store to buy the ingredients for the dough. Also need to get to Hobby Lobby to get some final things to finish up the play kitchen we’re making. Kids have a Christmas party for their art class, so I need to grab some sort of present for their teachers, and we’re going caroling in the evening, which means I need to make a few dozen cookies. Fun but busy day!

Enjoyed: talking to our family on the web cam. The kids look forward to it so much.

Thanksgiving and Bat Paul

2011-12-01T12:42:00.000-08:00

We had Thanksgiving at our friends’ house this year. It’s the first time since we’ve lived here that we haven’t hosted, so it was a surprisingly relaxing day. We made two turkeys and had a little drama with our oven shutting off. This happens every year, and somehow we manage to forget every year. (*Insert long story about why our oven is idiotic, doesn’t display the actual temperature inside, and shuts off randomly.) Note to self for next Thanksgiving: buy an oven thermometer! Despite that delay, the turkey was delicious and all the sides were amazing. We brought scalloped potatoes with fennel, which are TO DIE FOR. Seriously, I think they would be on my list if I had to request a last meal. The cranberry cream pie is always a hit and specifically requested by Aaron. One of the guests at the dinner made SIX pies (my favorite was the sweet potato!), so that brought the grand pie total to seven. Always a good thing.

(Before our pie arrived.)

The scalloped potatoes from last year. They looked the same this year, but I forgot to bake them in my pretty white dish.

Monique’s lovely table setting.

The adorable kids’ table.

Allen, Monique (taking the picture), me, Aaron, Buffy, Joe, Adam, baby Hyrum, and Laurie.

Thanks, Monique, for letting me steal these photos! I didn’t take a single photo on Thanksgiving, even though I had sewn matching turkey shirts for all the kids. That shot will be reenacted soon, hopefully before Bridget grows out of hers!

While we were there, Paul got ahold of a Batman costume and wore it the entire evening. Carter was nice enough to let Paul have it since it was too small for him, and I think Paul has died and gone to heaven.

Bridget at three months

2011-11-30T10:45:00.001-08:00

I’m afraid this baby has been sorely neglected in the picture-taking department. It seems that I just get so crazy running around that I forget to take pictures of what it is we’re doing. And when I do actually remember my camera, my hands are always so full that I rarely take pictures with it. But since she’s pretty much the spitting image of her siblings, I think that we’ll know what she looked like at this age. Sorry, Bridget. That’s the life of the fourth.

We had our family pictures taken a few weeks ago, and I LOVED how they turned out. Isn’t she a doll baby? I could just eat her up. Locals, if you even need your pictures done, call Jacque Larsen. She’s amazing!

For comparison’s sake:

Katie, Paul, Averi, and Bridget. We make one child. Katie is the most different looking of all of them. And look, Averi and Bridget are lying on the same blanket and wearing coordinating outfits! Too cute!

Some things about Bridget:

She’s got the most adorable smile. She’s not super generous with it, but when she does grin at you, it makes you melt.

She laughed for the first time today. I made myself ridiculous trying to get her to do it for Aaron, but no dice. I promise, honey, I wasn’t making things up.

She’s a super sleeper. For a while she had been sleeping 12+ hours every night. For the last week she’s been waking up at 6:30 every morning (I think because she’s getting cold in there; the heater we have is a dud), but that still means she’s getting in almost 11 hours of sleep. Now if I could just get myself to go bed on time so that I could be as well rested…

She’s a pro at this eating business. We’ve never had a baby that was this good at eating.

(In her aerobics instructor “costume,” which consisted of a onesie, leggings, and a headband.)

She’ll take a pacifier. Again, our only baby that could figure it out. She’s gifted, I’m sure of it.

She’s found her index finger and loves sucking on that and on her fist.

She’s super strong and doesn’t mind tummy time at all.

She drools. A LOT.

She spits up a bit, but she’s nothing compared to Averi. That girl spit up more than any baby I’ve ever seen.

She is very, very loved by this crew. They take good care of her.

She’s the best excuse for just sitting and doing nothing.

She’s absolutely delightful. It breaks my heart that I can’t have a million more just like her.

Fall Bucket List – Recap

2011-11-23T21:38:00.001-08:00

Since it’s nearly Thanksgiving, I thought I’d check back and see how we did on our fall bucket list.

~~1. Go to a pumpkin patch~~ Yep! Will blog about that…someday.

This was the only family (well, most of them) picture we got. Too bad they were looking directly into the sun!

2. Balloon Fiesta – So sad we didn’t make it this year! We decided to do a last-minute trip to Utah, so something had to give. Next year!

~~3. State Fair~~ Apparently the only pictures we took were of the rather freaky acrobats.

~~4. Renaissance Fair~~ Done!

~~5. Go on a hike~~ The kids did this with Grandma and Grandpa J while we were in Utah.

~~6. Sew Halloween costumes~~ Close enough! More on Bridget’s and ours in a later post.

Baby aerobics instructor! Pump it up, ladies!

~~7. Trick or treating!~~

This blurry shot was one of the best I could get. They were so thrilled to be getting the loot that they wouldn’t hold still at all. This was the first year that we made it around the entire large block. Yay for kids getting bigger! Averi wore several different costumes during the course of the day. For trick or treating she was Jasmine.

~~8. Family game night~~ Did this several times, both with just our little family and with our family back in Utah.

9. Make s’mores over a fire. Nope! Totally forgot about this one, actually. S’mores sound really good right now…

~~10. Carve pumpkins~~

~~11. Make a wreath~~ Made a super cute yarn wreath with felt flowers, but then I ran into issues. I tried a trick I saw on Pinterest that said to use pipe insulation that’s been duct-taped together instead of having to buy a wreath. Didn’t work. At ALL. So it’s completely fallen apart and waiting to be fixed. But I did make it, and that’s what counts.

12. Make a scarf. Nope. But I sewed plenty of other things (and bought a new scarf), so I don’t feel bad.

~~13. Make chili.~~ I made a very nice paleo chili. If I could remember where I found the recipe, I’d post it. But I can’t. I’m wanting to try a pumpkin chili recipe I saw. Anything with pumpkin has to be great, right?

14. Go down to the bosque and take pictures in the leaves. We didn’t get around to this, which makes me sad. One of my favorite things about Albuquerque is driving down the road in the fall and seeing the huge swath of yellow along the river. Next year! We did get our family pictures done in downtown Albuquerque, so it’s not too terrible.

15. Make art with leaves. No, but the kids did do tons of fall-related crafts in their homeschool art class.

~~16. Eat al fresco~~ All. The. Time. Until it got dark, of course.

17. Read on the patio while the kids play. You know, I don’t think I ever really did this. Usually because I was holding a baby, and lounging and reading isn’t really easy when you’ve got a baby to accommodate.

18. Visit to the farmer’s market. No, but we did sign up for our local CSA. We got our first box this week, and everything looks delicious!

~~19. Make our house smell delicious.~~ Just toss orange peels, and cinnamon stick, and cloves into a saucepan with plenty of water, turn it on low, and let it simmer throughout the day. Lovely!

Not too bad! We were crazy busy throughout the fall, but we had a fantastic time. Now it’s time for the holidays! Turkeys are thawing (fingers crossed they’ll be ready by tomorrow morning!), turkey shirts are made for the kids, and the fridge is packed with produce. I love Thanksgiving!

I really want to know what game they were playing…

2011-11-20T20:44:00.001-08:00

What is the Box! of! Shame! and what does Averi have to do with it?

Cougar Fans

2011-10-26T21:16:00.001-07:00

Back story: My dad and ALL of his family went to the University of Utah. And yet they’re BYU Football season ticket holders and passionate about their Cougars. I haven’t quite figured out where this came from. My dad says that it’s because he knows not to confuse his sports with his academics. Of course, what was the ONLY school I was allowed to attend? BYU. Seriously. I wasn’t even permitted to apply anywhere else. Believe you me, I was not happy about it, either. However, it was the only school he would allow his little girl to go to when he was going to be thousands of miles away in Australia. And you know, he was right. I loved it there.

Aaron also attended to University of Utah. He’s still a fan, though. We’ve haven’t gotten to him…yet. He’s falling behind in the marketing department, though. Do my kids own any Ute apparel? Do they know the fight song? Have they watched a U of U game? No, no, and no. So when they grow up to be Cougar fans, he has no one to blame but himself.

When Kiera (my sister who is now 10) was little, I bought her a BYU cheerleader outfit. Super cute.

(Kiera, Christmas 2003)

It was then passed on to Katie.

(Our mixed-blood family, September 2007)

Averi wore the dress as well, but very unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of her in it. We’re waiting for Bridget to grow into it at the moment.

We were lucky to have my dad come and visit us in the beginning of October. My dad loves to spoil his grandkids, so he brought down BYU shirts for each of them. He even found a little one for our Bridget. The weather was gorgeous outside, and so a photo shoot ensued. Forgive the photo overload if you’re not a relative; my dad wanted to see the pictures I took. And they’re dang cute.

Everybody loves Bridget. What’s not to love?

Practicing his football grimace.

Mr GQ right here. This pose was all Paul’s idea. Heartbreaker.

Averi has her grandpa wrapped around her little finger. She stole his heart when she told him, “Grandpa, I wish you could stay for a million!” We wish he could stay for a million, too, Averi.

Ra ra ra ra ra…

Goooooo Cougars!

Do they come any cuter than this?

Katie burned her head at a friends house. Apparently she was looking at a lamp through the top of the shade and then burned it on the bulb. How do kids do these things? Of course her face was tanned from the summer, so the spot won’t disappear for another year.

Paul is seriously the best big brother EVER. He loves his baby.

Third article of faith according to Paul

2011-10-23T19:58:00.001-07:00

Rdicl uf fath 3

We belev [that] throo the tomit uv cr[ist] ol mencind ma be savd bi obedi[ence] to the los and ordunitsis of the gospol.

(I added the words that he forgot or didn’t finish. He did say them all when he read it to me, though.)

Proper translation:

Article of Faith 3: We believe that through the atonement of Christ all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel.

Pretty good, huh? I especially loved the spelling of ordinances. He did this while he was playing, not as part of an assignment. It’s amazing what kids pick up on. There are some times when I think that I haven’t taught much in homeschool. And then there are times like these, when my pre-k son presents a transcription of the third article of faith. Or the other day when we were listening to some classical music in the car and Averi (who’s three) said, “This isn’t Mozart. Mozart goes like…” and then she proceeded to hum the first few measures of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.

I think I’ll give myself a little pat on the back and keep on for a while.

Halloween Costumes

2011-10-21T23:56:00.001-07:00

I decided to sew Halloween costumes this year because I’m crazy. But, unlike other years, this year I won’t be sewing 5 minutes before the trunk-or-treat starts. Our friends hold an annual Halloween carnival, and I decided that I wanted to have the costumes ready by the carnival. That way, if I missed my deadline I’d still have another week until the next Halloween function.

I only sewed one costume completely from scratch this year. One year every family member got a costume from The Wizard of Oz (except Aaron, who put together his own scarecrow ensemble). So I took the ~~easy~~ easier route and sewed some things and used some bought or found things. Katie wanted to be Tiana. With the exception of Guiselle from Enchanted, we now have a costume for every single Disney princess. Which is fine with me, since my kids spend hours every day in dress-ups. These costumes get lots of mileage, which makes it totally worth it for me.

This costume was a bit of a pain to sew, but not nearly as complicated as Glinda. I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting more experienced or if the pattern was easier, but I seemed to understand things better and make fewer mistakes. It turned out a bit big and had to be safety pinned in a few places, but that’s much better than too small. She should get plenty of wear out of this. I love how the sequin trim and the jewels finish it off. One of my favorite parts is the shoes that match the round jewels on the dress perfectly. They were in nearly perfect condition at Savers for $5. Score!! They’re quite comfy and have soles with traction, so Katie will also be able to wear those all the time. Katie wanted to have a frog to carry around with her. Not like I don’t have a million other projects already. Perhaps if we stumble across a Beanie Baby frog we’ll grab it.

Paul bought a wizard hat at the Renaissance Fair, which inspired the wizard costume. I used some fabric my mom had at her house, so the cape didn’t cost a thing to make besides the 99 cents I paid for the pattern. I altered the pattern to make the cape reversible. One side is blue silk from India (!!!). I couldn’t believe my mom would let me use it, but she was the one who offered it up, so of course I grabbed it! The other side is a plain black, which is perfect for being Zorro, a bad guy, or anything else his imagination can come up with.

I think he’s confusing wizards with the emperor from Star Wars here. But he’s super cute anyway.

Averi fell in love with a witch costume at Other Mothers, and since it fit her and she was so enraptured with it, I let her get it. It was pretty beat up. The hat was fraying, the poorly-serged seams were falling apart, and it just needed a bit of TLC. So I put new bias tape on the brim, mended any holes, clipped all stray thread, and put new polka-dot bias tape on part of the dress. That’s my favorite part. It just gave it that little extra touch to look higher-quality. I learned how to make my own bias tape using this tutorial, and although it was time consuming, it was so satisfying to have yards and yards of bias tape at the end. And yes, I know I’m weird. I made the gloves for her, found the tights at Wal-Mart of all places, and let her borrow my necklace. Cutest witch I’ve ever seen. She decided that she was going to be a bad witch, and when she put it on tonight, she ran and grabbed Paul and with a sassy sway of her hips said, “Come on! Let’s go get those good guys.” Adorable.

When I had her put her hat on to take pictures at the carnival, I realized that at one point she had stored a cupcake in there. The inside was covered with frosting, and yet I made her wear it for photos anyway. I’m a terrible mother. Then when we were getting in the car, she took the hat off and plopped the lollipop she was sucking on in there for safe-keeping.

Bridget was an aerobics instructor with leggings, a onesie, and a headband. I’m planning on adding to her costume, but it’s not finished. Pictures of her will be coming later. She was definitely not in the mood for photos this evening.

I love my adorable family. Happy Halloween season!!

Keeping it real

2011-10-19T23:58:00.001-07:00

Here’s how my day went today:

8:00 – Woke up and fed Bridget. Got showered – as much as I could, since I was having patch testing for allergies done and couldn’t get my back wet at all. Got dressed.

8:30 – Katie is lying on the floor, telling me that she’s sick and we’ll have to cancel our appointments today. I tell her to quite whining and go get dressed. Miraculously, she seemed fine.

8:45 – I go upstairs to hustle the kids along, and notice a large black mark on one of the new kid desks we bought from Ikea. Apparently Paul had fun with a Sharpie sometime in the morning and decided to draw on one of the white desks that Aaron had just assembled the night before. Thank goodness for Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.

9:00 – I try to gather the kids together for breakfast. Notice that Paul has already managed to pee his pants this morning, so I send him upstairs to change and take a shower. He winds up missing breakfast and has to eat a banana in the car.

9:15 – We’re supposed to be out of the door in 5 minutes. Ha! Neither Averi or Bridget are dressed, Katie’s hair is a crazy mess, I haven’t eaten anything, and Paul needs help putting his shoes on since he can’t find the ones he can put on himself. This is despite that fact that I remind them EVERY TIME we enter the house to take their shoes off and put them in the basket.

9:25 – We finally get out the door. Then I notice our gas tank is very, very on E. We’re already late, so I hope we can make it to the dermatologist’s office and then just fill up afterwards.

10:05 – My appointment was supposed to start at 9:45. Still haven’t heard from the nurse, and we have other doctor’s appointments for Bridget and Paul starting at 10:30. Try to call the other doctors to let them know we’ll be slightly late, but then discover my phone is dead.

10:20 – Miraculously, the dermatologist visit went very quickly once it started. So far it seems that the only thing I’m allergic to is nickel. I have a follow-up and final evaluation tomorrow. We RUN to the car. We have 10 minutes to make it up to Rio Rancho. And then I remember the empty tank. Definitely don’t want to risk driving that far without a working cell phone. Stop to Smiths to fuel up is in order.

10:40 – We arrive at the doctor’s office. I check in at the kiosk so that I don’t have to have the nurse tell me that I am, in fact, late. As if I didn’t already know that.

11:00 – Bridget’s two month checkup went great. She’s in the 50th percentile for weight and 98.5 (th?) percentile for height. Doctor told me not to put too much store by the height since it is so iffy at this age.

12:00 – We finally finish with Paul’s well-child visit and with Bridget’s shots. The doctor was very concerned about his constant accidents (he had one while we were there), and wants to see if we can get to the bottom of this. Finally!! I’ve been to doctors about it multiple times in the past, and I’ve always been told that he’ll grow out of it. But this time the doctor agreed that this was not normal. He orders blood and urine tests from the lab and orders an x-ray to check his spine. If these don’t reveal anything he’s sending us to the urologist.

12:10 – We finish eating the crackers the nurse brought us. Remember, Paul had had essentially no breakfast, and it was lunch time and we still had to go across the hall to the labs to get Paul’s testing done. Hopefully the graham crackers would tide us over.

12:45 – We finish Paul’s blood and urine tests. Without thinking, I had sent him to the bathroom minutes before he was supposed to go in and give a urine sample. He was only able to squeeze out a quarter of an inch, but they said that should be enough. He freaked out when they drew his blood. Can’t say I blame him.

1:00 – We finish Paul’s x-ray. Kids are starving and my nerves are raw from trying to keep four kids quiet and keep them from getting into everything that seems interesting. Why didn’t I ask someone to watch the two girls? Because I wasn’t thinking, that’s why.

1:20 – Hit up Chick-Fil-A for lunch. All budgeting goals go out the window when you’re stressed, hungry, and have more errands still to run.

2:00 – Leave Chick-Fil-A and head to Target to buy a present for a baby shower.

2:30 – While in Target, I see Katie put something in her pocket. Turns out she found something (an interchangeable belt buckle, I think) on the floor and decided to keep it. The belts were right there, and it obviously belonged to that display. Had a big lecture about stealing and honestly. I’m having déjà vu, since I just had the same talk the day before with Paul when he ate a taffy at Sunflower Market without paying for it. Why have my children resorted to thievery all of a sudden?

2:45 – Paul throws a MAJOR fit when I don’t buy him a Star Wars puzzle. I had told him he could have it, but then he went off to play while I was checking out and took the puzzle with him. We needed to get going, so I told him he could get it next time we were at Target. We’re there just about every other day, so not a big deal, right? Wrong. He screamed the entire way home. Had to skip the trip to Hancock Fabrics to buy some trim and fray check that I needed to finish up a Halloween costume.

3:00 – I managed to calmly (only externally) ignore Paul until we got home. Then I told him (calmly, calmly) that he needed to go up to his room to change (another accident) and he needed to stay there until he cooled down.

3:30 – Paul is still in his room and Averi has fallen asleep on the couch downstairs. We were supposed to leave for Paul’s first gymnastics lesson now (supposed to start at 4), but we skip it. Everyone is just too worn out, including me. I tell the kids that they can use whatever they want in the craft drawers, but I need some down time, so they can’t bother me for a while. Bridget is sleeping, so I go upstairs and shut myself up in the study.

4:00 – After checking emails and goofing around a bit, I work on Katie’s Tiana costume. Zipper gets installed successfully (major achievement!) and it all seems to fit well. Feed Bridget, the dream baby. Get myself ready for the baby shower tonight. Wrap present.

5:45 – Go downstairs to prep dinner. Kitchen is a disaster from the kids’ crafting, but I’ll take it. Kabobs are sitting in the fridge waiting to be grilled, so I’m not stressed. About that, at least.

6:20 – Aaron arrives home, and the table is still not cleaned off completely. I have to leave for the baby shower, so I give instructions on the rest of dinner, kiss everyone and Bridget and I head off to a baby shower. Have a very nice time with friends. They had a cute idea for the shower; instead of games, we all embellished onesies for the new baby girl. They were adorable.

8:30 – Two friends and I head out to Chilis to grab something heartier, since two of us hadn’t had any dinner. Two meals out in one day. Terrible! But it was so nice to just sit and chat with friends. I’ve been so checked out of things lately, and it was great catching up with everything.

10:30 – Head for home. A coyote crossed the road right in front of my car. It paused and stared at me and then went on his way. He was gorgeous. I love New Mexico.

11:00 – Finish feeding Bridget and put her to bed. Go upstairs to work some more on the costume. Ignored the very messy house. Wrote blog post.

1 – Bed. I hope.

Quick trip to Utah

2011-10-19T15:29:00.001-07:00

We’re back from a great little trip up to Utah. My Grandma Davis was in town, it was my dad’s birthday, and Aaron had free tickets to a gaming expo, so we had a trifecta of reasons to go up. And since we’re homeschooling, there were no school schedules to work around. Aaron had to fly back and forth for work, but he drove both ways with me, which made the whole trip possible. Fortunately we had free Southwest tickets that were about to expire, so it worked out well. I had a fantastic time. Usually when we visit we cram our days full of fun things, but this time we mostly hung out. I loved just being with everyone all day. It was more of a “normal life” vacation: I sewed (one costume down, five to go!!); went shopping (lots of this); crafted with my sister and sister-in-law (and then proceeded to leave the hair clip I made at my parent’s house); went to see the townhome my parents are building by Park City; saw my brother-in-law in a improv comedy performance; went out to eat lots; went to the temple with my mom, sister, cousin, and grandma; had a family birthday party; and capped it off with an evening of “My Fair Lady” at the Hale Center Theater. Definitely a great trip. I love Albuquerque, but I miss my family so much. The more kids we have and the more cousins they have, the more I want to move back. Oh well. At least we get to visit frequently.

Paul with Brayden. These two adore each other. One morning my mom was supposed to be taking my grandma to a doctor’s appointment, and she had forgotten that she was also supposed to watch my sister’s two kids. Fortunately I had nothing at all planned, so I offered to take care of them. Brayden wanted nothing to do with me once my mom left. He was sobbing, and then he ran to Paul and wanted Paul to hold him. It was the sweetest thing ever. Paul has such a love for little children, especially for his sisters and cousins. He’ll be an amazing father when he grows up.

Bridget snuggling with her great-grandma.

Grandma Davis. She’s 89 years old, and could probably outmaneuver and outwork many people half her age. I loved listening to her tell stories. They’re amazing, even though she doesn’t think so. I guess her life just seems ordinary to her.

My grandma was converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after she was married, and she grew up as a Baptist. When she was a young girl, she had a dream about a building she had never seen before, and she knew that it was going to be important in her life and that she would have something to do with that building. For years she kept thinking about that dream, but she eventually forgot about it. After she met my grandpa (who was a member, but quite inactive), she had the dream again. It wasn’t until several years later that she discovered the building she had been dreaming about was the Salt Lake Temple. When my mom asked her about the dream, she found out that Grandma still had never been to the Salt Lake Temple. One of the highlights of my trip was being able to go to the temple with her and with my mom, Heather, and my cousin Michelle. It was a wonderful day. It truly is one of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen in my life. Aaron and I were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple, and it was wonderful to go back and do a live endowment session there. I wish I had taken pictures of us while we were there, but I forgot my camera in the car.

(Aaron and me on our wedding day)

I had a fantastic time on this little trip. Huge thanks to my sweet husband who was willing to drive with me so that we could make it all happen! I love you!

Handsome FIVE year old

2011-10-02T17:33:00.000-07:00

Late summer is birthday season around here: between July and September, we have five birthdays in our immediate family and another six more in the rest of our family. We have another two in October as well. Paul winds up the family birthday spree on September 25. We love having Paul in our family. He is SO BOY. I don’t know how he could be any more boy. But at the same time, he’s our most sweet child and very tender. He wanted Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, and the American Girl doll Molly for his birthday—go figure. Here’s Paul’s birthday interview:

My favorite food is: pizza

My favorite movie is: Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog

The coolest person on Earth is: Jake

My favorite thing to learn about is: space

The thing I’m great at is: math

If I could go anywhere, it would be: movie theaters

My favorite color is: black

My favorite superhero is: Wolverine

When I grow up, I’m going to be a: baseball player

My favorite song is: Covered Wagons

A book I love is: Batman Meet the Superheroes

When I was little, I used to: play with Scruffy

My favorite time of year is: summer

The snack I like best is: trail mix

One food that I really don’t like is: eggs

My best friend is: Henry

If I had one wish, it would be: to be a dragon

My favorite phrase is: I love you (Aaron and I couldn’t think of anything off the top of our heads, but Paul said that his favorite phrase is “I love you.” And he does say that a lot)

My favorite treat is: chocolate cake with chocolate chips on it

My favorite toy is: Star Wars Legos

Averi turned THREE!

2011-10-01T17:46:00.001-07:00

I can’t believe how big my little girl is getting. I have to say, she was such a great two-year-old. For my kids, at least, two is great. I’d be tempted to keep them two forever. It’s three that gets hard, and she’s living up to that precedent. She’s quite opinionated, and is learning the fine art of whining. But she’s still very fun to be around. We love her to pieces.

I love the idea of interviewing your kids every year on their birthday (or close to it, since dates lose their relevancy around here). Here’s what Averi had to say:

My favorite food is: chicken noodle soup (Mom: it’s actually eggs)

My favorite movie is: Tangled

The coolest person on Earth is: Mom (then she changed her mind and said “I am!”)

My favorite thing to learn about is: pets

The thing I’m great at is: puzzles

If I could go anywhere, it would be: I don’t know. Rudy’s.

My favorite color is: purple

My favorite princess is: Sleeping Beauty

When I grow up, I’m going to be a: a ballerina

My favorite song is: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (Mom: It used to be Scripture Power. We sang that EVERY night.)

A book I love is: the Ariel book, you know?

When I was little, I used to: walk

My favorite time of year is: fall

The snack I like best is: dried blueberries and frozen blueberries and dried strawberries and frozen strawberries and coconuts and craisins and rasins. I love all of the snacks.

One food that I really don’t like is: hot chicken (Mom: not true. Averi’s a total carnivore.)

My best friend is: Ella I guess.

If I had one wish, it would be: for a kindle (HA!!)

My favorite treat is: I think popsicles

My favorite toy is: Pollys, especially the Sleeping Beauty Polly.

Averi was on a Tangled (AKA Rapunzel) kick this year. For her birthday she asked for “a Tangled tassel” (interpretation: a Tangled castle; all k sounds become t’s). It was too adorable to resist, so I had to search high and low the night before her birthday for a Tangled tassel. Luckily we found one, along with a Tangled backpack. She also got some books, but apparently those aren’t as awesome as Tangled tassels.

Santa Fe Renaissance Fair 2011

2011-09-30T14:23:00.001-07:00

Here are the pictures from this years renaissance fair. Locals, I highly recommend you go. It’s a fun way to spend a Saturday.

Note the very authentic shoes.

Fighting the knights. This was definitely the kid favorite this year. Paul got way into it and started taking down everyone else’s knights as well.

Reminds me of Monty Python.

This had to be one of the most adorable things I’ve ever seen. Averi’s “sword” was as long as she is, and the hits she gave were the cutest teeny taps. The whole crowd was smitten by our fair lady.

Katie is her father’s daughter. Check out that tongue! (Aaron pointed out that this could be taken wrong. It is not meant to imply anything indecent. Aaron simply has a very funny habit of sticking his tongue out in the weirdest ways when he's concentrating. That's all.)

Stud muffin Paul.

The crowd was much bigger at the fair this year, which made it even more fun. I love having a chance to tap into my inner geek (not like I don’t just about every day, but this was even geekier than usual).

Fall Bucket List

2011-09-27T23:20:00.001-07:00

Here’s our fall “bucket list.” We’ll see how many of these things we actually get done, but it will be fun to try! Let’s set an end date of Nov 15 so we don’t overlap with the holidays. And enjoy these blasts from the past while you’re at it.

1. Go to a pumpkin patch

(Ah, the fun we have as a family…)

2. Balloon Fiesta

3. State Fair (already did that, so it might be cheating, but it’s totally a fall activity)

(yes, it’s blurry, but that’s what you get with a self-portrait)

4. Renaissance Fair (again, cheating a bit)

5. Go on a hike

6. Sew Halloween costumes

7. Trick or treating!

8. Family game night

9. Make s’mores over a fire

10. Carve pumpkins

(or eat them, whatever)

11. Make a wreath

12. Make a scarf

13. Make chili

14. Go down to the bosque and take pictures in the leaves

15. Make art with leaves

16. Eat al fresco

17. Read on the patio while the kids play

18. Visit to the farmer’s market

19. Make our house smell delicious

If you know me at all, I’m NOT a fan of winter and coldness and darkness and the general blech that hits around January. This means that I approach fall with some trepidation, since I know what’s coming next, and it’s not pretty. But fall really is wonderful. In Albuquerque, it’s nice and warm during the day, but there’s a nip in the air at night. September is absolutely gorgeous, as is October. And nothing beats that New Mexico blue sky in autumn. There’s also something wonderful about breaking out the cardigans and sweaters and scarves and boots that haven’t seen the light of day since April. So this year I’m going to embrace fall, and I’m bringing the rest of the family along for the ride.

Thoughts and Happenings

2011-09-27T14:41:00.001-07:00

We have been so blessed to have a lot of family come after we had Bridget. Aaron’s mom was there when she was born and stayed for a week, and then a week and a half later my mom and sister came out for two weeks. My house was never so organized and clean, and Aaron and I got to go out several times together WITHOUT KIDS. Well, except for Bridget. But newborns are like footballs; you just tuck them under your arm and haul them around with you. I was seriously tempted to “lose” my keys on the day my mom had to fly home. When we were loading up the car, Paul said, “I think I’m going to cry when Grandma leaves.” I responded, “Me too.” “No, Mom, I’m not kidding. I really am going to cry.” I’m not kidding either, Paul.

After my mom and Kiera left, Adam and Julie came out for the weekend. Julie is a flight attendant, so when Adam got off work early on Friday, they were able to make an impromptu visit to us. It was Averi’s birthday, so everyone (except for Aaron—boo to having to work!) went to the zoo. Afterwards we met Aaron at Golden Corral for dinner. High class, I know, but the kids thought they had died and gone to heaven. We’ve been very careful about what we’ve been eating lately, so the kids were thrilled to be able to choose whatever they wanted. Paul especially thought that this was supreme bliss. I cannot tell you how much that kid ate, mostly because I can’t remember it all. I do know that he ate two pieces of pizza, two servings of enchiladas, spaghetti with meatballs, tilapia, salad, multiple servings of watermelon, mashed potatoes, cotton candy, strawberries and marshmallows dipped in the chocolate fountain, a chocolate cupcake, and the rest of Julie’s cotton candy. I know there’s more there that I’m forgetting, as hard as that may be to imagine. After he finished, he turned and looked at me with those HUGE brown eyes and began to cry. I asked him what was wrong, and he responded, “My tummy hurts!” I think it was the first time he’s ever eaten himself sick. Sad as it was, I did have a hard time not laughing. How could he be anything BUT sick?

Adam and Julie were planning on staying through Sunday, but Julie’s sister went into labor on Saturday, so she flew out so she could be with her. Aaron, Adam and I took the kids up to Santa Fe to the Renaissance Fair, which is one of our favorite things ever. I get a kick out of dressing the kids up and only wish that I had a dress myself. Maybe one year when I haven’t just had a baby I’ll make Aaron and me awesome matching costumes. I’m a nerd like that. The camera is downstairs right now, so pictures will have to follow in another post.

We were out in the sun all day on Saturday, and I woke up Sunday morning to a discovery: I am either allergic to the sun (polymorphic light eruption) or to the combination of my sunscreen and the sun (photoallergic contact dermatitis). Either way, I had the most itchy, horrible rash every where that was exposed to the sun: arms, chest, neck, face, even my ears. It was awful. I cannot describe how incredibly itchy it was. A visit to the dermatologist on Monday gave the two possible diagnoses. I’m inclined to think that it’s the sunscreen, since the only other time this has happened, I was wearing that sunscreen. That time I thought it was a reaction to the laundry detergent I used, but now I know better. This second time was MUCH more severe than the first and only cleared up after a combination of ultra-powerful steroid cream (which also happened to be ultra expensive and not even regularly stocked by pharmacies), anti-histamines, and anti-itch lotion. I’m sure I stunk to high heaven, and I stayed indoors for several days so I didn’t have to show my hideous self to the world. But now it’s gone, and I’m just hoping it NEVER happens again.

To complicate matters, I had developed pink eye two days before this all happened. So not only was I looking horrible from the rash, but I had to wear my glasses, which don’t fit right and are the wrong prescription. I was a wreck. Fortunately, both the pink eye and the rash were gone by Thursday, so I was able to go to church this Sunday (and watch Project Runway on Thursday night) without looking like a freak.

Things are starting to calm down around here. We’re getting back in the homeschool swing, and I’m feeling so confident that I signed Katie back up for ballet. I essentially cancelled all activities for the months of August and September (except piano), knowing that I wouldn’t be capable of making it to anything on time or remember anything that wasn’t physically attached to me. This was a very wise decision. Life’s still chaotic, and it’s still hard knowing that I can’t accomplish much when I’m spending hours every day sitting and nursing. But I have been able to sew two dresses for Katie and Averi, and I’m almost finished refinishing an bookshelf for Paul’s room. So I’m feeling pretty good! I’m also only 6 pounds away from my “standard” pre-baby weight, although I don’t look nearly as good, since I lost a ton of muscle. As soon as I feel a little more in control I plan on starting my exercise routine again and fixing that.

On a different track: the cloth diapering is still going well and I have absolutely no regrets, except that I wish I would have known about modern cloth earlier. My favorites are Best Bottoms. Ask me about them; I could be a walking advertisement. They ought to pay me. Also, I’m going to put in a plug for Pinterest. Best time killer EVER. Those hours nursing are not spent doing nothing. Instead, they’re spent looking at what everyone else has done and wishing I could do them.

Bridget at 3 weeks

2011-09-11T17:21:00.001-07:00

Little Miss Bridget has been so much fun to have around. She’s extremely snuggly and loves to be held close and swaddled. She’s the first of our babies that actually seems interested in the pacifier, and she’s a great eater. She’s already filled out quite a bit in just these few weeks, but she still has the classic newborn chicken legs. Her brother and sisters dote on her and are constantly “checking on her” (which usually means that she’ll mysteriously wake up right as they check on her—poor baby). She’s up every 2.5-4 hours during the night, so it’s bearable for now. She’s a very noisy sleeper. She’s always making the funniest grunting and squeaking sounds. We absolutely adore her and would love to have a million of her.

Cloth Diaper Reviews: The Basics

2011-08-28T08:40:00.001-07:00

I’ve decided to try an experiment. I’ve been diapering children for the last SIX years, with perhaps a 6 month break (although I did have 2 kids in Pull-ups during that break, so I’m not sure that counts). I HATE buying diapers. I have spent thousands over the years on diapers, dealt with poo explosions, treated diaper rashes, and thrown away thousands of diapers. So I’ve decided to try cloth diapering. It’s become quite the in-vogue thing to do, and I can definitely see why. The cloth diapers that they have now are CUTE. As in, “Why would I put my child in clothes that will just cover up her diaper?” cute. They are easy. No pins and complicated folding. You’re not throwing away diaper after diaper. You don’t have to make midnight runs to the grocery store because you don’t have enough to last through Sunday. Apparently children in cloth diapers are 80% less likely to get diaper rash. And from what I’ve been told, poo explosions are practically non-existent with cloth.

After tons and tons and tons of research (when I get into something, I REALLY get into something), I decided to try several different varieties of cloth diaper and just see how it went. I figured I really couldn’t lose: if it went well, then fabulous! If not, cloth diapers have excellent resale value. I could just sell them for nearly what I paid for them, continue buying disposables, and feel good that I gave it a shot.

After talking with my mom about what I did and didn’t like after 5 days of use, she suggested that I write reviews so that people who are interested in cloth diapering can have an inside look at the different diapering systems. It also might help convince others to give it a shot. It’s not only crazy tree-huggers that cloth diaper (although I have to admit, I am a bit of a closet environmentalist—don’t tell!). It really is a viable option for normal moms who want to save money.

From my (not vast) experience, here’s what you’ll want to get started:

1. Wet Bags: These bags are made of polyurethane laminated fabric (PUL), which is what most diaper covers are made from. The laminated backing keeps liquids from escaping, and the seams should be waterproof. Wet bags can zip, have a drawstring, or remain open.

How many: I would suggest 1 small size wet bag with a zipper for out and about (more if you have multiple diaper bags or if you want one in your car). Wet/dry bags are also nice because they have a separate pocket to store clean diapers on the same bag. You will also want 2 large wet bags for home. You can use them in a pail or a garbage can with a lid, or you can buy hanging wet bags. I suggest two so that you’ll have one to use while the other is in the wash.

Brands: I’ve got 2 large Planet Wise pail-liner wet bags, and they seem very nice. I haven’t had any leaking at all, and you can order them through Amazon Prime. Always a bonus. I’ve also heard really good things about the bags from Leslie’s Boutique. If you’d like to make your own, I found an adorable tutorial: http://2littlehooligans.blogspot.com/2011/08/cloth-diaper-wet-bag-tutorial.html

2. Storage System: This is easy. If you’ve got a dresser near your changing table, use it. I have ours in our closet, so there’s no room for a dresser. Instead, I use a three-drawer cart with relatively deep drawers from Target. They were super on sale right before school started, so I just grabbed 2 of them. They work perfectly.

3. Cloth Wipes: This is not a necessity, but it makes it easier, since you just toss the wipe in the wet bag with the dirty diapers and you don’t have to worry about using a separate trash can. One of the goals of cloth diapering is to generate less waste, and this is one way to do it. There are several different materials they can be made from: flannel (most common), velour, sherpa, or a combination of the three seem to be the most popular. I purchased wipes made from flannel on one side and velour on the other.

How to use them: Right now we just wet ours in the sink. Easy, since it’s about 5 steps from the changing table. Save the peri bottle you come home from the hospital with. You can make up a solution using water, baby wash, oil, and essential oils, fill the peri bottle, and squirt it on the wipes. There are a million different recipes for this on the internet. There are also tons of people who sell different wipes solutions. Seems like overkill to me, but I bet they smell really good.

How many: Probably 2-3 dozen, depending on how messy your baby’s changes are and how frequently you want to wash.

Brands: I ordered mine from a work-at-home-mom (WAHM) that I found on diaperswappers.com. They’re sewn very well and I love the x in the middle to keep the layers from shifting. I know a lot of people love the Thirsties wipes. Or you could simply make your own. I just knew I would never get around to it, although it’s extremely simple and only involves sewing straight lines. Here’s a great little tutorial I found if you’re interested: http://2littlehooligans.blogspot.com/2011/08/baby-wash-cloths-tutorial.html

4. Laundry Soap: This is probably the most controversial aspect of cloth diapering—bet you never knew that diapers could be controversial! The diaper companies all claim that you need special detergent to wash diapers to help them stay absorbant and prevent build-up. Others claims that you should just use whatever gets them clean and doesn’t irritate your baby. I think I would have gone with the second group, except I started getting rashes from our laundry detergent. We switched all our laundry to Charlie’s Soap and Charlie's Laundry Booster and Hard Water Treatment. It seems pricey, but you only use a tablespoon per load. You can buy an 80-load tub for $12, which is 15 cents a load, very comparable to what Tide costs (if not less). If you buy the 1000-load bucket for $97.50, you’re looking at less than 10 cents a load. Charlie’s Soap is approved by all companies for diapers, and the hard water treatment really helps to get out extra stains. Our laundry is cleaner now that is has been in a long time. It’s also nice that we don’t have to wash the baby’s clothes in a separate load with a special detergent. Bonus: Free shipping on Amazon!

How to wash: This will depend on your washing machine and the type of water you have. Here’s what’s been working for us:

a) No need to rinse out poo if baby is exclusively breast-fed. If on solids, poo should be disposed of in toilet before putting in wet bag. Apparently a sprayer really helps with this, but we’re not at that stage yet.

b) Make sure all velcro (technically Aplix, since most diapers are made of this softer hook-and-loop tape) tabs are secured to the laundry tab on the diaper. I do this before I put it in the wet bag so that I can just dump everything in when it’s wash time.

c) Short wash or rinse in cold water with no detergent. This will prevent any stains from setting in.

d) Two full hot washes, each with detergent. This will kill any germs and get the diapers very clean. It may be overkill, but right now I’m okay with that. I also make sure to run the hot water from a near-by faucet so that the water going into the washing machine is very hot.

e) Check all diapers as you put them in the dryer. Anything with staining should not go into the dryer. Instead, put it into the sun to dry. Sunning removes stains miraculously. I usually only have an item or two that I need to do this with per load.

f) Dry as usual. Some people use wool dryer balls to cut down on drying time. I toss in a tennis ball, which also reduces drying time.

It sounds a lot more complicated than it is. It’s not a lot of work; just plan on some time to go through all the loads. And remember, these are going on a baby’s bottom to be pooed on. If it’s not pristine, it’s probably okay.

5. Diapers of your choice: This is the fun part. There are a dozen different styles to choose from: flats, prefolds, fitteds, covers, soakers, pockets, all-in-ones, all-in-twos…so much fun! Really. It is!

My opinion of cloth diapering so far: I’m really enjoying it. I love choosing the different styles and patterns. I adore how fluffy her bum is when she’s in cloth. I really like the fact that I’m not throwing diaper after diaper into a landfill. Mostly I love thinking about how much money I’ll save by the time she’s potty-trained. And if we have another (very unlikely, but not impossible), the savings will be compounded. Aaron and I ran some numbers last night, and even if you buy the most expensive diapers out there, you’re definitely at least breaking even, and that’s if you don’t factor in the resale value. If you go a cheaper route, like prefolds with covers, you make your money back in only a few months. Can’t shake your head at that!

I’ll review all of the diaper styles that I try out. If you’re not interested, sorry. But I’m really excited about this right now, so I’m going to share. If it does more than cement my status as the weirdo of the family, great! If not, I’m okay with that too.

Baby Bridget is here!

2011-08-26T21:42:00.001-07:00

On Friday, August 19 our sweet little Bridget Elayne Jorgensen was born. She came into the world at 1:37 pm, just in time for us to get some lunch! She weighed 7 pounds 14.5 ounces, making her our biggest baby. She was 20.5 inches long and has very dark, almost black, hair. She’s gorgeous and mellow and we love her to death.

Birth story:

I asked my doctor if I could be induced with Bridget, since I have a history of very quick labors. And let’s face it, I’m not very big into surprises. I’d much rather have a calm, planned delivery than a middle-of-the-night, what-on-earth-am-I-supposed-to-do-with-my-other-three-children delivery. It also made it very easy for Connie to book tickets to come and help us out. I had had three other uneventful inductions and I was already dilated at my 37 week appointment, so my doctor didn’t have any problem with inducing me at 39ish weeks.

I was told to be at the hospital at 6am on Friday morning. Of course I didn’t really get any sleep the night before, so having to get up at 4:45 was pretty painful. Not surprisingly, getting things set up at the hospital took forever. For some reason they didn’t have any of my records (no explanation was given for why this was the case), so they had to draw my blood and do my blood work before they could get the pitocin started. It was well after 8 before they got everything sorted (why was I there at 6??) and past 9 before labor began. As soon as contractions were regular, but not very painful, I asked for my epidural. When the nurse asked me what my pain level was, I was sure to tell her that I wasn’t interested in being in severe pain before I had anesthesia. Why would I go through more pain than necessary? I have nothing to prove to myself. I did it naturally (not intentionally, of course) with Paul, and I can say very confidently that I MUCH prefer the epidural. No pain = good.

The epidural was administered without any issues. Apparently I have the perfect spine for administering epidurals. I’ve been told this now by 2 anesthesiologists. After everything was good and numb, it was getting close to lunch time and I was dilated to 5 cm. We were just waiting for the doctor to come in and break my water. I told Aaron that since nothing was happening at the moment, he ought to go and get some lunch. Bad idea. My family knows that sending Dad out to lunch because “nothing is happening” means that SOMETHING is going to happen. With my mom, it meant that Kiera was born without anyone in the family there, including my dad. For me, it was slightly less dramatic, but dramatic nonetheless.

After Aaron left, the nurse left as well, leaving me all along in the room. I was happily watching HGTV (yay for cable!) when I had an itch on my shoulder. I reached over to scratch it, and when I pulled my hand away, one of the many lines coming off me caught and I disconnected my epidural line from the IV. This is a bad thing. I knew that the nurses needed to see to it right away, so I reached for the call button. But there was no call button. I searched everywhere for the remote, but I couldn’t find it. And of course I couldn’t get off the bed to look for it, because the bottom half of my body was completely useless. At this point, I must have been panicking, because the alarm for my heart rate started going off. The nurses have no way of hearing the mother’s monitors, just the baby’s, so not only was I freaking out with an open epidural line, but the alarm was going incessantly and driving me crazy. I tried to call Aaron several times, but there was no answer. He eventually saw that I had called multiple times, so he came back as quickly as he could. Apparently at some time during the administration of the epidural someone had place the remote with the call button on a shelf behind me and above my head, several feet out of my reach. Aaron paged the nurses, and one came in to inform me that yes, that was my epidural line and the whole thing had to come out. Um, no. That’s not what I wanted to hear. However, after I was told that the open line could introduce an infection into my spine if it was reconnected, I thought that perhaps they were right and that shouldn’t be risked.

The nurse anesthetist came in right away, and they sat me up to remove the old epidural and put in a new one. Bad idea. From the way they explained it to me, when you have an epidural, most of your blood flow is in your feet and legs, which is why you have to lay down the whole time you have an epidural. When they sat me up, my heart rate and blood pressure plummeted. It was strange how immediately I felt “wrong.” I had had blood pressure issues after an eipdural before, but this was completely different. The nurses had to stop putting in the epidural because they were holding me upright since I was on the verge of passing out. They administered extra oxygen for the baby and had to give me three shots of epinephrine to speed up my heart rate and prevent cardiac arrest. Fortunately, I have that perfect spine, so they were able to get the epidural in very quickly and get me lying back down. Within 15 minutes I felt completely fine and they were able to turn the pitocin back on.

After they were sure everything was stable and that there were going to be no issues, the doctor came in to break my water. She told me that she expected to be seeing me in two to three hours. Aaron and I just looked at each other and smirked. I had heard that one before. No one seemed to really believe me when I told them that my labor went QUICKLY after my water was broken. Sure enough, I progressed from a 5 to a 9 in about 15 minutes. After they got everything set up, I gave a few good pushes and out she came. She was big, beautiful, and purple (which was such a shock when I had my first baby). Every time I have a baby I’m amazed that a child that large fit inside of me. She must have been so uncomfortable! Her head was a bit bruised from her fast entry into the world, but other than that, she was completely perfect. Every time we have a baby I’m so amazed at how beautiful and perfect they are. Every detail is there, from the wrinkles on her fingers to nearly invisible lashes.

Katie, Paul, and Averi have reacted so well to having Bridget around. Katie is our little mother, and loves to be useful. She always wants to help pick out her clothes and is the first to inform me if she’s crying. Paul adores babies. He is always running in to have a peek at her and is constantly asking to hold her. He has such a tender spot when it comes to littler ones. Averi isn’t quite sure what to think of her, but she’s warming up. It’s always been her personality to stand back and observe until she’s completely comfortable. When they came to the hospital to visit, she asked to hold Bridget. I sat her down in the chair and put the baby in her arms, then I turned to go get my camera. Immediately she started panicking. “Mom, I’m done. I’m done, Mom. Mom! Mom, I’m done!” I told her, “Averi, I haven’t even turned the camera on. Please just wait until I can get a picture.” She sat still long enough for me to get one good picture, and then she was out of there as fast as I could take the baby. Now, however, she frequently asks if she can hold her, even if it is just for a minute. She’s always sighing about how adorable she is, and she loves to kiss her little wrinkled feet.

Bridget really has been a dreamy baby so far. She’s been a champion nurser, which is such a welcome change after Averi and Paul. She got the hang of things right away, and we haven’t had any issues with eating. She finally coming out of that newborn stupor, but she’s still extremely calm and not fussy at all. Aaron’s mom was here for a week to watch the kids and help us out, and I’ve loved being able to just sit and cuddle with Bridget. I really love this newborn phase. Even though the sleepless nights get hard, infants are just such a joy to have around. When I look at her, I think, “I could have a dozen babies!” I have to remind myself that they do grow up, and that’s the hard part. I’m telling myself that I’m just going to enjoy this stage and savor it, since it passes by so quickly. That’s something that does not come naturally to me. I always find myself looking for the next milestone, the next big thing. Having a new baby is such a good reminder to take things slowly and really live in the moment.

The mermaid bash (and a minor tragedy)

2011-08-14T13:13:00.001-07:00

I am insane. Really. Not only did I agree to throw a mermaid birthday party for Katie one week before I’m about to give birth, but I decided that I would sew tails for all the girls. And I decided not to go the “no-sew tail” route (which would have been perfectly fine). Nope. I had to make them ultra cute. And they were. But I was a mad woman sewing all week. My house looks like a glitter bomb has gone off. I’ve had to shower every night before bed so that we weren’t sleeping in a bed of glitter (which sounds romantic, but isn’t really). However, I completed the tails in time to watch Project Runway with my friends on Thursday night, which was the goal. I didn’t get a tail sewn for Averi, but I convinced her that she would be just fine wearing the mermaid costume that we already own.

And so, without further ado, here are the mermaid tails:

Awww!! Such cute girls! When Averi saw that I had taken the tail picture without her in it, she was devastated. She had to run in and get her skirt on so that she could take a picture just like the girls.

It’s supposed to be a skirt, but she wears it hiked up to her chest so that she doesn’t trip over it, since it’s way too big.

And she needed someone to put an arm around her, so big brother (and tail-less) Paul was happy to oblige.

We started the party off by making mermaids out of round clothespins. I think the girls had a great time with this fun little craft, and it was quite simple to do.

Here’s Paul’s very un-girly merman. He decided against the red hair and went to town with the manly blue marker.

Here’s the food table mostly complete; we were just missing the octodogs and the blue jello, since we didn’t want them to get ruined in the sun.

Cupcakes. I cheated and ordered the cupcakes from Wal-Mart and just decorated them at home. For six bucks, there was no way I was going to make them myself.

We hung net under the pergola and filled them with balloons. It looked quite cute until the wind picked up and popped about 30 of them on the grass. But fortunately the wind stayed pretty calm for most of the party.

Even though I planned most things quite well, I forgot birthday candles for the birthday girl. I was sure we would have a 6 on hand, but no. We had 1-5 and 7, but no six. So we made do with a 5 and a 1, since they equal 6 (even though it looks like she’s turning 51).

Loving the Kool-Aid Coolers. It’s a throwback to my childhood. I’ve never bought them for my kids before, so they were ecstatic. I love how Paul’s managed to spill all over his chest. Do you know how small the holes in those bottles are? He had to have worked at making such a mess.

My beautiful (almost) six-year-old!

A very hot Averi. It was probably close to 100 that day. Perfect for running through the sprinklers, but very, very warm.

And thus our tragic tale begins. Let me introduce you to Max:

Katie has been asking for a fish for a while. After asking around, I found that bettas had a pretty good reputation for being indestructible. And we needed indestructible. We have a long history of dead fish in my family. So since the party theme was mermaids, I thought that the fish would make a great present and would also look adorable on the food table as a decoration. Two birds (err…fish) with one stone!

I ran out that morning (Friday) at about 10 and bought the fish. Katie loved her fish. She named it Max and all the girls were constantly running over to check on the fish. At the end of the party, one of the moms came over to check everything out, and we stopped to look at the fish. That’s when we noticed that the fish was floating. Upside down. Poor Max was a goner. He was in a glass bowl, outside, for 2 1/2 hours, on a 100 degree day. He cooked to death. The water inside the bowl was so hot that there was no way he could have possibly survived. I had Aaron whisk the bowl into the garage to keep it hidden so that we didn’t have any tears during the party. As soon as the guests left, Katie ran inside asking where her fish was. “Oh, we had to take him inside because he was getting too hot.” (Was he ever!) “Yes, but WHERE is he?” “Ummm…don’t you think you should take your presents upstairs?” So after coming up with one lame diversion after another, I finally managed to slip out of the house and run to Wal-Mart. Fortunately they had several blue bettas on hand, so I grabbed one and ran home. We pulled off the switcheroo while the kids were all upstairs resting, and no one is any wiser.

I feel terrible, but it’s completely hilarious at the same time. What kind of person am I? I manage to kill an indestructible fish in less than three hours. At my daughter’s party. I boiled her fish. I’m sure if there are any animal rights activists reading my blog, they’re howling and demanding that I see justice. But it was perfectly innocent! I really did not think at all about the implications of having a live fish in a glass bowl outside in 100 degree heat. He’s in water, right? Water makes you cool, doesn’t it? Poor Maxy. When Katie woke up from her nap, she informed me that she had thought of an even better name for her fish. He’s now Mikey. Appropriate that he has a new name, since it’s a completely different fish. I’ll tell her when she’s old enough to see the humor in it. Like when she’s 15.

Averi’s post-cupcake face

After lunch we had a relay race. The girls had to fill up their bucket with as much water as they could before time ran out. The trick was that they had to use a sand shovel.

It was so funny to see their different personalities shine during this game. Some of the girls were SO competitive! And others could have cared less who won.

After the game we opened presents. Katie loved every single one of the gifts she got.

Katie’s reading so well now. She loves reading, and she’s at the point where she can read most things to herself. Such a big girl!

After presents we got out the sprinkler for them to play in. Would you believe that in August I could only find ONE fun sprinkler after going to several stores? Come on, people. It’s still summer! It’s HOT!! Do we really need coats and Christmas trees out?

We then introduced the kids to Red Rover. I have to say, I now understand why this game was banned at our elementary school. Paul got clothes-lined, and there were several near incidents. I’m just glad that we sent everyone home without them needing trips to urgent care.

We wrapped up the party with a dance competition. This was ADORABLE!! You should have seen them all singing and belting out “Dynamite.” I loved it. We’ve got it recorded, and it’s quite hilarious.

Overall, it went really, really well. I felt especially good when I heard one guest say, “I think this might be even better than my party, and I had a pinata!” Seal of approval from a six-year-old. I’ll take it.

Flagstaff Trip

2011-07-27T20:14:00.001-07:00

We were home for two weeks after we visited Utah. During that time Katie participated in the Zoo Day Camp, which she absolutely loved. What kid doesn’t enjoy going to the zoo every day and getting behind the scenes tours? Definitely recommended for any Burquenos reading the blog. Paul just missed the age cutoff (story of his life thus far), but he was able to participate in a pond day camp that one of my friends put on. So after our two weeks of semi-recuperation, we headed off to Flagstaff to spend a week with Aaron’s family.

Apparently I was pretty bad at taking pictures on this trip as well, but I do have some highlights.

Slide Rock, my very favorite. More fun when you’re not pregnant, but really, what isn’t.

Hiking in the lava tubes. Averi and I opted out of this one. I wasn’t really interested in being hunched over for two miles, and I knew it would be too tough for Averi. Katie and Paul had a great time with the rest of the family, though.

Connie threw a very early birthday party for the three kids, since we wouldn’t be with the whole family before birthday season began.

Cutest Tinkerbell I’ve ever seen. She also got a Jasmine and a Rapunzel dress. If you know Averi, you know that those are the best presents EVER.

Some more knights and an awesome dragon to go with his collection.

Katie got the American Girl doll Kanani. I’m living vicariously through her. I wanted Samantha SO BAD. But at least my kids can get one. We’ve loved dressing her up and having tea parties.

Jedi-in-training.

We have our own Star Wars Kid (except ours is the right age). He was performing moves all night. He loves his light saber so much that it needs to be confiscated about every other day.

Averi brushing “Tangled’s” hair. Does anyone else’s kids call characters by the name of the movie they’re in? For the longest time, Woody was Toy Story, every Star Wars character is a Star War, Simba is Lion King, and Rapunzel is Tangled. And by the time Averi got through with her beauty treatment, she certainly lived up to her name.

Matching girls and dolls. Does it get more adorable?

We visited Walnut Canyon and saw the cliff dwellings there. It’s amazing how well preserved some of them are.

There was an arts festival on Saturday, so we went and did some browsing and shopping. While there, we got to go into a little petting zoo that they had. If you know me well, you would know that I was in seventh heaven because they had GOATS! Is there anything cuter than a baby goat? These goats were the sweetest things ever. If we had the space, I would have taken one home with me in a heartbeart. I loved them. The kids did as well, especially Averi.

This was a big deal. Katie is NOT an animal person. She’s quite skittish. But she did very well with all of them and even pet the pig.

This one loved Averi. Many goat kisses were given.

One day I will have goats. One day.

There were other things we didn’t get pictures of. The boys and Abby all hiked the Grand Canyon while the rest of the girls and kids shopped in Sedona (not the original plan; this was the backup since our car keys somehow wound up halfway down the Grand Canyon when it was time for us to leave for Williams to take the train). We managed to get the train mess sorted out and rescheduled, so the next day Connie, Kerry, Adam and Julie took the kids on the train to the Grand Canyon while we were at Walnut Canyon. They had a great time, though the loud guns of the “train robbers” scared them. We visited the Arboretum, took the kids swimming, and did some shopping in downtown Flagstaff. Everyone had a great trip. Thanks so much, Connie and Kerry! We love you!

Some thoughts on child rearing, tolerance, and respect

2011-07-27T17:05:00.001-07:00

Sounds deep, no?

A friend posted the following article on Facebook, and for some reason I’ve been dwelling on this all morning. I’m sure it’s because I’m hormonal and only 3 weeks from giving birth, but I thought that perhaps airing my thoughts on this matter would let it die in my mind.

“Offending” article: The no-kids allowed movement is spreading

For those that don’t have the time or inclination to read the article, the summary is this: Airplanes, restaurants, hotels, grocery stores, movie theaters, and even outdoor areas are banning children, and it seems that the majority of the public couldn’t be happier about it.

Actually, I have no issue with banning children from places they are not welcome. I, as a parent, would much rather know that my children are not tolerated and take them someplace they are welcome. If a hotel is not child-friendly, I want to know about it. If I’m going to get an eyeroll from every server that walks past my table, I want to eat somewhere else. If there are going to be activities that are not child-appropriate going on, I want to know and take them someplace safe.

There are plenty of places that are appropriate for or even aimed at children. Disney, Costco, Chili’s, summer movies at the theater: I’m talking about you. If I want to take my kids somewhere, I’m going there. If I want to go out to a late movie or to a nice restaurant, I’m hiring a babysitter.

So, on the surface it would seem that I have no problem with the article. But I do. And the 12,000+ comments make it even more obvious what my real issue is. People have no idea how hard it is to be a parent and have zero respect for the role of families.

Sure, there are parents out there who are rude and oblivious and who have no clue that their little darlings appear as hellions to everyone else. But in my experience, that’s not the norm. The fact is, kids are kids. Their self-control is poor and their judgement is usually worse. They do stupid things. They get frustrated. They cry—sometimes for no perceivable reason. A parent’s job is to teach them how to control themselves and how to exercise better judgement.

When we had a dog (so very, very glad that is in the past tense!), I did a lot of research about training. A dog cannot be trained in only one environment. He needs to be taken to new places and have new experiences to learn how to behave in all sorts of conditions. No matter how well your dog can sit at home, he often cannot translate that to different environments if he is not exposed to those environments and trained there. There is a reason guide dogs are brought to every conceivable setting to be trained.

Like it or not, training a child is very much like training a dog. A child who never leaves home will never know how to behave outside of the home. How is a child supposed to learn what manners and behaviors are appropriate for a restaurant if she has never been to one? How will a child learn how to sit through a quiet meeting if he’s never been expected to do so? As a parent, part of your job is to expose your child to new situations. And that’s where the trouble begins.

One commenter to the article mentioned that he had no respect for parents who let their kids cry in a store without leaving. I would have laughed if I wasn’t so annoyed. Who HASN’T had a kid that has had a meltdown in a store? Kids do that. And trust me, even though we may be trying to be stoic and stone-faced, it’s mortifying. But a parent faces only a few options: 1. Do anything to make the kid shut up. Not usually a good plan. This generally involves acquiescing to whatever demand the child is making at the time, which is leads to the brats everyone claims to hate. 2. Shout at kid and/or smack them. Again, not a good plan. 3. Leave store immediately. Sounds good in theory, but not always practical. If it is practical, do it. It saves everyone a lot of headaches. But sometimes you really do have to buy those groceries. And so leaving a full cart unceremoniously parked in an aisle is not always an option. I’ve done it in the past, but it’s generally not something I’m willing/able to do. 4. Try to reason with child. Ha. Anyone tried reasoning with a 2-year-old lately while they’re in the middle of a tantrum? 5. Ignore child so you don’t reward him with your attention and get out of there as quick as you can. This is generally what happens. Grab the milk and the bread and run to the nearest cash register.

Now, if I’m crazy (and I frequently am) and out pleasure shopping with my adorable minions in tow, I will leave if someone acts up, and they know it. There’s seldom a reason you HAVE to be at Gap. But if I choose to finish my grocery shopping with a crying child, it doesn’t make me a bad parent or my children brats. It means that I’m desperate, embarrassed, and in a hurry.

I’ve found that people who are intolerant towards children generally fall into two demographics: those who have never raised children and those who have but seem to have forgotten what it’s like. This second group is usually at least in their 50s and usually women. These are the women who come up to your nine-month-old, grab her feet (which neither cold nor hot), and say in a sickly adorable voice, “Oh, poor baby! Your feet are freezing! You should tell your mommy that you need socks on!” Mommy then pulls out the sock from her pocket which she has put on and picked up off the floor no less than seven times in five minutes. Annoying lady shakes her head, thinking something about how incompetent mothers are these days and how when she was raising kids, her baby would have been well-mannered enough to keep her socks on.

Not helpful.

Essentially, the solution to the problem is two-fold: respect and tolerance. Parents, be respectful of others. Don’t take an over-tired 3-year-old to a 10pm showing of Eclipse. Don’t look the other way while your child runs amok in a restaurant. Don’t go out if you know your child is likely to have a meltdown. Don’t push their limits more than you absolutely have to. Apologize to other (if appropriate) for your children’s misbehavior.

People without young children, be tolerant. Being a parent of young kids is hard. Very, very hard. Parents aren’t perfect. Kids aren’t perfect. But in general, we are trying. I will be forever grateful to strangers who have helped me out in awkward situations. I wanted to kiss the lady on the plane who entertained Averi for 30 minutes with the mirror from her purse. Another kiss nearly went to the security guard who found my lost child and didn’t make me feel like a bad parent, even when it was obvious I hadn’t realized she was even missing. Although the eyerolls and condescending remarks seem to outnumber the kindnesses, I remember the good things more. Strangers can make a world of difference.

Summer Busy-ness

2011-07-22T21:33:00.001-07:00

Warning: epic post. If I didn’t get it all in, it would never get done.

I’ve been so extremely busy lately, and I’ve finally got a night where I don’t really have anything I HAVE to get done for the next day. Sure, my bathrooms have been sorely neglected. My floors should be vacuumed. I’ve got a dozen unfinished projects going on right now now. But I don’t have to do any of it, so I’m not going to.

Here are some of the things we’ve been up to this summer:

Trip to Utah

Speaking on gardening for the meeting formerly known as enrichment

Zoo day camp for Katie

Pond day camp for Paul

Finishing the patio

Party to celebrate finished patio

Trip to Flagstaff

Swimming lessons for all kids

T-ball for Paul

Pioneer day camp

Prepping for a garage sale

Plus you have all the everyday fun, like doctor’s appointments (not so fun), birthday celebrations (Aaron’s was in July and Katie’s is coming up in a few weeks), holiday celebrations, etc. I love summer, but it is a busy time of year. I’m sure it feels even more busy because we’re trying to cram everything in before this baby comes in less than a month.

I haven’t been very good about taking pictures lately. I think it’s because my hands have been so full that carrying around a camera was just one more headache. Here are some highlights from our trip to Utah:

Sunday, May 29: Baby Emily’s blessing. Already shared those pictures. And since then, she’s started rolling over! They grow so fast!

Monday, May 30: Memorial day. We had planned a swimming party, but the weather was so terrible almost the entire time we were there, so swimming never happened. We just ate yummy food and hung out instead.

Tuesday, May 31: Went to Fetal Fotos and found out we were having a baby girl. Third time’s the charm, apparently! Went up to Park City to see where my parents are building their new condo and help them pick out their carpet and everything.

Wednesday, June 1: Trip to the aquarium. I was surprised at how good the aquarium was. It looked completely ghetto from the outside. It’s in an old craft store, and there’s no landscaping at all. But the inside was a pleasant surprise. The favorite was definitely the penguins (no pictures of that exhibit; too dark). We also had the chance to participate in sealings at the temple with my parents while Aaron’s parents took the kids to a movie.

Thursday, June 2: Ikea outing. Love that place. I think if I could pick just one store to come to ABQ, it would be Ikea. Capped off the day with a trip to Leatherby’s for an enormous ice cream sundae. I miss Utah ice cream, and most especially their shakes. There are no good shakes in Albuquerque. It’s sad when the best you can do is Chick-Fil-A. We make sure to get more than our fill of shakes every time we visit.

Friday, June 3: Grandpa Barnes took Katie to the zoo. He asked each child to pick out something special they wanted to do with Grandpa, and then they each had a date with him. I really think that this was the highlight of their trip. They got one-on-one time, which can be scarce around these parts, and they got to do things that Mom and Dad (the meanies that we are) never let them do, like ride the train or buy something at the souvenir shop. In the evening they kids all spent the night with the Jorgensens while Aaron and I went on a date, another thing that has been scarce around here.

Saturday, June 4: We had time to kill in the morning, so we decided to go on a little “hike” up Butterfield Canyon. Unfortunately, they had blocked off almost all the trails, so it wound up being a really little hike along a paved road. The kids loved it though. We ended the day with dinner at Pat’s BBQ.

My goofy family. I love them!

Paul went with Grandpa Barnes to a Real Salt Lake soccer game and to Cold Stone. The soccer game was cool, but it paled in comparison to Cold Stone. When Paul was asked what he wanted to do for his special day, his answer was, “Go to that place where they smash up brownies and put them in ice cream.” So Cold Stone it was. The game was an extra bonus, since simply going to Cold Stone seemed a little small to Grandpa B when matched against Katie’s zoo trip. I tried to convince Dad that really, all he wanted was the ice cream and he was going to be thrilled with just that. However, my dad didn’t have any boys, so he missed out on all the fun manly outings, so he was going to take advantage of having his oldest grandson in town and go see something sporty. They had a blast.

Monday, June 6: We visited the children’s museum at Gateway with my mom, Kiera, Heather and her kids, and Julie and her niece. They loved it all. It’s a great place to let them run around and just play to their heart’s content.

Paul’s about to start sobbing here on the rock climbing wall. He was just fine going up, but coming down petrified him.

This bowling ball simulator was Brayden’s favorite. He would not get off no matter what other fun things were offered. I loved watching the faces he made every time the ball crashed into the pins.

Being part of the Life Flight team.

Averi also got to have her date with Grandpa that evening. When you’re two, life’s pleasures are very simple. All she wanted to do was make chocolate cupcakes with Grandpa. She still brings up her special “date” at least once a week.

As if the day hadn’t been fun enough, we went to the Classic Fun Center to play on the bouncy castles. One adult could go in with the kids, and Aaron was the chosen one. He’s the best at that sort of thing. He was more into doing the bouncy obstacle course than the kids were, and he was pretty impressive, if I do say so myself. There was one type of bouncy structure that I had never seen before. The kids would sit on something that looked like a mushroom, and Aaron would jump on it and send them flying. It was awesome. He soon had other kids asking him to bounce them, but breaking our own kids’ necks is one thing; doing it to someone else’s kids is quite another.

This is the crazy mushroom thing. Unfortunately, I got no good pictures of the flying.

Crazed and red-eyed Aaron running through the obstacle course. He’ll probably be annoyed that I put this up, but I think it’s great. Love you, hon!

Tuesday, June 7: This was a chill-out day. I did some shopping with my mom, and then we went swimming at the city pool in the afternoon. Vacations need days like those.

Wednesday, June 8: Lagoon with the Jorgensens. I thought I would be sad that I couldn’t really go on any of the rides, but I had a surprisingly good time hanging out with Averi in the kiddie section. There were tons of little rides she could go on, and it was pretty deserted, so we had hardly any waits. She was hilarious to watch. Let’s just say that she’s not extremely brave. Bulgy the Whale, which is about the most innocuous ride in the world, terrified her. She refused to look up even once and just buried her head. Then she insisted that we go on it four more times (none of which involved her looking).

Ah, Bulgy. I have at least 15 pictures of her cowering in fear on this ride. I laugh every time I see them.

The cowering didn’t work as well on this ride, since she could see the bottom.

But she claimed to like every ride once it was over. We took her on the log flume, and the drop at the end petrified her. After that, we went on the river rapids (the one with the round tubes where everyone gets soaked). We made it through the ride just fine and then we got on the ramp that pulls the tube up to the loading platform. Paul said, “Oh no! It’s another drop!” and Averi began screaming. She seriously tried to climb overboard and abandon ship. There was no convincing her that there wasn’t a drop and Paul didn’t know what he was talking about. She only calmed down once we were safely on dry land.

These boats were more her speed, although she wouldn’t loosen her grip on the steering wheel to even try to ring the bell.

Katie with her Aunt Julie.

Thursday, June 9: Aaron and I took the kids down to Temple Square. We did one of the visitor’s centers, took a tour of the Church Office Building, and had lunch at the Beehive House.

View of the state capitol from the top of the Church Office Building.

We had specifically gone down to Temple Square that day because we knew it was the 100th anniversary of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building/Hotel Utah and we had heard that there were going to be some events taking place. When we arrived at the JSMB, we learned that the Tabernacle Choir was going to be singing and President Monson was going to be there to perform a ribbon cutting. So we stayed and watched the Joseph Smith movie they had playing and then went upstairs to wait. It turned out that the person who told us the times of the events was wrong, and beyond that, they were running behind schedule. So we had three starving, bored, out of control kids to manage in a hot, crowded room that was standing-room-only. We should have bailed and left, but we insanely stuck it out. I’m not quite sure why, although we did have cupcakes at the end.

We loved all the ladies and men in period dress. The kids got a kick out of the hats.

Friday, June 10: Katie and Paul went on a sleepover with Grandma J to Thanksgiving Point in the dinosaur museum and had a great time. Averi had a sleepover with Grandpa J, which meant that we had the evening off. We had a little dinner party with my sister and her family, Ashley, and some old friends. We played minute to win it games, and it was quite interesting to see who was the most adept at working an oreo off their forehead and into their mouth without using their hands. Let’s just say that it wasn’t me.

Saturday, June 11: We had Aaron’s 10-year mission reunion. He served in Lithuania in the Baltic States mission. He was able to meet up with some good friends, and fortunately there were some people that I knew as well. The kids love the air gun that shot candy out and the miniature airplane that dumped candy in random places all over the park. I was quite impressed at how well it was organized. We got lost getting to the park, and we ran across some of the most beautiful houses with stunning views. Let’s just say I know where I would look for houses when our ship comes in.

The ones that served in Lithuania

Our cute family

Sunday, June 12: We drove home. Everyone was so worn out by Saturday night. This is what we found when we woke up Sunday morning:

It’s a good thing we were going home to get some real rest.

Baby Emily’s Blessing

2011-07-05T09:15:00.000-07:00

We left for Utah on May 28 in order to arrive in time for Emily Ann Wahlquist’s blessing on the 29th. Emily is Heather and Danny’s newest baby, which makes her our first niece. We are so glad that our kids will finally have cousins to play with! Emily and our baby girl will only be a few months apart, so hopefully they’ll be great friends. If we weren’t having a baby already, I would want one after being around Emily. She is so incredibly sweet and beautiful. She’s still in that newborn stupor, so she slept most of the time, a phase which makes babies particularly endearing. I had the chance to take some pictures of her, but I soon realized that I need more practice. Babies are hard to photograph! Fortunately Emily’s naturally gorgeous, so most of the photos turned out just fine, despite my lack of skill.

Heather, she’s a doll! You did good work!

Random fun thing…

2011-07-04T14:21:00.001-07:00

Here’s a fun, lazy meme. You simply bold the things you’ve done and leave the rest plain. And you can add random comments like I felt compelled to do.

1. Started your own blog (um, yeah…)
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain.
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo (5th grade in “Amahl and the Night Visitors”)
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty (been there, but the statue was closed)
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse (but was it as awesome as this music video?)
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33 Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors (been to England but not to where they actually lived)
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language (learned Spanish, but definitely didn’t teach myself)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (hard question, but I think I’m pretty happy with my life right now)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41 Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant
44. Visited Africa (Egypt!)
45 Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted (does one of those caricature sketches count?)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China (soon! I hope…)
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Gotten flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets, or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy (like in Toy Story?)
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House (couldn’t go inside that day, but close enough)
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Paul’s last soccer game

2011-07-04T08:20:00.000-07:00

I love doing stuff with my kids, but I am always relieved when something winds up and frees up some of our schedule. Ballet ended, preschool ended, and I was quite happy. Soccer was no exception. It was a riot watching his games, and Paul loved to play, but I really am glad it’s time for a break…at least until t-ball begins in July.

Enjoying the traditional post-game sugar fest. No wonder obesity is rising in America although organized sport participation is increasing! Cupcakes, fruit snacks, Capri Suns, theater-sized boxes of candy, Kool-aid, fruit roll-ups, Gatorade…it was ridiculous. We were the first ones to bring snacks, and we brought sliced oranges and pretzels. I guess we’re completely lame, since NO ONE ever brought anything healthy after that point. I shouldn’t have been surprised when I saw half his team refuse our snacks completely (which was okay with my kids, since they devoured at least an entire orange apiece); obviously fruit is not as palatable when you’re used to being stuffed with sugar. Poor kids. Seriously, parents, stop trying to be cool and be a parent! (Rant over.)

Paul really improved quite a bit during this soccer season. He got to the point where he wasn’t looking at his feet to see how fast he was running, which really improved his speed. And once during the last game his foot made contact with the ball! Of course, he just stared at it as it rolled down the field, but even kicking it was a big improvement. He loved being the goalie. He actually understood what it was that he was supposed to do as goalie, and he was one of the better ones at it. I’m sure he would have improved a lot more if we would have been able to practice with him in the backyard, but that is fairly impossible with things torn up like they are. Next season…

Katie’s Ballet “Recital”

2011-07-03T20:02:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons that I really like Katie’s ballet school is the fact that they only have recitals every other year, which translates into a fortune saved in costumes and tickets every other year. Instead, they have the families come and watch a presentation a few times a year so that the kids get the practice of learning a dance without the stress, and so that the parents can see what is actually being learned and taught. Katie LOVES to dance. She’s constantly dancing and has infected her brother and sister too. Paul has informed us that he wants to take ballet “so I can lift the girls up.” When we asked Katie if she wanted to take soccer with Paul, she said, “No. I just want to dance.” She still had no interest even when we told her she could do both if she wanted to. Oh well. At least it’s not money wasted on something she doesn’t really care about. Here are the pictures from her latest program, The Dress-Up Dance:

Sneaking up to the attic…

Finding the dress-up box…

Yay! Scarves!

Oh no! Someone’s coming!

Shhh…don’t tell!

And here they are showing some of the skills they’ve learned:

Check out that face. Love it!

I really wish I didn’t get some weird glare from something. Oh well.

We had such a good experience with ballet this year. I hope Katie continues to enjoy dance as much as she does now, since I think she has a natural ability for it. Next year should be fun: they begin to work at the barre (is that right? Internet is down, so I can’t proof myself) and it’s recital year. I love watching my kids grow older and develop new talents.

Curls and cornbread

2011-05-16T09:19:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago Katie got her hair curled for church. Averi saw this and decided she wanted pretty curled hair as well. Of course, about 4 curlers in she wanted nothing else to do with it, but I’m a mean mom and made her stick it out. Poor thing—we ran out of curlers, so I had to redo several so that she didn’t have a lop-sided head, but she was tough. She’ll eventually learn that beauty is pain.

Love those pretty green eyes.

I forgot to take pictures the next morning, but it was cute. Sunday afternoon she was the designated helper for dinner, and she helped me make cornbread and shuck the corn on the cob.

And even a pretty curl in this picture!

The other side has some major bedhead from naps. Oh well. It was nice for church.

And this is why baking takes so much longer with little kids. Do you really need to life the whisk 18 inches above the bowl?

Oooh, look! There’s corn inside!

Teasing Mom that she’s going to eat it. Except I think she really did take a bite out of it.

The patio saga, explained

2011-05-15T10:52:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have one of those projects that never ends? Sometimes it’s your own fault. Sometimes it’s due to circumstances beyond your control. And sometimes it’s both.

I’m pretty sure that Aaron will never listen to any of my, “Honey, we can totally do this!” ideas ever again. Never. This patio has consumed every weekend for the past two months, it seems, and there’s so very little to show for it. We’ve had the beginnings of a hole (well, just sprinklers moved and a bit of sod pulled up, but still…) since the beginning of November. NOVEMBER. That’s how long we’ve been working—or thinking about working—on this project.

There are a few things to understand.

First, the area to cover is huge. It’s nearly 400 square feet. It runs the entire length of our house and partway down one side. That’s a lot of everything: digging, crusher fine, flagstone, and back-breaking labor.

Second, we (I? I’m no longer sure at this point) chose to lay flagstone. And not just the imitation, interlocking, factory cut flagstone. It’s the real stuff. You know, the real stuff with irregular shapes and varying thicknesses.

Third, we don’t own a truck. This was perhaps the single biggest factor in 80% of the delays we’ve experienced. When you don’t have a truck, you’re at the mercy of someone else: friends who have a truck you can borrow or the delivery guys and their schedules. And you’re really out of luck if they can’t deliver your base in time for the available two-day weekend coming up because their schedule is booked. Or if their forklift is broken so you have to wait an extra week to have your stone delivered so the forklift can be repaired.

Fourth, we don’t don’t know what we’re doing. That means we’re relying on the experts. So when you tell the so-called experts your square footage, the depth you want your base to be, and the type of base you’ll be using and they tell you to order 2.5 tons of crusher fine and THEIR GUY spreads it out for you and everyone realizes that this is only a third of what you need, then it kind of stinks. Now you have to wait (see point #3) for them to deliver more base, pay for delivery AGAIN (of course at the highest rate since you’re on the edge of town), and spread it yourself, because you only paid to have the guy spread the 2.5 tons, not the additional 5 tons you had to order.

So there it is. I’m kind of kicking myself for not having just poured cement and called it good. Of course it’s not going to be as beautiful. But it would be done, and we wouldn’t have had to do it.

Aaron told me that if I wanted this done, then I needed to be the master planner. So I watched a million YouTube videos on laying a patio and read thousands (I’m sure it was thousands) of tutorials on the best way to do every aspect of the project. And let me tell you: the bozos who say that this is a weekend project have no idea what on earth they’re talking about. That point was knocked home when I watch a professional lay a flagstone walkway. It took him about 5 minutes of an edited video to get a single stone level and perfect. Remember: this is the perfectly imperfect flagstone we’re talking about here. And that’s when I realized that even when we got all the other steps finished, laying the stone was going to take forever.

So now you have the background. Here are some photos of the progress we’re making:

Our backyard a year after we moved in (2007). This was progress, actually. At least we had a picnic table, a hose (for all the vegetation, as you can tell), and we were getting ready to have the curbing put down.

That same year after curbing, sod, and a circular patio were installed (not in the picture). Our grass sure was lush that year; not quite sure what happened. Of course they get tons of chemicals at the sod farms, so that probably had something to do with it.

First forays into gardening in 2008. Oh how very sad that little bed looks.

Construction begins on the pergola in fall of 2008. Major milestone!!

In 2009 kids’ play equipment comes to the backyard, and they love it!

Structurally everything in the backyard remains mostly unchanged until I have a bright idea in October of 2010. Then, lightbulb! Why should grilling be confined to that tiny builder’s slab? Why should I have to sit on a picnic bench to be outside? We have that whole empty flower bed by the house! I didn’t know enough about gardening when we first did our design to realize that that area is almost completely shaded. Why waste it on a few flowers that probably won’t do well? What we need is a patio! And so it began.

First we had to move the sprinklers. And the dog. Farewell Lando and yellow pee spots in the grass! So long, poop pickup! You will not be missed.

Then we needed to order fill dirt to even out our very uneven east side. Next came the demolition of the slab and the south concrete border. The demolition was accounted for in our plans; the removal of the debris was not. Did you know that the city of Albuquerque does not accept concrete, rock or gravel at their landfills? No wonder people just dump it in the fields. Fortunately we found a materials company that took it for free to make recycled aggregate. Unfortunately, their hours of operation did not coincide well with Aaron’s work schedule. Getting rid of all the concrete took quite some time.

Since the slab was no longer there, the grill and grill cart needed a new temporary home.

Then we marked out the shape of our patio with hose, staked it with lovely pink flags, and removed excess sod. Then the dirt needed to come out. My poor husband. Then seven and a half tons of crusher fine had to be wheeled from the driveway to the back, poured, spread, and leveled.

Then it was time for the plate compactor. We weren’t sure that this thing was even working after the first few passes, but then we figured out that we needed to wet it down quite a bit, and then it worked great. The crusher fine compacted very nicely, which made us very glad we decided to stick it out.

Then FINALLY the laying!! I cannot tell you how time consuming it is to level each one of these stones. You constantly are having to remove dirt, spread dirt, add a little more, and then just a little more, and then remove some, and then add just a teeny bit in and then….all the while checking how level the individual stone is and how it compares with the rest so that your slope is right. I can definitely see why the labor for a project like this is four times the cost of the materials. And the materials aren’t cheap. You’d better believe that my 26-week-pregnant self was down there laying flagstone as well. We Barnes girls are hardy stock. We’ve still got a TON of laying to do. We’ve got a deadline coming up, and we’re going to work really hard to be done by then. We’ll see! It’s going to be a long week…

Garden and project updates – May 14

2011-05-14T15:22:00.001-07:00

So the garden is coming along. Things are looking much less gloomy produce-wise than they were in April, and it looks like we may actually harvest something sometime. Maybe.

Here’s a picture of the north bed. I just planted some pepper plants (a jalapeño and a bell), and we’ve got some spinach, romaine, and a few other lettuces growing. The radishes are doing fantastic. Remember how I only had a few random sprouts in there last month? Well, I don’t know what I was thinking, because they’re not radishes AT ALL. Now that those are growing, I don’t know how I could have ever mistaken the one for the other. Obviously I’m still a noob at this sort of thing. I think they must be green onions that never sprouted last year, but they got a new lease on life when I turned the soil to prepare for this year. It will be fun to find out! Some things are taking longer to sprout than others because they just weren’t getting enough water. I spent part of yesterday afternoon doing some very technical work on the soaker hose—also know as “sticking a needle in the soaker hose to make more holes to make it soak just a bit more.” It seemed to work pretty well and it looks like all of the squares are getting saturated now.

And here’s the east bed:

The oregano is TAKING OFF. Seriously. Does anyone need oregano? It’s yummy! I’ve got beets, sage, arugula, chard, green onions (that I actually planted), carrots and basil growing in this bed. I’ve also planted beans and watermelon, but I forgot to put a mesh cover on them, so I hope the birds don’t get them before I can get around to doing that.

Flowers are doing great. Here’s the north flower bed:

And the other angle:

Someone’s adorable kid wanted to be in the picture. The salvias have already gone through their first bloom, but they’re still attracting tons of bees. I only have one Jupiter’s beard blooming at the moment. I lost 2 due to the freeze, and the others were divided to get me free plants, so I have to wait until they get a little bigger. It’s too bad, because they’re my favorite. I moved all the penstemons around since they weren’t performing very well, and I’m pretty sure it’s because they were too crowded. Sure enough, as soon as they got a little space, they took off:

The guy on the top left is one of the penstemons. He’s about twice as big as he was a few weeks ago. Also in the picture are daylilies (newly divided), a mum, and a few other new guys to fill things out a bit. Should look really good next year. Question: at what point do you pinch back mums? Mine are already budding. Is it too late to do it now?

Here are a few more detail shots of the north bed. Everything is xeric, which makes me want to give myself a pat on the back since we’re in the middle of a MAJOR drought. If we have to cut off water, we shouldn’t lose too many of these plants. Lawn, yes. Plants, no. And that’s good, because it’s a lot easier to reseed a lawn than plant forty thousand perennials.

Yarrows, catmint (love this filler plant and it attracts TONS of bees), and artemesia.

Jupiter’s beard, daylily, blanket flower, hummingbird trumpet, echinacea, and sedum “Autumn Joy.” You can see the post of our bird feeder. We get millions of birds and this thing is empty in a day. I’m going to have to start buying bird seed at Costco.

A bird of paradise that I think might be dead (even if it’s not, it’s coming out because it takes way to long to leaf and flower), agastache (in the background), artemesia, mum, tickseed, and hummingbird trumpet. Obviously most of these are not blooming yet, but they will. Oh yes they will!

Forsythia, catmint, salvias, daylilies, and tickseed.

Our grapes seem to be taking off this year. We even have tiny little grapes growing!! I’m so excited for the pergola to be covered in gorgeous grape leaves and juicy fruit.

The east flower bed finally got some plants this year, thanks in part to a Groupon for High Country Gardens.

Drip lines are all installed, and the mulching is waiting on cucumber plants to be planted. You can see the charcoal remains of a near disaster on the right. Aaron used hickory while his was smoking the ribs, and then forgot about them the next day when he grilled steaks (gotta love the grill in the summer time!). It’s precarious, because you’ll remember that right now our grill in situated like this:

Except now there’s even more stuff on the cement: a slide, a teeter totter, a sand and water table, four bags of mulch and all the kid toys. So, yes, it was a fire hazard. The kids came screaming into the kitchen that the grill was on fire, and there were huge flames coming out of the back of the grill. We were afraid that the grill cart (the blue thing on the table, which is where grill carts are obviously supposed to go) had caught on fire. Fortunately not, but it did provide a lot of excitement for our otherwise lazy Sunday afternoon.

I don’t have a picture of the west bed, since there really isn’t much to see yet. The rasberries and blackberries are leafing out, and I’m hoping that we’ll have a huge delicious crop this year.

So there’s the garden. Patio updates will be forthcoming, since I’m taking a break from the patio, and Aaron is out there working all by his lonesome. So back out I go…

Adorableness

2011-05-03T20:10:00.001-07:00

I just had two little things I wanted to post so I didn’t forget them later…

1. Most kids say “nummy” instead of “yummy.” Not Averi. Things are LUMMY. As in, “Mom, thank you for this lummy dinner.” We all giggle every time she says it.

2. Today she was getting ready for bed and came across one of her blankets in the hall. She turned to me and said, “Mom! I gotfor this blanket!” Um, do you mean forgot? Cause even if you didn’t, it’s adorable.

She spends all day like this. She wears clothes for about half an hour before they’re ditched for dress-ups for the rest of the day. Sleeping Beauty is definitely her favorite. The dress-ups are Katie’s, so they’re quite long on her. She’s learned how to hold them up properly and walks around all day like a princess. When she isn’t walking, she’s twirling. The shiny stuff is from Katie’s makeup. It makes me break out just looking at it, but she thinks she’s quite beautiful. And she is, isn’t she.

My confession

2011-04-28T13:45:00.001-07:00

I’m not a great housewife. That’s not a confession. That’s just sort of obvious. Our house isn’t terrible. In fact most of the time it’s pretty passable. Sure, the kids’ bathroom may smell like a hamster cage on occasion (NOT my fault, but it should probably be cleaned a bit more often than it is), yes, I may not recall exactly when I dusted upstairs, and okay, that pile of dirt by the front door probably should have been dealt with ages ago. But really it’s not too bad. I have three kids. We’re at home all day (usually). I try to make healthy meals for my family, which takes a lot of time. I homeschool. I made a conscious decision that housework is important, but not the most important thing. And most of the time our house reflects that. Not perfect, but decent.

But there are some places where I fail miserably as a homemaker. One is ironing. Oh how I hate to iron. I’m sure part of it is that I loathe my ironing board. The cover is very itchy and slippery, which makes an unpleasant job even more unpleasant and difficult. I should just get a new cover. But for some reason I haven’t. I’m sure it’s because ironing is extremely low on my priority list, so I never think about ironing covers at the store. When my mom was here to visit last time, she spent hours ironing. Every single thing in the ironing pile was ironed. It was blissful. She definitely doesn’t visit enough.

But even worse than the ironing is the mending. I have a VERY large mending pile. Some of those things have been in there for years. YEARS. I have size 2 boy pajamas in there (Paul is now a size 4, and has been for some time now). By the time I finish mending Katie’s clothes, Averi will probably fit into them. It’s very bad.

There are several reasons why I don’t mend:

1. I never seem to have the right supplies. Perhaps those overalls need a new hook. Or that shirt needs a new button and I just don’t have the right one. And how on earth do you fix those snaps that go on kids’ jeans?

2. Thread. Why is it that no matter how many spools of thread I own, I can never find quite the right color? So it gets set aside for the next trip to the fabric store, where of course I forget to bring aforementioned item to hunt down the perfect thread match.

3. I don’t think I’m very good at it. I’m never quite sure how to end my stitching, so I’m pretty sure it’s just going to come undone anyway. And I can never hide things as seamlessly as my mother can. Another reason why she should visit more.

4. It’s dull as sticks.

So today I have decided to tackle that pile. I’m turning on The Office and sewing as many things as I can before I have to get showered before Aaron comes home (another glimpse into my less-than-Martha ways). I’m sure I won’t see a huge decrease in the pile. But I will feel good about ignoring it for at least another six months.

There you have it. I’ve aired my dirty laundry. What’s yours?

More bunnies…

2011-04-27T13:26:00.000-07:00

I was in charge of teaching preschool last week, and we were learning about pets. We had tried to schedule a field trip to Petco, but it never came through, so instead I arranged for a friend to bring over her bunnies to show the kids. I figured that bunnies would be perfect since Easter was coming up as well, and we all know how much bunnies have to do with the Resurrection…Anyway, it was really adorable. These rabbits are used to be hauled around by little kids, so they didn’t seem too overwhelmed by all the love and attention they were receiving.

Easter 2011

2011-04-26T16:35:00.000-07:00

We were lucky to have Grandma J and Abby for a week during Easter. These kids LOVE their grandma. She is so much fun. Let me tell you, she knows how to play. And play she does. I get exhausted just watching her. We were able to have them participate with us in our Easter festivities this year, which made a fun season even more enjoyable.

First up we had an Easter egg hunt organized by one of my friends. The kids had a blast, and it was fun for Mom as well!

There were over 50 kids there. Wild!

We made bunny ears for preschool, and Paul wanted to wear them for the egg hunt. Appropriate, I thought.

My girls are both getting super long hair. I made Katie’s dress as well. It’s quite cute, but she’s already had a growth spurt since I sewed it a month ago. I’m not sure how long she’ll be able to wear it!

On Sunday we had a special stake meeting with some visiting General Authorities, so we got home earlier than usual, which gave us ample time to dye eggs. I bought the monster egg kit, and I should probably have saved the extra 50 cents and used my own pipe cleaners and cotton balls, since that was what was in there. But the kids got a kick out of it and had a great time decorating their eggs.

This guy with the lambchops was my very favorite. So creative!

This guy had about 5 noses…or arms…or something. Averi was very proud.

Their creations. I think they turned out so cute!

After naps we had our family egg/basket hunt. We make the kids find their baskets first, and then they can use them to collect eggs. I had so much fun filling up their baskets this year. I’m afraid they were dreadfully spoiled, but it was fun.

Averi had to put on her new fairy costume right away. I’ve had this saved for ages, and she finally fits into it, so into the Easter basket it went.

Paul of course couldn’t wait to gobble down his eggs. I think all his candy is gone by now.

Paul had the hardest time finding his basket. It was definitely in the trickiest spot. Finally Aaron asked him, “Paul, if you were to hide something, where would you put it?” Without hesitation, Paul said, “Here,” and lifted up the pillows and blankets. Lo and behold, there was the basket. It was quite funny.

So that was our very fun and very picture-laden Easter. Thanks, Connie and Abby, for sharing it with us!

Goals for May

2011-04-25T21:06:00.001-07:00

I was just thinking about the things I’d like to get done in the month of May, and I figured I’d post them here so I wouldn’t forget! I thought that it would be helpful to break things up into categories so they wouldn’t be so overwhelming…

Sewing/crafts

Sew this FRONTIER VEST by Dana from MADE for my nephew. Cute, no?

If I have time (and I probably won’t), I may try out these as well:

Woody’s spurs

Hobby Horse

Home

Finish the patio. So our backyard will no longer look like this:

Or this:

This is THE project for the month. Actually, we’ve made a lot more progress than is shown. These photos are from April 2. We’ve got the whole area dug out and leveled, except for about a half hour’s worth of work. And there’s now a lot more stuff piled under the pergola.

Garden

Round two of crops. I do actually have some little seedlings now, so it’s time to plant some more.

Update the planter by the front door. I’m thinking about some impatiens. Any other shade plants that would be good?

Mental/spiritual

Finish reading this:

I really haven’t read a lot of religious books, but this one was highly recommended. And it’s borrowed, so I can’t return it without having read it!

I also need to work through one chapter (setting my sights high, I know) of this book:

I have been really bad about taking photos lately, and I always want to take a million during the summer time. So it can’t hurt to know a little more about what I’m doing.

What about you? Any plans for May before the summer craziness begins?

Pioneer Day Camp

2011-04-14T18:28:00.001-07:00

Calling all pioneer children!
Come join us for a westward trek as we learn about the pioneers! We'll be having a grand time as we travel to Nauvoo, Winter Quarters, Chimney Rock, and the Salt Lake Valley on a four day adventure.
Here's a small sampling of some of the activities we'll be doing:

butter churning
stick pulling
button yo-yos
horseshoe throwing
crafts
singing
marshmallow roasting
story-telling
family picnic on the last day

This will be a great opportunity to teach your children about their pioneer heritage in a fun and energetic setting.

Details are as follows:
Ages: 4-6
When: Four days, July 18-22 (NOT on Wednesday, July 20)
Time: 9:30 am to 12 pm
Food: Snacks and drinks will be provided
Cost: $40; family discount rate of $35/child
Location: Chelsey J's house

There will be a limit to how many children can attend, so please register early. There will be a $10 non-refundable deposit due when registering your child. Please contact me at chelsey DOT jorgensen AT gmail DOT com, leave a comment here, or call me on the phone number in the ward directory to register. Payment will be accepted via check or Paypal.

Your child is welcome to invite a friend to register as well. This would be an excellent missionary opportunity!

Garden Update—Beginning of April

2011-04-02T19:34:00.001-07:00

I wish I had some great photos of happy seedlings to post. But I’ve got a big fat nothing. I ordered my seeds, and they took FOREVER to arrive. (Note to self: no ordering from Pinetree Garden Seeds next year!) I was NOT happy. So I was finally able to plant seeds in the middle of March (grrrr…). And here’s my handy dandy little diagram of what I’m planting/will be planting (fingers crossed) for spring:

Only problem? Nothing’s growing except three radish plants, two of which are NOT where I planted them. The parsley, sage, oregano and thyme all overwintered, so they’re also growing. So 7 plants out of a bajillion. Good thing I didn’t plant everything all at once!

(My errant radishes)

Suspected problems:

1. Wind. The wind is terrible here in the spring. This could disturb any seeds that were planted towards the surface (most of your teeny seeds) and dry the soil out quicker.

2. Water. Raised beds drain well. That’s good and bad. I think my soil’s drying out quickly, and I haven’t been amazing at watering every day by hand. I have my soaker line set up, but there are some problems with the main line that it’s hooked up to, and I haven’t been able to turn on automatic watering yet.

3. Birds. There have been several fat robins that have taken to digging for worms and other bugs in the garden. I love the birds, and it’s good that there are worms in the soil, but they’re disturbing the seeds/seedlings.

4. I have no idea what on earth I’m doing and I’m just pretending to garden. Very likely.

(Sad barren garden with non-operating soakers)

Possible solutions:

1. Mulch. I’m going to locate some straw (or hay? I can’t remember which one it is you’re supposed to use) to mulch. This will protect the seeds from the wind (hopefully). It should also help with the water problem and possibly with the birds.

2. Water. I’m trying to be better about watering daily. As soon as I can, I’ll get the soakers set up so that it will go automatically.

3. Floating row covers. I found a place that makes fabulous row covers to protect from the elements and critters. Not in the gardening budget for this year, but I want some for next year.

4. Try, try again.

(At least there are a few spots of green in this one. You can also see that we were one board short in finishing our dividers. Sad! Finishing this is somewhere in the list of projects.)

I’m not going to put out my second set of seeds until I have some mulch, and I’m hoping to find that by early this week so I can get them in before it gets ridiculously hot around here. It was 80 degrees this week, so my window of opportunity is narrowing. And if nothing works, there’s always summer and fall plantings. And next year!

Anyone know good sources for hay/straw around here?

This is why it’s fun to have a boy

2011-03-21T20:23:00.000-07:00

I know I write a lot about Paul giving me a difficult time. And he does. But he sure is fun when he decides to be good. And he’s been very good lately. I’m really hoping it was just a phase we were going through. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

The other night Aaron called me into Paul’s room and said, “See. This is why it’s great to have a boy.”

Check it out:

Blue Batman riding a dragon and wielding a scepter. Black Batman and Robin have obviously lost the fight. Dragons are apparently superior to Batcars. There’s a lesson in that.

Closer shot of the dragon-rider. I might have to frame this one and put it in his room.

I love my boy!

Soccer Season

2011-03-20T20:14:00.001-07:00

When we asked Paul what activities he wanted to do, he told us t-ball or soccer. After looking around, I found a Saturday-only soccer league and signed him up. We’ve really enjoyed it so far. They have four practices and then games for the rest of the season. They also offer skills classes and conditioning during the week, but we figured that at this age once a week was plenty.

We finished our last practice yesterday, and I actually remembered to bring the camera. Paul cracks me up when he’s playing. His team is 4-5 years old, and since he’s shorter for four anyway, he’s the midget on the team. This would make him slower as it is, but he gets so caught up in watching his feet as he runs that he frequently heads off in a completely different direction from where he should be going. The hair cracks me up as well. It’s so ridiculously long. I really am going to cut it. And the tongue. Oh the tongue!! I’m afraid he gets that from both sides of the family. Aaron makes the funniest faces and does the oddest things with his tongue when he’s concentrating, and my dad is known for sticking out his tongue when he’s playing sports or thinking hard. I guess it’s a sign of good brains, since those two are the two smartest people I know.

What he lacks in speed and skill (up until this point, he was only vaguely familiar with the concept of a soccer ball), he makes up for in aggression. He definitely doesn’t shy away from getting in there and going after the ball, even if the other kid is a head taller than he is. That is, he’s aggressive when he’s not following the coach around begging to be the goalie. That’s his absolute favorite. I think it’s because he doesn’t have to run nearly as much. He wouldn’t be my son if he didn’t try to figure out the easy way of doing (or avoiding) anything remotely difficult.

Hasn’t quite figured out how to make the foot connect with the ball consistently. Don’t worry, we bought him a ball to practice with. Good thing we put in a big yard!

Obviously thinking hard, since the tongue is out big time.

Stop watching your feet, Paul!

Much better. And that hair just kept getting crazier and crazier.

Yay! Finally goalie!

10 Things

2011-03-18T19:44:00.001-07:00

1. Paul and Katie managed to collaborate and sew Paul’s finger on my sewing machine. Don’t ask my why; I’ve had my sewing machine out for years and they never touched it. It appears that Katie worked the pedal while Paul obligingly held his finger under the needle. Fortunately it didn’t go through the nail bed, which I’ve seen happen before. But it did bleed a lot and it looks quite painful. Kids…

2. It’s a good thing we’re having another baby (can you believe I’m saying that after #1?) because Averi would be spoiled ROTTEN. She’s adorable. Seriously, this girl has me wrapped around her finger. Even her temper tantrums are adorable.

3. Again with me being a wonderful, observant mother: while we were on a field trip to the Natural History Museum for Paul’s preschool, Averi got lost. I didn’t even know she was missing until the security guard approached our group wondering if there was a little girl with a pink jacket that should be with us. Um, yes. That would be my daughter. Fortunately, she wasn’t even upset. She was too busy charming all the security guards, who were taking turns holding her. They even gave her a largish, pink stuffed unicorn to take home with her. She’s definitely going to get lost again the next time we go if she has her way! The nicest part was that they were so nice to me about it. Sometimes people can get so self-righteous and condescending about things like losing your child and not even realizing it for who knows how long… (Maybe we do have too many kids.)

4. Averi calls her new unicorn “hoonitorn.” See, adorable.

5. I sewed Katie a new summer dress this week and she looks so cute in it. It’s so hard to find little girl clothes that actually look like they were made for little girls and not skanky teenagers. I’ll get a picture up of it soon, but I’m planning on making a coordinating one for Averi if I can figure out how to adjust the measurements correctly.

6. I’ve been sewing up a storm all of a sudden. But it’s all been stuff for little girls. There just aren’t as many cute things out there for boys Paul’s age. Link me up if you have any fabulous ideas of things to make for him. What he really wants is for me to make him a storm trooper costume. Um, not going to happen. Could he pick anything more difficult and…plastic?

7. I’ve been desperate for chocolate cake lately. Seriously. Ask my husband. I whine about it every night. I should just make one, but then I feel compelled to eat the entire cake because it will go bad if I don’t. And it needs to be a nice, gooey, frostingy cake (yes, frostingy is a word).

8. Another bad mom moment: we didn’t celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. At all. I didn’t even tell them it was St. Patrick’s Day. No leprechaun traps, no green eggs, no dye in the toilet, no rainbow crafts, nothing. We worked and played in the yard and cleaned house all day on March 17. At the very least I could have bought them Lucky Charms to eat for breakfast.

9. There was a reason we cleaned house most of the day on Thursday. If you ever need to be convinced that my life is anything but “together,” you should have seen the state of my kitchen on Thursday. Oh my word. It was disgusting. And the rest of the house wasn’t that much better. We may not have celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, but the house smelled like a pub. We had deep-fried chicken strips for dinner the night before (Pioneer Woman’s Chicken Tenders recipe: soooo delicious!) and that smell lingers for a LONG time. Of course I had offered to host a craft night that evening, and desperate times call for desperate measures…like cleaning. That’s the reason I host get-togethers. It forces me to clean. There are times when I’m glad we live away from family and my mother can’t just drop by. I think she’d be devastated 90% of the time by the state of my house. She’s the most amazing housekeeper ever. And I’m just not. I want to be. I really do. The mess drives me crazy. But I don’t want it enough to actually do something about it most of the time. I’d rather do something fun. But I really do love it when it’s clean. It just doesn’t happen very often.

10. We find out if we’re having a girl or boy in less than three weeks! So start your guessing now! Aaron and I are both thinking girl. Of course, that might be wishful thinking on both of our parts, since having a boy has come close to driving me insane. I adore Paul, but I think he’s about 3 boys rolled into one. So three girls should just about balance him out. But if we had a boy, it would even up the teams nicely for the entire family, since Heather is having a girl in April. Yay for cousins!!!!

Oh dear…

2011-03-14T10:11:00.001-07:00

Found Averi this morning with a jar of chocolate chips, systematically putting them in her mouth and then spitting them back in the jar. Needless to say, the entire jar had to go and I’m having to re-evaluate whether or not things are actually out of her reach. She’s figured out the magic of stools…

We told Paul that we’d pay him 10 cents for each dry Pull-up. We figured that this would be a pretty good ROI, since Pull-ups certainly cost more than that. Today he brought me a Pull-up and declared, “Mom! My Pull-up is dry! I need a dime!” I went to reach for the dimes, and then I thought I’d better check to make sure that the Pull-up was actually dry. It was—because it was a brand new Pull-up. Stinker. He gave me some story about how he had folded it, and that’s why it looked like that. Uh huh. Sure. He left without the dime. Apparently he hasn’t learned the lesson about his integrity being worth more than 10 cents. Fortunately it’s Family Home Evening tonight…

And for additional glimpses into our lives:

My girl Katie is wicked smaht

2011-03-08T18:49:00.001-08:00

The three kids were taking a bath this evening, and Katie called us in to see the braid she had made. Of course we’re thinking, “Let’s see the hair she’s twisted together…” But then we looked. And it was really a braid. So we asked her to take it apart and show us how she did it. And she executed a perfect braid. Multiple times. Here’s the scary thing: I’VE NEVER TAUGHT HER HOW TO BRAID. Ever. She learned how just by watching, and once she asked me how I did it, and I described it. Guys, she’s FIVE YEARS OLD!!! I have no idea how old I was when I learned how to braid, but I know for sure that it took A LOT of practice time with my mom. And here she is, performing it with the perfect hand motions and everything with merely a single verbal description of how it’s done and some observation. Aaron wonders if his braids are even that good.

Does anyone else have kids that are scary smart?

Dream Homes

2011-03-04T14:07:00.001-08:00

I’ve decided that I’m in love with this floor plan. Not that you’d ever find an affordable lot in ABQ to build this on, and of course you would never have a sweeping lawn with huge mature trees here, but there’s always wishful thinking, right?

It’s not ridiculously big (5 bedrooms, 4 baths and 3437 square feet), but definitely as big as we would ever need. And I love the layout.

Main level

Upper level

It’s got what we really want: 5 bedrooms, a play room, master bedroom separated from kid bedrooms, a laundry room, three-car garage not facing the street, a fabulous deck, brick and way more. And of course it would be built on a incredible, large, woodsy lot with beautiful landscaping. And a pool. If we’re dreaming, we’re definitely going to be having a pool. And maid service. And grandparents close by. And oodles of cousins to fill up the playroom.

What’s in your dream house?

And now for the girls…

2011-03-04T13:47:00.001-08:00

I love having girls that play together. And I firmly believe that dress-ups are probably the best “toy” investment that you will ever make.

The Lioness

Bette Midler

What would happen if The Little Mermaid took place on the Malabar coast

She’s so stinkin’ adorable. I just want to squeeze her!

Following posing advice from her sister. Nice try, but no cigar.

No idea what’s going on here. But it’s cute, whatever it is.

How can you resist smothering her with kisses? I can’t.

A note on Paul for today…

The Bad News: The tantrums began early today. At 1:30, to be precise. And no one, not even Paul, knows what precipitated it.

The Good News: It was diffused in 15 minutes instead of our standard 2-3 hours. Of course, this was not without some bad behavior on my part, but once I counted to 20 (this is supposed to be Paul’s calming technique, but it worked much better for me than for him), we were able to get things settled by just cuddling together until he calmed down.

Please tell me I can make it through this stage. And remind me why we decided to do this AGAIN…

Jekyll and Hyde

2011-03-03T22:21:00.001-08:00

Does anyone else have a Jekyll and Hyde child? I have one. Lately, Paul has decided that once 5:30 or 6:00 hits, he’s going to turn into a hellion. Anything anyone says sets him off. “Hey, Paul, can you go wash your hands for dinner?” is followed by screaming, kicking, hitting, and general unpleasantness. It lasts until he goes to bed, and by that time I’m usually so frazzled that I break down into tears the moment the door is shut (frequently earlier).

It’s so very odd, since he’s a gem in the mornings. Seriously, that kid is insanely cheerful in the mornings. And he’s generally quite cheerful throughout the day. Sure, he has his moments, but no more frequently than my girls. But then the witching hour hits, and he’s a monster. He gets a bee in a bonnet and there’s no getting it out. Once he starts, he really cannot stop. He’s beyond all reason at that point. We’ve tried every punishment available, and nothing gets through to him. It just gives him something more to fight against. We’ve tried ignoring him and leaving the room, but he follows us around and starts screaming and hitting you to get attention. And when you’ve got dinner on the stove that needs to be watched, it’s impossible to remove yourself from the situation.

We’ve realized that he needs a technique for controlling his temper before it gets to this stage, so we had a long talk with him last night about the importance of controlling your temper and taught (or tried to teach) the principle of consequences. He really doesn’t want to be bad. He certainly doesn’t like the consequences of acting this way. But once he loses control, he forgets about any consequences or no longer cares.

This evening was the first in a week where we haven’t had a massive meltdown. And he was so proud of himself! As soon as Aaron came home, he ran up to him and said, “Dad, I had a really great day today!” I know that this isn’t the end, but it is so relieving to know that Hyde doesn’t have to appear. It’s relaxing to have an evening where I haven’t ended the day with sobbing because I’m so frazzled and tired and frustrated. And it’s amazing how much energy you have and how much you can accomplish when you’re not battling a four-year-old for three solid hours!

Every morning when Paul is pleasant to be around I have to remind myself how much I love him and how much fun he is to be around when he chooses to be nice. It makes the bad times a teeny tiny bit easier to manage. Here’s hoping this phase is a short one so we can get back to the business of liking each other again!

Etiquette

2011-03-01T20:25:00.001-08:00

Today we went to Sweet Tomatoes. It was a Tuesday. Shouldn’t be too busy, right? WRONG. It was INSANE. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a more noisy restaurant. We’ve got 5 people eating meals now, so booths are a bit tight. And there weren’t any available anyway. So on the far side of the restaurant there was a table open. It wasn’t too bad when we sat down. There was one group of moms with a gaggle of kid (almost definitely Mormon; one lady had a total Utah haircut), but they were in the corner. Then within minutes of our sitting down, the already crowded restaurant swelled. Apparently a soccer team decided to have a team dinner at Sweet Tomatoes tonight. And we were surrounded.

Now, I’ve been in noisy situations with lots of kids before. Anyone who’s been in our ward understands this. But this was unreal. The kids were loud. And ravenous. But the adults were even louder. These were obviously parents who were used to yelling at people across a soccer field. And for some reason they thought this was appropriate behavior for a restaurant. Granted, Sweet Tomatoes is not a fancy place. It’s very kid-friendly, which is why we go there more than any other restaurant. But we did pay for our meals, and they were creating a down-right unpleasant environment. I could VERY clearly hear a conversation that was happening two tables away, yet my own kids sitting next to me had to shout to be heard.

“Mom, can I have some macaroni?”

I don’t even hear them this first time, so the request is made at a louder volume.

“Mom, can I have some macaroni?”

“What?”

“MOM, CAN I HAVE SOME MACARONI?”

After my brain filters this information past all the extraneous and unwanted input it’s receiving, I answer. “Sure.”

“What?”

“SURE!!”

And so it went all evening. The food on the buffets was gobbled faster than the employees could put it out, and they were certainly working their tails off. It got to the point that anytime I saw something decent on the table I would run and grab two of them, since it would be gone in 30 seconds and that’s when my kids would ask for that particular thing. I think that this was one of the more stressful dinners I’ve ever had. And my kids were good! I don’t know about anyone else, but at about 5:30 noise starts to get to me. I can tolerate it all day (which is a good thing, since Paul can be LOUD). But then 5:30 hits and I’ve reached my limit. I start to twitch (mostly internally) and then it makes me start to freak out. And I was very close to having a nervous breakdown in public from all that noise.

So I have some general guidelines for those that might encounter or cause a similar situation.

1. Think very, VERY hard about taking an entire soccer team of 9-year-old boys, their parents, and all their siblings to dinner at a restaurant. An acceptable noise-level on the soccer field is absolutely unbearable in an enclosed building.

2. If you do attend such an event (soccer or any other gathering), control your children. The adults congregated at two tables and completely ignored all the kids. They were left to run amok without any parental intervention. And they NEEDED intervention. I frequently heard, “I’ve had four desserts and seven slices of pizza and NO VEGETABLES! YES!!” So that’s why there was no pizza and the ice cream was out of the machine. If you don’t care what your kids eat, whatever. No big deal at all. But teach moderation and CONTROL THE CHAOS!

3. Teach your child how to wait in line and proper manners. I wanted to smack some of the kids that just ran right in front of me to grab something with their bare hands, knocking over my four-year-old in the process.

4. Remember that you’re not in your own home. This is a public place that people have paid to be at. Shouting at someone three tables away IS NOT OKAY!

5. Apologize to anyone around you. Isn’t this general courtesy? I try to let the people around me know that I’m sorry if my kids have acted up in a restaurant. It really goes a long way towards soothing bad feelings. This group acted like they were in someone’s kitchen and were completely oblivious to all others.

6. If you’re one of the other patrons, MOVE AWAY. I saw some open tables and was tempted to move, but I didn’t want to be rude and cause a scene. I now realize that was a big mistake. Like anyone would notice us moving in that mayhem.

Sorry for the rant. I know that my kids are not angel children. We’ve certainly been in our share of loud and embarrassing situations that have been caused by one (or more) of my offspring. And I’m sure I’ve been guilty of forgetting my manners when it was convenient. But, as I’ve said before, this was ridiculous. I needed to vent.

Announcing…

2011-02-22T19:50:00.001-08:00

Happy birthday to me!

2011-02-19T13:58:00.001-08:00

I celebrated my 28th birthday last week with my adoring family. Aaron made a special dinner that’s becoming a tradition: fish tacos and mini Boston cream pies. YUM! It gave us a chance to bust out the deep fryer that Aaron got for his birthday last year. And boy was that fish good! Of course, our house smelled like a pub for three days, but it was definitely worth it.

Katie took all the photos that evening, and she did a pretty good job!

I’ve got an odd smile on, but maybe that’s just because I was so impatient to eat my taco.

Yes, Averi is totally naked here. She wanted to wear her birthday suit to my birthday dinner.

Paul loves fish, so he was in heaven with this meal. And no pictures of Katie since she was behind the camera.

And the mini Boston cream pies. So very very very yummy.

I got very spoiled for my birthday, as usual. Aaron’s parents got me a place setting of the Lenox Chirp china that I’ve been collecting:

My parents got a joint birthday present for me and Aaron: A Blendtec Total Blender! I have loved using that thing. It made my other wimpy blender run home and cry because it had a major inferiority complex.

I got several fun things from my sweetie, but my big present was a series of sewing and costume design classes! I’m so excited about these. He’s always so great at coming up with thoughtful gifts.

All in all, 27 was pretty great. Here’s hoping that 28 is even better!

What we’ve been working on

2011-02-17T14:17:00.001-08:00

We had some of Averi’s friends over last week who are a few months older than she is. After they left, Averi begged me no less than 5 times to use the potty that day. Anyone who knows me knows that we’ve had a…difficult time potty training Paul. To put it ever so nicely. And everyone knows about it because I’m a complete whiner about it. Between my should-be-potty-trained-two-years-ago-but-isn’t-quite four-year-old (how’s that for hyphens!), my separation-anxiety-riddled dog, and my toddler in diapers, I felt like pee and poop have ruled my life. So the last thing I wanted to do was potty train. Because let’s face it—potty training is miserable. I think it’s the worst thing I’ve had to do so far as a mother. Not exaggerating.

But Lando left that Monday. So I don’t have to clean up his messes. And Paul’s doing a million times better than he has in the past. And I make him clean up his own messes (well, as much as he’s capable of doing). And I hadn’t yet had the carpets cleaned. And Averi REALLY wanted to use the potty. So I relented. I had sworn that I was not even going to try with her until she was at least three. But you would think that I would learn by now never to swear about anything that has to do with kids.

(Just chilling, watching a movie and eating a snack. How low stress can this get?)

And guess what? It’s been the easiest ever. We started Wednesday morning. She had 2 teeny accidents while she was wearing underwear, so I took them off and let her run around naked. And we didn’t have a single accident as long as she was naked. NOT ONE. So we let her run around stark naked for several days. I apologize to all friends and neighbors, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. We started her in underwear this week. And she’s been fabulous. Very few accidents, and none at all today. Now I will have a long stretch of time WITH NO DIAPERS. NONE. I haven’t had that in over 5 years. There might have been a small stretch of time between Paul being potty trained and Averi being born, but since he was just peeing in his pants, it doesn’t really count.

Averi, thank you. You’re my favorite child at the moment.

Time to think about gardening

2011-02-16T20:46:00.001-08:00

Last year I was asked by several people to let them know when and what I was planting. It would also be good for me to start keeping better notes of what it is that I’m planting, so here’s a start.

(Transplanting some grasses. Love my hat? This white girl needs some sun protection.)

Last frost in Albuquerque is generally April 17. This means that there are a lot of things you can start planting in the next few weeks! Yay!!! So start thinking about your spring crops. It’s also a good time to get your plants started that you’ll be transplanting out later on in the year. I’ve tried growing my own seeds to set out, but I’ve had very little success. Our only windows in our house are north facing (except the one in my closet) and those plants don’t get nearly enough sun, even when I have a grow light rigged. And can I tell you how many times I’ve picked up plants off the floor and tried to rescue tender little seedlings after a rowdy game of who-knows-what? So no transplants for me, at least not in this house. I’ll just buy them at the store for now, even though it costs a million times as much as buying a packet of seeds. But now’s the time to think about them and get them going if you are going to be doing that.

(Carrots from our fall harvest)

Some spring crops to think about:

Broccoli—although I did not have any success with this the one year I tried. It grew huge and took over but never got any broccoli from it.

Cabbage—never tried this, since I figured it’s dirt cheap in the store. But could be fun if you have extra space.

Parsley—transplants can grow in the ground 5 weeks before last frost. I found it tricky to start from seed, so I just bought mine. Definitely worth planting a few of these, since you can harvest throughout the growing season and into early winter. I definitely prefer Italian (or flat-leaf) parsley over the curly variety for cooking. It has a much better flavor.

Peas—classic spring vegetable. Can direct sow 5 weeks before last frost.

Spinach—I love growing spinach. I’ve needed to protect it from birds when the sprouts are little, but it’s super easy to grow and tastes delicious.

Cauliflower—same story as with broccoli. Anyone know what I did wrong? Or is it just tough to grow in ABQ?

Lettuce—Another favorite. I prefer looseleaf lettuces to those that form a head since they seem a lot less finicky and you can harvest continually. Cos (romaine) lettuces and buttercrunch are especially great. I’m trying arugula this year as well so that I can make some arugula pesto.

Onions—I’ve never tried full-sized onions, but my green onions failed. This was probably my fault. I think it’d be really fun to grow some onions in a half-barrel. And I could do that in the front yard since rabbits don’t like onions.

Beets—I’m going to try these this year. I’ve heard that beet greens are fantastic in salad.

Carrots—I’ve tried a few times and finally had success last fall. They were delicious and didn’t take up much space, so I think it’s worth the effort.

Radishes—tried one year and they were nasty and woody, but I think it was the variety I tried. I’m giving these another shot.

Swiss chard—never tried this, but it’s so pretty that I thought I’d give it a go. I’ve heard it’s pretty fail-proof. We’ll see.

(Pie made from the raspberries in our garden)

I’m putting my seed order in right now, and here are the varieties that I’ve selected:

Carrots: Nantes (seeds from last year), Cosmic Purple, Atomic Red, St Valery

Lettuce: Buttercrunch, Freckles, and a few variety packets I have from last year

Radishes: French Breakfast, Easter Egg

Beets: Early Wonder, Golden Beet

Swiss Chard: Bright Lights

Arugula: the variety isn’t named, but it’s supposed to mature in 38 days. Sounds good to me!

(Our square foot garden in early spring 2009. We’ve got wood dividers now, so it looks a little better than that.)

I’ll also go through my seeds and plant whatever peas and spinach I have on hand. And you can bet that I’ll be putting in several parsley plants.

I’m so excited to get a start on my garden this year!! What are you planting?

In what universe is this considered clean?

2011-02-15T09:28:00.001-08:00

I don’t know if everyone has noticed (I’m not sure how you can fail to notice, actually), but dishwashers are no longer cleaning dishes. Why? Because some boneheaded politicians have decided to be everyone’s mom and ban phosphates from dishwasher detergents because they are thought to contaminate the water supply. Not a bad idea, you think? Well, they banned these when there is no commercially viable substitute available for phosphates. New Mexico has not banned phosphates, but what company in their right mind will continue making, selling, and distributing two versions of the product? It’s not a profitable strategy. So now it’s virtually impossible to find a dishwasher detergent that actually cleans here in Albuquerque.

Example:

Disgusting. I used to wash my dishes on the normal setting with only the cleanser portion of the dispenser filled (no prewash needed). Now I have to pre-rinse (never needed to do that before), completely fill both receptacles AND use the heavy setting. And my dishes are still filthy. So I have to wash all glassware by hand now, which uses far more water (and time!) than the dishwasher. Net effect: at least twice as much detergent (more contaminants in the water and twice as much money spent), far more water used, and more energy, since the dishwasher runs longer and hotter on the heavy setting. This is an environmental improvement?

You can still buy aluminum phosphate at Home Depot and Lowes. So you’d better believe that we’re going to be concocting our own dishwasher detergent. And we’re certainly not the only ones resorting to this. Surely our home-brewed concoctions can’t be safer than the commercially-prepared cleaners made by chemists.

I propose that anyone elected into office be required to take (and pass!) basic economics. Any student worth her salt could discuss unintended consequences, and could probably list many of the consequences of this particular action. But until then, ignorant but well-meaning (the worst combination) people will continue to be elected into office. So I’m now off to research dishwasher detergents. If you have any recommendations of detergents that still clean, please let me know. And I hope that the politicians toasting themselves for this brilliant political move have to hand wash their own champagne glasses (although I seriously doubt it).

December 27 and 28: Epcot and Hollywood Studios

2011-02-11T20:53:00.001-08:00

I WILL get this trip finished! I WILL!

December 27: Epcot

This was a COLD day. It got cold that Sunday, and of course we came to Florida completely unprepared. We didn’t go shopping on Sunday, so we went early Monday morning. That was a mistake. Everything was gone. The stores were completely wiped out of cold-weather gear. Aaron needed a hat; all they had were about 7 rows of fedoras. Seriously. We managed to find some one-size-fits-all stretchy gloves (which don’t really fit all hand sizes, but it sufficed) and some hats and mittens for the kids. Fortunately they had gotten Disney hoodies for Christmas, so we were able to bundle them up pretty well. Paul was definitely NOT pleased about wearing tights, especially since they had pink and glitter stripes. But we, being the mean parents that we are, forced him and promised him that no one would ever know.

We had a character lunch at Akershus in Norway, and part of the package was a professional photo with Belle. Grandma and Grandpa got those photos, but the people at Disney are always nice enough to let you take your own photos. However, the battery on my flash began dying, so my photos are (sadly) not that great.

Belle adjusting Paul’s pirate patch

Alice was our favorite. She had way more personality than the other princesses.

The desserts at Akershus were quite delicious! All the food was very good, actually.

December 28: Hollywood Studios

I didn’t actually take many photos here. We were too busy running around trying to avoid insane post-Christmas lines.

I took this one while we were waiting at the Rockin’ Rollercoaster. We bought the lollipops for the kids to compensate them for having to miss out on most of the rides that morning. Let’s face it: Tower of Terror just doesn’t work for preschoolers.

We had another character dinner that evening at 1900 Park Fare in the Grand Floridian. This one was definitely our favorite. The stepsisters were HILARIOUS and the kids loved the food. Definitely worth the $$$.

Averi was sitting at her high chair to eat dinner, and when the stepmother (or Lady Tremain, as we were supposed to call her) came by she began to cry. We all assumed it was because she’s rather dour-looking, but we eventually realized it was because she wanted to be there posing with her. She knew what she was supposed to be doing when the characters came around. It was rather adorable. It’s hard to tell in the photo, but she’s smiling through the tears.

They had a little dance in the middle of the dinner, and the kids all got to dance with Anastasia.

Love this pose. I’m thinking of adopting this for all future group shots.

Ashley found her Prince Charming. Alas, as is all to often the case, he was already taken.

Overall it was an AMAZING trip. Scarcely a day goes by when we don’t here about some portion of our Disney trip. In fact, we knew Averi was really sick the other week when she failed to mention the “Ween-the-Poon” ride for 24 hours. But she recovered, and Ween-the-Poon is back in our daily vernacular. Thanks, Mom and Dad! We are already contemplating our next trip back…

Confession Time

2011-01-29T14:58:00.001-08:00

I have a confession to make…

I feel like a total failure.

I finally made the decision that things just weren’t working out with Lando, and I’m working with greyhound adoption group to find a new home for him.

I’m abandoning my dog.

Am I a terrible person?

Every time you watch one of those animal trainer shows, you hear about how pets aren’t disposable and how you can’t just give them away because you don’t live in an ideal situation.

So now I’m one of those jerks with disposable pets.

But really…I don’t feel as bad as I thought I would.

Does that make me a worse person?

I do have MANY good reasons why we’re rehoming him.

But mostly it’s because he’s dead bored. He needs another dog.

And my dear, sweet husband would probably shoot me if I brought home another dog. Or maybe he would shoot the dogs. Either way—bad situation.

Lando doesn’t play with people.

At all.

NEVER.

He won’t even play with toys if people are watching him.

He needs a dog friend.

I just talked to the lady that will probably be his foster mom, and he will have LOTS of dog friends.

So really it’s better for everyone.

And it’s not like I gave away one of my children.

And really, I won’t mind not having to pick up poop.

Or watering my yard every time he pees.

Or the 2 am wake-up calls.

Or the broken plates.

Or being unable to use a crock pot because then it’s Lando’s dinner.

Or the paint-peeling gas.

Or the “Sorry I just spent your college fund, kids” vet bills.

And let’s face it, dog beds just don’t “go” with my decor.

So maybe I am a jerk.

But really, deep down inside, I’m sad. Because I really wanted a dog. And maybe this just means I’m not dog material. Or maybe he just wasn’t for us. Who knows?

Have fun, Lando. I’ll miss you.

Mostly.