5 Years

Nathan and I celebrated our anniversary last night, the 21st. Our actual anniversary was on the 18th, but Nathan had a report to write and I was helping decorate for my sister's reception.

What I've found after 5 years of marriage. I can't wait to spend an eternity with Nathan. :)

Senses

I love September. This is when all of the senses start to pick up. It's the start of decorating, seeing (one of the senses); and baking, smelling, and tasting, for the holidays. I've got some of my fall decorations up, it's raining, and I smell some freshly baking banana bread. :) Oh, the joys of life! I also love listening to the thunder that comes with the rain and listening to the wind.

We just enjoyed a weekend at my parents house. It was wonderfully relaxing and a great break. I also grabbed the pictures from my parents computer (including some Meredith birthday pics) and took some great pictures. I'll have fun updating the blog.

Emily is at another milestone. Her speech has improved a lot and she's started coloring people. Her last picture she had a dinosaur that she had colored in. I really love this milestone. The girls continue to come up with new things to imagine and pretend and I LOVE it.

On the flip side of reaching new milestones there is the frustrating. A while back Meredith found out how to get past our childproof front door and undo the top lock. We turned the childproof "thing" upside down so we had to push the lever up to get out of the house and she has just figured out how to get out the front door today with it upside down. She's been out a couple of times today. Of course, Nathan and I have been right on her tail, but it's still scary.

I also love how Emily is smelling the baking bread. "I like that smell, mom." She says. As she's loudly smelling so I can hear it. What joys these girls will be during the holidays, the good and the bad. :)

Fall is also a very romantic season for me. It's when Nathan and I met and courted. Oh, I love the fall.

Crafting for Babies

A friend is blessing her baby today. Friday she came over so we could make a hair bow and bracelet to match the blessing dress. Here our the three of our kids. Nathan came home while I was still busy finishing up the bracelet and took this picture soon after I was done (thus you can see me enjoying the baby in the background.)
The girls really love babies. Not surprising seeing that their mommy loves all babies as well.

Here's little Melanie with her new hair bow and bracelet ready for her special day. This picture really doesn't do justice to the bow or bracelet. I definitely have plans on making a matching set for my girls.

Caught in the act! Nathan surprised me with this picture. You'll have to forgive the no-make-up and lack of doing my hair look.

A New Obsession

I am now completely obsessed with looking at the time. Getting Emily to school on time seems like no small matter and then there's picking her up. I have to be there right on time at 9am. Somehow I always get there right on time at 9:03 just when her classmates coming from the bus are headed into the classroom. So, it's pretty perfect timing because she just joins them and goes inside. If I'm late though.....oh, it takes forever! I have to sign in. I have to get BOTH girls out of the car, sign in - Name, where I'm going, what time it is (um...I'm late that's really all I care to know), and I just put the sign out time as one minute later so I don't have to do that again. I also have to wear a name tag. For the whole 30 seconds I'm on the school grounds. So, moral of that story, don't be late. Now, it's just habit to look at my watch. I can't just look at my cell phone anymore. The few seconds it takes to pull the phone out makes me nervous. I still really hate wearing a watch though. And on top of that I think that most watches, not quite all, are really ugly. (Including the one I have, but I got it for timing flash cards for piano lessons and don't want to buy something I truly hate wearing.)

I quit the whole bus thing. It was way more stressful than just dropping her off myself. I now feel free to plan out playgroups and craft nights. :) Happy Day!

Preschool Update: Emily has started talking more. The conversations get better and better (We just had one of our best conversations today.) I'm pleased with her progress. She will tell me though that she doesn't want to go to preschool and then when I take her she is eager to get out of the car. So, now I just ignore the "I don't want to go to preschool". It had me concerned though. Concerned enough to spend another day in preschool a while back where everything went swimmingly once again.

Emily LOVES the new bracelets I made her during our craft night last night. And, I'm afraid that making bracelets could be my newest obsession.

On Strike

Ok, I'm on strike. Meaning, I'm just dropping a lot of things I'd normally do in a week. One of those things being my playgroup (sorry guys) :(

It's been quite the month though. First off, I've had a computer, no TWO that decided to die on me. After Nathan tried fixing one he finally got a different computer working for me that desperately needs more memory (just add that one on my list of things to do.) Then the girls computer stopped working. Ever heard a dying hard drive before. I have for the first time, and it is not a pleasant sound. We also got a new hard drive that we had to send back to be fixed a month later. They sent it back still not working and now they have to send us a new one. :( I'm finding I really enjoy technology, but hate all of the maintenance and problems that come with it. Good thing I have Nathan. :)

Then my washer machine decided it didn't like the water hose and spit it out. I had my own little flood to deal with. It flooded the garage on the office. This happened Thursday night and we were still working on it by Saturday. Nathan had to do most of the work on Saturday since I was gone all day at the Super Saturday. (That was definitely very pleasant for me.) Right now though, the office is in total disarray, or at least it seems like it. It could be worse. At least, it seems that we've had minimal damage.

In order to get ready for school I have to buy shoes that aren't sandals for Emily. I bought some shoes for her that didn't fit. Finally took her to the store to try shoes on and found a pair I thought would work. We got home and she says, "Ow!" Great, so third times the charm. We got a shoe with plenty of room.

So, I'm thinking I need one "normal" week before starting up everything again. It's is surprisingly very stressful trying to catch that bus on time. If she didn't love it so much I would say forget the bus, it's easier just to take you myself.

The Adventures of 4 Kids

There are just those weeks when all you can think about doing is survive. I have to say I was a little nervous about this week for a while before it finally happened. I babysat two little boys. One was 6 and the other was 2. Two two-year-olds and two little boys seemed like that would be quite the household. I also have a problem with double scheduling myself. I tell someone I can do something without looking at my calendar. A habit I must rid myself of one of these days. So, come Monday morning I realized that not only did I have 2 extra kids, but I scheduled myself to go walking with a friend. So, I loaded up all 4 kids into the car and we headed over to the mall. Insane, I know. The 2-year-olds went into the double stroller and Emily kept up with the 6-year-old really well. At the end though, Emily got tired. So, I put her in the double stroller and put Meredith in the sling. Luckily, we didn't go too far like that. We played at the play place in the mall. Going from 2 kids to 4 was something different. I'd just go through the rounds of keeping tabs on them. 1 kid, 2 kids, 3 kids, 4 kids. 10 seconds later, 1 kid, 2 kids, 3, kids, .....where is she? Panic. Panic. Panic. Whew! There she is. 1 kids, 2 kids, 3 kids, ...alright, where'd he go? (You get the idea.)

Tuesday we had a playdate which I was thankful for because the 6-year-old wanted constant entertainment and I was hard pressed to entertain a 6-year-old while doing all the normal stuff I do everyday and watch the other kids. Of course, I needed graham crackers for the playdate, so we headed to Safeway. There I was pleasantly surprised with 4 well-behaved kids. Sort of knocked my socks off you might say (not that I'd be wearing socks in Tucson in July :) because Meredith is always TERRIBLE at the grocery store. If I tighten the strap on the seat so I don't think she could possibly get out of that she finds a way and grabs everything in her sight and rips apart anything in her grasp. At the playgroup I was finally able to sit back, relax and get the binding on the quilt done that I've wanted to finish for 2 years now.

Wednesday was one of my easier days since we stayed here and had a friend over instead. (Much easier to just stay at home with 4 kids let me tell ya.)

Thursday was our playgroup. We sort of headed in the wrong direction for 20 minutes. Where my brain was that day, I don't know. So, an hour later, we arrived VERY late for the playgroup. It was still fun to get out of the house and see all of our friends though. The playgroup is getting BIG! Such a change from when we first started and it was me and 1 or 2 other people and we were THRILLED to get a 3rd. Now, we at least have 3 and if I have it in my Living Room we have it packed. And it's a good sized Living Room too.

Friday was my half day because the boys were with their dad that morning. I took the girls walking and playing at the mall again. Sooooo much easier looking after only 2. There was no panicking, or at least it was kept minimal.

Today, I really just want to relax, but I've got to get ready for Sunday!

Busy, Busy BUSY!

I love to keep myself busy. Too busy probably, but I thrive on it. So here's what I've been up to.

Most of them are preschool file folder games.

This little game is for Emily and learning her numbers. She has down her "3" and "4" REALLY well. I have no idea why she'd learn the ones in the middle the fastest.

I really like to see the pieces. I tried gluing on freezer zip loc bags to the back of some file folder games two years ago, and they didn't stay very long. So this time I laminated it inside and cut a slit with a razor blade for the opening. I think it would work better with laminate rather than the contact paper that I used. I have a laminator but it doesn't do this big.

Here are my singing signs. On the back of the "Stop" sign is a "Go" sign. We've had fun with that one besides singing with a fun little game. (Red Light, Green Light which is a little easier for my girls to use the sign.) The lion is for loud with a mouse on the back for soft and the bee for "Zzzzz" and a ghost on the back for "Ooooo". We Love to sing at our house. We sang "I Love To See the Temple" together in church last Sunday. I had forgotten that it was the day Nathan and I were supposed to sing. I was still trying to convince him that he wanted to do it with me. We got to church to find our names in the program and practiced "I Love To See the Temple" together as a family. (Luckily I have to be there early for choir and could postpone choir practice just long enough to practice our song.) The first time we sang Emily didn't know what to think. The second time she started singing with us and the third time you could tell she absolutely loved it and was singing to her primary music teacher that we asked to see if she could hear us in the back. Meredith was content to let Daddy hold her and she would sing in his arms. When we came up to perform it Emily did REALLY well. I was so impressed. Both of my girls won't sing in primary, but they performed in front of the WHOLE congregation. After we were done and walking away Meredith yelled, "MY TURN!" The congregation got a good chuckle out of that one. It was a nice dream come true for me. I loved singing together with my family.
Here's Nathan helping me teach Emily her numbers.

We've finally turned to numbers for Emily because she has all of her letters down including most of her lower case letters. (We get the lower-case p and q mixed up as well as h and n.) Meredith has learned her letter sounds before her letter names. It's cute. She knows most of the letter sounds and can tell me most of the names. I really haven't focused on lower-case with her yet. She also loves to sit next to me while I'm reading a book (my book, the kind without pictures.) She'll point out the letters. "O says ah, T says "T", R says "r", etc." So cute!

Emily gets VERY excited when Meredith wakes up for her nap. It's so cute to see how much she has missed her sister. Meredith skipped out on her nap for the first time to my knowledge (I'm kind of suspicious about one other nap that I'm not sure was taken.)

I've also been enjoying making a LOT of nursing covers for friends having babies. Boy, there are a lot of babies being born around here it seems like. Including matching wipes case covers. One of these days I'll post pics.

Language

I loved the article in the Ensign by Elder Callister of the Seventy titled "Our Refined Heavenly Home". I loved the whole thing, but one part of it right now keeps coming back to me. In it he spoke about language we use (I am taking this somewhere, I promise.) Here are two quotes that are going through my head right now.

"Britain’s Ben Jonson said: “Language most shows a man. Speak, that I may see thee.”2 Our language reveals our thoughts, virtues, insecurities, doubts—even the homes from which we come. We will feel more comfortable in Heavenly Father’s presence if we have developed proper habits of speech."

"In his biography on Ralph Waldo Emerson, Van Wyck Brooks relates that Emerson was invited to speak at the commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the great poet Shakespeare’s birth. After proper introduction Emerson presented himself at the pulpit and then sat down. He had forgotten his notes. He preferred to say nothing rather than words not well measured. For some, it was Emerson in one of his most eloquent hours."

If we lived in a perfect world perhaps we would always measure our words very carefully, always say the right things at the right time, and never take offense (it probably helps that a perfect person would probably never give offense probably even accidently).

It makes me think about Thumper in Bambi when his mom asks him, "What did your father tell you this morning?" Thumper in reply tells her, "If you can't say something nice... don't say nothing at all"

Why could something so simple turn up to be so difficult? Here's to thinking before I speak and being slow to retaliate.

On a lighter note, if you haven't read what he wrote, read it. It is great. I especially liked his music section and what he said about a diet of musical french fries. I definitely need to improve my diet food wise, but my musical diet is great. :)

Traitor

Before finishing my class I knew I wanted to find a great book after I was done and read with no guilty conscience, or only a little for ignoring dishes and laundry if it were REALLY good. Otherwise I can put a book down and clean before picking it back up again. While I was at my parents' house this weekend Jess handed me this book that she had just finished.


Oh boy, oh BOY was it good. Couldn't put it down. I started it yesterday morning and finished it last night. (No worries, children did get cleaned, fed and taken care of during this process. And I at least kept the play areas clean. Kitchen of course is already off limits to them. See Here and Here for the reasons why kitchen is off limits.)

So now it's off to organize something. (You were thinking I would say clean the house didn't you.) Oddest thing about me, if I organize something the house just kind of magically cleans itself. :)

"I Waked Up!"

I went to my meeting for preschool today. When I came home I told Emily that she gets to go to school tomorrow. "We're going to go to bed tonight, and then when you wake up, you get to go to school!" This I tell her with signs (bed, wake up, and school) and she really comprehends me quite well with them. So she runs into her room and finds her backpack and shows me and signs "school". Then she ran back into her room and comes back out and says, "Mom, I waked up. Go to school." SO CUTE! I also had to explain to her that we're not riding the bus tomorrow (this has been highly anticipated by the 3-year-old) and that Mommy is going to take her in the car. The bus paperwork will take a few days to get through. So, we'll have a first day to school and a first day on the bus. I'm excited for her, and then not so excited to have my little girl gone...but I'm not going to think about that part! :s

Musical Colors

Here is our version of "Musical Chairs" 3-year-old style. :) We LOVE this game. We tried it last night for FHE with letters (not all 26, more like, 8). Anyhow, this is a great way to learn letters, colors and numbers. BTW, did you know what the 7 things are that a child has to know BEFORE starting kindergarten.

Here are the 7 things kids will be tested on in their first Kindergarten assessment test:

1. Know the uppercase alphabet and name the letters out of sequence or mixed up, such as: B, D, X, K, J, M, O, etc.
2. Know the numbers to 0-10 and identify the numbers out of sequence or mixed up, such as: 2, 5, 9, 8, 1, 3, 4, etc.
3. Identify basic colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
4. Identify basic shapes: circle, diamond, rectangle, triangle, oval, and square.
5. Identify basic coins: penny, nickel, and dime.
6. Count objects to 10.
7. Show how far they can count toward 100.

Got a free, new book with that one. "Let's Get Ready for Kindergarten" We love that one. Here's the link to the publisher's blog.

Oh, and we took this little video on a Sunday afternoon, so that explains the music. :) (It was that or Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Needless to say, I really never listen to this CD. Not a fave of mine.)

From Musical Colors

Old Tucson Studios

Last week my family came to visit and we went to Old Tucson Studios. My girls LOVED it. They had a carousel, some antique car bumper cars, a train and a log ride. We also saw a few of the shows they put on, but the girls were scared of all the noise (fighting, gun fighting, etc.). It was so much fun that I bought a membership. Later, I told myself that if I could get to a certain point in my class that I would take the girls back to Old Tucson. We went today. I asked Emily "do you want to go on the choo-choo train and the log ride and the horses?" And both of the girls said, "Yah! Grandma!" "Oh," I said, :( "Grandma can't come this time." So, in spite of that bad news, the girls still had a fun time and I think we rode at least half the horses on the Carousel today. :) Meredith had her first driving lesson today and tried riding her horse with no hands. She was teasing me because she would go between clinging to me (my neck) and holding on to the horse and loving it. So, every time she would cling to my neck I told her to hold on to her horse. She started teasing me by holding on to her horse and then letting go, and going back and forth between the two. Emily was NOT happy when we left. I'm amazed at how good her memory is.

So Blessed

I am so incredibly blessed to be able to tuck my girls into bed tonight. I constantly ask the Lord for safety and He has blessed my family with that safety. I am so grateful. We're all safe, at home, and I have two beautiful children here at home with me. Thank you, thank you, thank you to those that helped me search for my child today and to the workers at the Zoo as well.

When I pray with my girls I have them ask for safety. I know the Lord will answer their prayers and has answered their prayers today. We will continue to ask the Lord for safety in behalf of ourselves and all of our friends and loved ones.

Part 3: You Thought I'd Go Home After All This

Alright folks, read part 1 and 2 and then come back to this one.

This needs to be prefaced by two things. First, last week I washed my cell phone. I had it in my pocket of a loose pair of pants and it slipped unnoticed into the wash. My phone works alright if I use Nathan's battery. So, this morning I took both phones so I could switch the battery on the way there.

Second, I looked in the mirror at this point in the car to find I looked like a raccoon. Lovely. Nobody told me! Well, just one more thing to add to the list of things that could possibly go wrong in one day.

Let's continue, after we finished the rest of the loop of the zoo, (yes, that's right, I still went and looked at all the rest of the animals with my girls. I mean, I hadn't given up yet, why would I now?) I took the girls to take back some things at Wal-Mart. They were tired and grumpy but if I don't return something to Wal-Mart soon after I get the defective or unwanted item there is more of a chance it will never get returned, so we went today. To Meredith, I handed her my cell phone. Yes, I was desperate. She didn't like something about it and threw it on the ground. I couldn't find the battery anywhere and after a while just gave up thinking just maybe I had a little bit of luck in one day. After taking my children out of the store I got back in the car to find the cell phone that had the battery on the floor in the car. It just slipped and I grabbed the wrong phone in a hurry.

And now we're home and safe.

Part 2: When I Thought It Couldn't Get Worse

When I thought it couldn't get worse...I was wrong. For those that haven't read part 1 yet, stop, and read part one.

We were at the duck pond. A friend just got through saying how she wondered how many children fell in. I of course thought, boy, that would just complete our day (maybe not exactly like that, but something along those lines). I looked at Meredith to make sure I thought she would be alright, I mean, Emily is old enough not to do that sort of thing, right? And then...SPLASH!




And then the pictures tell it all. Luckily someone had brought a pair of spare pajamas. Emily was cold.

Part 1: A Mother's Worst Fears

We'll do the events of today in two segments. For heaven's sake, anyone knows that simply one of the events today were enough for one poor mother (the friends that spent today with us are currently chuckling at this gross understatement).

We went to the Zoo today for our Alphabet Playgroup. The Zoo was crazy and very busy. I think I've only been to the Zoo one other time where it has been so busy. Emily was wearing a pair of flip flops and every once in a while would have to stop and put them on again (she's getting used to them). Well, one of these times (I'm guessing this is what happened) She stopped to put them back on and I moved on thinking she was right behind me. WRONG!!! When I went back to find her she was GONE! Oh, then the nightmare ensued. The whole group went looking for her. I left Meredith with a friend so I could run the whole of the zoo to find her. I went to the front of the Zoo to see if a worker had found her already. She wasn't there. So, I asked another friend to go to the front of the zoo and make sure she couldn't get out the gates. Then I ran. The whole loop. Didn't find her and was thinking I was going to have to run the next loop in the zoo when the friend I asked to go to the front was waving at me that they had found her. Poor little Emily looked like she had just been through quite the experience herself. We just held onto each other for a while and I was bawling. I was exhausted. And not from the little bit of running I did. (Boy it's easy to run without any children to push in a stroller. Piece of cake.) But, I didn't want to leave the group and just go home, but it was sorely tempting. So we stuck it out so we could color our "Z" and finish the loop of the zoo. I hadn't taken a stroller to the zoo in so long but this time around I was sorry I didn't have a stroller so I could just strap them in and if they wanted out I would have just said "NO". Perhaps when I see if it is that busy again out in the parking lot, I'll take it. We could then add that what I do like taking is a sling (I'm not a huge stroller fan in certain places like the zoo.) But, I gave away my sling and then when I made another sling for me I forgot to wash it first before sewing. Well, now I have new motivation to get that thing made! Long post, I know, but it was an amazingly long moment in my life as you can well imagine.

"S is for Snake"

So obviously from previous posts you can tell I'm trying to teach my girls the alphabet. Thus the Alphabet Play Group and all of the other things I do with my girls. I have to find cute little ways to keep their attention and fun ways to remember what I'm teaching them. Emily didn't learn "X" until I would sign it for her. And Meredith and Emily say "S for Snake" when I show them the letter "S". Right now Meredith thinks every other letter besides "S" is "B" since our "B" party, but before that they were all "A". Ok, we're working on it. But she definitely has "S" down. LOL. Oh, and for "K" I said "K for Kangaroo" and I had the "K" bouncing all over the place and we were jumping up and down like kangaroos. What I won't do for learning. Anybody else?

Digital Scrapbooking How To's

Ok, for anyone who might possibly be interested, here's a little tidbit of information about digital scrapbooking. First off, download the software. Go to the Adobe website and download Adobe Photoshop Elements . Download the free trial version to make sure you like digital scrapbooking before you fork out good money. Then go to Shabby Princess and download one of their cute scrapbooking kits (the free ones) and then go over to her tutorials (Here is the one for Photoshop Elements). She doesn't use Photoshop Elements 7, so there may be a few more frustrating times, but realize google knows everything and I'm here too (except I don't know everything, but I'm willing to help). :)

Don't get all caught up in the choosing of a scrapbooking kit. Pick out ONE and then work at it. You won't get so overwhelmed with just one. If you have a hard time picking only one, have someone else just pick one out for you, or tell yourself before you look at them that if you can't find one in one minute you'll take the fifth one from the top or some other random number BEFORE you look. After you get the hang of it, it is not so overwhelming. Happy Scrapbooking!

p.s. If anyone reading this has any more fabulous tips, I'd love to hear them since I'm just getting started myself.

Digital Scrapbooking our first Tucson Zoo Trip

I am having lots of fun getting into Digital Scrapbooking. I'm hooked!

Alphabet Playgroup - Teddy Bear Picnic

I'm really trying to teach my girls the alphabet. So, I decided to use the playgroup to reinforce what I am teaching them. Today we learned about the letter "B". We had our friends bring their bears and we had a picnic. We had berries and bananas and brownies. Afterward, we colored the letter "B", played with bubbles and then just had fun. Someone beat me to the blogging of the group already and took lots of cute pictures. So, you'll just have to see how much fun we had over there.

PICTURES - for those of you that just scan for the pictures, click on the link. :)