The Eating of the Vegetables (Mom scores on the Point Board)

That's right. I just finished a meal with my girls and watched them eat broccoli and zucchini squash and then ask for MORE! Ok, so maybe they didn't know what they were eating, but it was great. My friend is sharing a book with me, Deceptively Delicious. It's all about hiding the vegetables in meals but still offering them regular veggies. I pureed a zucchini and cut up the broccoli (I still wanted them to see something) and put it in a family sized container of Mac and Cheese (Then I can give the girls leftover Mac and Cheese.) Mom scores one on the point board. The girls of course have been racking up points all morning, but we don't have to mention that point, do we. (Messing up Mommy's bed, spreading the hair clips everywhere, couch cushions thrown, caught Meredith just before she was about to cut up a book with sissors. The sissors were put away, but Emily took them and I've been looking everywhere for them. I still don't know where she put them, but I have them back.) Yea! for vegetables. Note to self though, it's just a trifle to much vegetables and next time I think I'll do a little less zucchini squash. Maybe only half.

Vegetables, what are those? YUCK!

Or so says the 3-year-old. She is too funny. For lunch today I told her that she could have some chicken nuggets if she would eat her vegetables (frozen kind). This included all of 3 peas and 2 cubed carrots of the same size. You would think she could eat it quickly and have her chicken. Nope. Not the case. She put them in her mouth one by one, bit them once and put them back on her plate. After doing this with all of her peas I told her she had to eat it all gone before she could have any chicken. (I sound like a parrot with all the reminders I have to give the girls. For example: put the cushions back on the couch girls, don't stand on the furniture, don't play in the toilet, don't throw your food on the ground Meredith, can you say it?, use your words, no screaming girls, the list goes on.) I finally gave Emily a spoon and she put all of the vegetables on the spoon and put it in her mouth. (I was doing other things so I wasn't watching her the whole time. I didn't see this part. But I did realize that there were no vegetables on the floor, trust me, I checked that first, and that she didn't give them to sister. Sister is almost as good as a dog, lol, she eats everything.) So, she says "chicken, please". "You're all done? Open your mouth." And there sit 3 peas and 2 carrots not even chewed up. So I told her, "You have to chew them." My obedient child then chews the food and starts to gag. I'm worried at this point that it will all be for not and keep telling her, "swallow it, swallow it". After much more of this episode we FINALLY swallow. And that is the story of Emily and the vegetables.

Good news - Emily ate her slice of potato at dinner quickly and didn't give me a hard time. I guess she finally understands that when Mom says eat your vegetables, you eat them. Yay! (Next step, getting her to actually LIKE vegetables. Is that possible?)

A...B...C...

Emily just randomly started saying the alphabet this morning. A...B...C... stopped and then Meredith said D...E...F...G... she stopped and then Emily, H...I...J...K... . I'm impressed. I think it is much harder to say the alphabet than to sing it. We have the alphabet hanging up in the hallway. (When I find the camera I'll put up a picture.) Meredith begs me to do "ABCs" with her. "ABCs, ABCs," she says as we walk through the hallway to go to her room. Until of course, I do the ABCs with her.

It's Raining It's Pouring...

...the old man is snoring. I LOVE the rain and it's been raining all day today. It feels GREAT. My girls aren't liking being cooped up, but I sure love the smell of the rain. As a little girl my siblings and I probably drove my mom crazy with that nursery rhyme when it rained. I'm still teaching it to my girls though :) It's just a great childhood memory.

Facebook

I finally (meaning a couple months ago) joined facebook. Why? Cuz I just wanted to find all of those long lost friends. It's frustrating though trying to find them. Maybe they're there, maybe they're not, maybe they are married now so they've changed their name. Are you on facebook?

Homemade Tortillas

How about a homemade tortilla recipe. I tried the tortilla mix about a year ago, that didn't turn out well. After that I just gave up on homemade tortillas. Then I read something about uncooked tortillas that tasted better than the normal tortillas already cooked in the bread section. I didn't know where to look. But, I found it. In my Wal-Mart it was in the refrigerated mexican food section. That of course was next to the yogurt, sour cream, etc.

At Safeway though I couldn't find it and had to ask. It was next to the eggs. Anyhow, it has to be refrigerated so that greatly reduces the places it could possibly be. Try it out. It is definitely much better and tastes like homemade tortillas (or pretty darn close). Our family is hooked.

Ducks, Zoo and the Playground

As a family we went to go see the ducks at the duck pond near the zoo. We didn't invite anyone else to come with us because I wasn't sure we were going because of naps. There was a HUGE crowd of people when we got there. Apparently there was some concert going on. The ducks had more than enough food and there was plenty of bread and chips and all sorts of stuff in the pond. Those are going to be some very sick ducks. Then Emily told us she wanted to go to the zoo, we tried that and it was closed. So finally Emily asked to go slide. So while she went down all of the slides with Daddy, Meredith and I played in the sand. We had fun and hopefully we can go feed the ducks later this week.

Come What May and Love It (Learning to Laugh)

My favorite talk in General Conference was Elder Wirthlin's. I believe I've already said this, but I'm saying it again. I had learned earlier in the year that I had to laugh in order to keep my sanity. We had just moved and Emily, while exploring her new surroundings, was learning that she could do more than she was able to before. She was a better climber, better at getting into things and therefore a better explorer. And the sidekick who could run around after her and take the blame for things was great. :) I would get so upset when I would come from doing something (the dishes, laundry, you name it) to find that the two little girls had gotten into a huge mess. Finally, I realized that getting angry at them was just making me grumpier and doing nothing for the good spirit in my home. I learned to laugh. I can even remember the first time I did so instead of getting angry (see What a MESS!)


Anyhow, what am I getting at? Ok. So we're in Sacrament Meeting and we're almost done (whew, it is hard to get Meredith to be reverent that long) and Meredith decides to dump the whole bag of cheerios. I looked at Nathan and he could tell I was quietly laughing. I just handed Meredith over to Nathan and started cleaning up the mess. The people behind us helped me out by having their little boy help me pick up the cheerios (thank you to that person, btw). Later in Sunday School someone told my husband, (this was the gist of it) "boy, I thought your wife was going to die after all of those cheerios got dumped." My husband replied, "No, she laughed. I was the one who was dying."


(And just in case you are wondering, no, I don't just hand a bag of cheerios to my child. We hold it together, unless of course by holding it she's going to rip it out of my hands and dump the whole bag of cheerios. On the other hand by doing that she could just decide to do it anyway so I need to remember NOT to look away :) Anyhow, have a good laugh.

Jingle Bells

Emily sang "Jingle Bells" all the way to church this morning. She just randomly started singing the whole thing. I didn't realize she picked up on "Jingle Bells" so fast. We really didn't sing it very often. I was focusing more on "Away in a Manger" and songs like that. So, I was really surprised to hear her singing that considering we didn't sing that very often.

Emily is doing really well when we sing together. We're working on the songs that they sing in primary (since I play the piano I definitely know which songs to practice). When we get to primary though, she doesn't sing. So, one day, she'll sing in primary I'm sure of it.

Feast of Carols

So at the very beginning of December (yes, another late post, I don't think I got the full 24 hours in a day in December.) I went back to good old Show Low to go watch Feast of Carols. It's a performance the high school puts on. Miranda was one of the two queens and Matthew was able to be her little prince. This is one of the few ok pictures I got. Here they are dancing. The camera (since it wasn't mine I didn't know how to really work it) was not cooperating. Plus it doesn't help that it was dark and they did lots of moving around.

Matthew and I practiced his song together a few times. He was the best little singer. Here he is singing with the group of little princes and princesses. The pair on the right belong to the right queen and king (thus they are all in purple and white). Matthew and the other little princess belong to the king and queen on the left (thus the red and black). It was fun to go see and brought back some memories (both pleasant and otherwise :).

'08 Christmas Gingerbread House

This year Emily didn't help with the Gingerbread House that we made. I told her she had to eat all of 3 peas (my friend told me that her daughter couldn't leave the table until she'd eaten a certain amount of her vegetables, so I thought I'd better start something like that because Emily does NOT eat her vegetables or fruit.) and she didn't. We told her we were making a Gingerbread House and she could help us and have candy after she ate her 3 peas. She didn't, so Meredith did it and Mommy and Daddy helped. Here are some pictures.

Nathan did the front part of the house. He just put as much frosting as he could on the front and then threw the candy on it.

Do you see that poor miserable face? Don't feel sorry for her, she still didn't eat her 3 peas. She didn't want to do it that badly I guess.

Meredith and shoes

After I dressed Meredith this morning she walks over to the dresser and says, "I want shoes." Opens drawer, "hmm...this one."

I can't believe how much she says. She says about as much as Emily does, sometimes I wonder if she talks more. I'm hoping we'll be able to get Emily into preschool soon (they won't even test her until the first part of March!) and then maybe we'll be able to talk more. I don't want Emily to go to school, especially so early, but she needs something to get her to finally talk to us. She is able to get away with just one or two words to tell us what she needs. We're trying not to let her get away with that anymore, but I'm not sure if any of it is sinking in.

Nathan's Birthday

For Nathan's Birthday they gave him a "Money" Birthday Cake. We have some cute pictures of Emily enjoying the birthday cake. Every time Emily sees a cake (the typical cake) she says "Birthday!".

Emily's Picture

When Nathan's family did pictures Nathan's sister brought some cute props. Emily loved them and had her picture taken with them. I'm definitely going to have to find her some gloves, a hat and a purse (Nathan's sister gave us some pearls).

Mismatched and Interesting

Here are the girls riding their "bikes". Meredith asks for a bike, and for right now the radio rocket is the only thing she knows how to ride (of course she pushes it too). Nathan helps me dress the girls sometimes, and I of course don't say a word because I'm glad he helps me. We also didn't go anywhere that day. I'm sure he knows that a pink shirt doesn't go with red pants that was just the quickest thing available (ok, I hope he knows). And Meredith's outfit is ok if you ignore the overly big t-shirt that just so happens to be Emily's. Todays outfit consisted of one girl being mismatched and the other girl having her shirt inside out. If I'm not feeling better tomorrow (darn cold) we'll see what interesting things Nathan can cook up in the clothing department. Otherwise, things will go back to normal and I won't come up with any more funny pictures (for the time being).

Grapefruit

Tis the season for citrus around here. We picked some of the citrus from the trees near our home and Meredith loves grapefruit, Emily isn't even interested in trying it. So Nathan took pictures while I was feeding her grapefruit (I was actually eating a grapefruit and Meredith had already eaten so I wasn't planning on feeding to her, but she asked). So the first one is her eating grapefruit (that's my girl!) and the second one is the silliest picture. I don't know what she was doing.

Morning Walks

So the girls and I go walking with friends in the mornings. They are just a little bit chilly in the mornings now, so the girls have to wear hats. This one just looked SO cute on Meredith that I had to take a picture. The last picture is such a silly smile. I don't know where my girls picked up on that one, but recently that's how they've been smiling at the camera. She's such a cute little baby. As everyone tells me, and I say it myself, she's such a cute little "gerber baby".

Puppet Shows

For Family Home Evening (that's right, I'm a little behind in postings) on Monday we did puppet shows. Here's some pictures from all of our fun.

Nathan's puppet version of Noah's Ark. Somehow he did end up shoving that whole duck into the ark.

Um...I'm not sure how the sesame street car ended up there. Nathan?

Emily's Turn

Of course, this is her real version of playing "puppets". You're supposed to just throw them over. And the flap gets in the way. Why not? It makes everyone laugh.

Daddy is on one side with the pig, and Emily decided to help him on the other side.

Love Note

This year I sort of had a hard time putting away the Christmas stuff. I really wanted it to be up and be able to clean up and put everything where I want it, but it was hard. So I was kind of down when I was putting away the little locket ornaments my mom gave to Emily and me a few years ago. I decided to open mine up and there inside was a little note. It was a love letter from Nathan that he did two Christmases ago. I don't know if I ever saw it, or I just forgot it was there, but it made my day and I was able to joyfully put away the rest of the Christmas stuff.

Sunbeams

Somewhere, at one nursery or another they taught my girls "Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam". It's not like we haven't tried to teach them that song, but they have others that they would prefer to be singing. So when they get to the part where they say "sunBEAM" Meredith holds her hands in fists and on the beam she opens her hands. It's now on the top of our favorite songs list and it even gets asked for. "Sunbeam" they tell me, and we sing it. I enjoy sitting down at the piano and playing the songs for them. Meredith sits on my lap and Emily sits next to me. Today we practiced the new song for primary, "The Family is of God". Then the girls asked for "Snowman", "Popcorn", "Hinges", "I am a Child of God", "Sunbeam", "Snowman", "Popcorn", "Snowman", Popcorn"...you get the idea. :)

Emily is now in Sunbeams (we'll talk about both kinds in this post, both the class and the song). It's kind of rough for her because Mommy is just right there and so she keeps coming up to the piano. The teacher finally had Emily sit by her so she wouldn't keep getting up. I don't think she knew what to think, so she didn't really participate in anything. After singing time they had sharing time and I went to go be with Meredith for a little while and sing with her (I LOVE to sing with my girls). When I came back into primary the kids were leaving and Emily saw me and ran up to me she was so excited. I gave her a quick hug and told her to go be with her class. She was the last child in her class picked up because Nathan had a meeting right after church and I played the postlude. But both of the girls didn't seem bothered about being the last out. In fact, Meredith was still helping to put away the chairs when she saw me and continued to help. I guess she had just seen me though. Meredith loves nursery. We'll get back to you on Emily. It was still just so new to her since it was her first time (last week she was sick.)

I got an "A"

So I just got the results back for my first test. It was an A-. For those of my friends who are still in school they may not understand why in the world I'm so excited over this. Let's put it this way. It's been a few years now since I have taken a challenging course (I don't count the religion course I took to be challenging) and how to get in laundry, dishes, cleaning kids and their messes, (the list goes on) etc. it hasn't exactly been mentally stimulating like a wonderful BYU course. I'm taking American Heritage right now. The very name still strikes fear into my heart (lol. It still does though.) So, I decided in the course of trying to get my degree that I might as well get it over with now rather than later. I've actually found the information so far to be incredibly interesting, I just dread having to be tested on it. Now that the first is over I'm not quite so nervous about getting a good grade. I actually deserved a B+ to be honest, but the teacher liked the essay (it was a good essay) and told me he'd give me an A- instead.

Emily and Growing Up

While we were away from home we didn't have a booster for Emily. So when we came back she wouldn't sit in her normal chair and Meredith was excited to sit in Emily's booster. So I have put the high chair away. It is actually quite nice to not have the high chair in the way. Meredith, of course, caught us trying to put the high chair away in the closet and cried about it for a little while. After it was out of sight she forgot all about it. It's just a little surprising to me that Emily is refusing her chair. We did see some friends in Utah that didn't have to sit in a booster chair because they were big girls (one older than her and one younger. They talked up a storm and they both had already refused to sit in booster chairs anymore. Wow.) That probably helped her. I just wished we could be around them long enough to pick up on some of that talking too. :)

The Procrastinator

I signed up for an independent study course almost a year ago. It was American Heritage. I tried to start it a couple of times, (I still think that those first two chapters were really tough to get into) but never did get through it. Well, now I see the deadline looming in front of me and in order to get it done I'm going to have to take a quiz a day. (It's actually not been that hard to get a quiz done a day, but finding the time is.) So, yesterday I finally got a good routine down for the girls so they don't get ignored for the whole of this month. First, I let them play outside (this is my favorite part because I get the least interruptions.) Then, when they are done, we color. Emily is learning her alphabet letters and Meredith is learning to color on paper and not on the table (this is a little bit harder for me because of the supervising M requires.) Then I pull out some toys for them, study a little longer, make lunch, feed them, and then put them down for naps. Next I bury myself in the office to take the quiz. I'm done about halfway of naptime, and if I don't have a piano lesson at that time, I've got a chance to exercise. The best part is I have the rest of the afternoon to play with my girls and yesterday I took Emily out on her bike and put Meredith in the stroller. We had fun and then came home to make dinner. Nathan is a wonderful husband and cleaned up the dinner dishes while I got to exercise.

Christmas

So, I survived my first Christmas away from home. For anyone that knows me you might know what this would entail. I get really sick or something. To everyone's surprise I did not though. Even my surprise (even just writing this I get a wave of sickness just thinking about it). I came home though and realized what I had done instead. I gained weight. Ugh. So now there is even more motivation to jump right on my New Year Resolutions. I'd show you the family pictures we took as a big group, but I can't. I look absolutely awful, Just my family picture looks ok considering Meredith is covering me up. Meredith was not smiling. It was really hard to get any of the kids to smile since it was so late at night.

Here's a few pictures from Christmas.

Meredith opening up a present. She's really gotten quite fast at taking the paper off.

If you look closely you can see a little strip of orange that is a chocolate orange. I told her I wanted her to open another present and she did not want to relinquish her orange.

Santa Claus couldn't have been more pleased that the girls liked Emily's Santa gift so much. Emily didn't want Meredith touching it, but Mommy made her share.

Here's Nathan playing with the toys before the girls could get up for Christmas. The huge stack of Christmas presents in the back come from being with all the extended family. (Even the family that wasn't there had some Christmas presents under the tree for later in the day.)

Nathan's Christmas present to me was a little getaway. He had coupons for a motel room in Salt Lake, dinner there as well, milkshakes, and $100 shopping spree. We ended up in South Jordan instead and ate dinner at the Spaghetti Factory in Salt Lake (my all time favorite restaurant, so if you ever are in Salt Lake you have to go to the Spaghetti Factory there. If you have ever been to Spaghetti Factory but not in Salt Lake you are still missing out. This one is the best. Need help ordering, order this: Manager's Favorite (spaghetti with 2 choices of topping) mizithra cheese and meat sauce, with milk, salad (with whatever their equivalent for ranch dressing is. I can't remember the name, but it is WAY better than ranch in my opinion.), and spamoni ice cream at the end. They also serve all of this with some yummy bread. It's sour dough, but Nathan even likes it and he claims he doesn't like sour dough bread. They also give you garlic butter to go with it (Nathan also claims he doesn't like garlic, but he still puts it on his bread and loves it, lol.)

OUR SMALL MIRACLE
After making reservations at a motel we realized something. There aren't very many hotels with a Spa in the room. When I was pregnant with Emily we moved to Michigan for a time, and on the way home we had to stop at 2 hotels. (The trip on the way there was a little longer, but we only had to stop once.) It was a tough trip for a pregnant person, so when I was even more pregnant we had to stop more. Our first motel stop we got a spa in our room. It was wonderful and was just the thing I needed from the traveling and for the rest of the traveling. Then the second motel we stopped at had a wonderful bed and I had the best night sleep I have ever had because of a VERY comfortable bed, which is really something to say for someone pregnant. (although come to think of it, if you haven't had a good night sleep for a while from the tossing and turning of pregnancy and you get one night after months of that where you are finally comfortable, it would definitely seem like it was the best night sleep you ever had, even if it wasn't.) Anyhow, we knew that this was a wonderful miracle for me, but didn't realize how much of a miracle until we were looking for the same thing again.