Lulu's 4th Birthday!

Lulu made it to her 4th birthday on the 10th. I know it has taken me a few weeks to get it posted, but we have been doing stuff. I actually remembered to take a picture of her with her haul. I like to be able to look back and remember when she got stuff and who it came from. We got her 2 pair of shorts, a t-shirt, a zip up hoodie, a dress and a fishing pole. Her grandma K got her the letter, number toy. She was so excited about the "fishing cole" so she can go fishing with daddy. Unfortunately it was already broken, so we gave it to her and then promptly took it away, so we can return it and get her a different one. She was less than impressed, but able to distract herself with her letters and numbers toy.

I tried something new for her cake.

I found a really fun rainbow cupcake recipe and instead of doing 24 cupcakes, i did 12 cupcakes and a double layer cake the size of a loaf of bread. The colors were so vibrant and it was pretty darn tasty. I even made real frosting which was extremely yummy too.

My attempt at photography

I have a new found respect for food bloggers

and their awesome food photography skills.

(I am also hungry for these cupcakes again)

Since their birthdays are only 10 days apart I got them both

in their birthday outfits and tired to get them to smile at me.

Sticky 2      Lulu 4

Chopsticks

During the family reunion the Husband gave me a much needed break by taking the girls for a few hours so I could hang out with the family and just Smiley. He and cousin M took the girls into town to check it out and of course go to a sushi restaurant.
Isn't that the thing to do when you go camping? If you know the Husband and cousin M, then this is actually extremely normal. The Husband once drove 8 hours round trip, just so he could go out to sushi with cousin M at a particular restaurant.
I do not like sushi, so the Husband has to get his fix when he can.
At the restaurant, Lulu grabbed a set of chopsticks, picked up a roll of sushi with them, and popped it in her mouth. (I think it came right back out as she wasn't impressed with it.) What was impressive was that fact that it was the first time she had ever held a pair of chopsticks. The Husband and cousin M were both shocked and told me about it the minute they came back. I was impressed, but figured it was a fluke.
Well, we went out for thai food recently, (by the way we have found a thai food buffet that is totally nifty) and I gave her some chopsticks to see if she could do it again. To my amazement, she did, multiple times. She uses them a bit odd. She uses both hands on the chopsticks to pick the item up and then transfers them into one hand and pops it in her mouth. She did it way fast, so I had a hard time getting pictures. The kid just barely turned 4!

Just for posterity I will mention that we went to this restaurant a second time and she would only use the chopsticks as drumsticks and hitting implements and they were promptly taken away from her. She is talented, but still four.

Smiles and Naps

I realized that I never actually set my goal for how often I was going to write on here. I feel slightly pathetic that I failed my first goal, to set a goal. That probably says something about me, but I am going to choose to ignore it. Unless I find myself having huge issues again, I think I am just going to wing it and write as often as I have something I want to record. Don't you love how I feel the need to justify myself, to myself. Really that is who I am writing to on this blog. The Husband doesn't read it. In fact someday I will make him sit down and read it all and he will be so happy and slightly embarrassed that I decided to record our lives like this. He'll have to start his own blog to get his side of the story down.

Smiles :)
I think I nick-named Smiley appropriately. The child is extremely smiley, often. Especially in the morning when he first wakes up. He is so much fun to interact with then. He has a new trick too. When he is laying on his back, I lift his arms up over his head and he laughs a lot. It is so cute! In fact, I need to get the Husband to help me record it on video, it is that cute. Fun how even though this is our third child, the baby cuteness is just as fun as the first time. Lately he has also been smiling at me while he is nursing. It makes me laugh. Here he is eating away and all of a sudden he is smiling at me with his food source still in his mouth. It is good to know that with the craziness and chaos that his two sisters exude, he still has reason to be happy.

Naps
Please don't hate me for the following statement. Lulu, Sticky, Smiley and myself take a 2-3 hour nap almost everyday. How is this possible you may ask? Later on in my life I know I will be asking myself this, so I will answer myself now. The girls still need their naps and I am reminded of that every time they miss them. Just today, we spent the afternoon with some great friends and the girls were so busy playing that they did not even think of naps. We got home, ate dinner and I worked on Lulu's birthday cake for tomorrow. The girls were okay watching me and stayed fairly out of trouble. Then Smiley didn't want me to finish the cake, because he felt the need to eat and be put to bed, so I helped him get to bed while the girls then decided to go crazy. They were goofy and loud and rambunctious and just plain loopy. I then tried putting them to bed and Lulu lost it. She was hysterical about the fact that she did not want to go to bed. Sticky joined in as I shut their bedroom door and counted myself lucky that I was not sharing their room with them. This is what happens when they miss a nap. This is how I know they still need naps.
The logistics:
I put Sticky down by herself and take Lulu and Smiley with me. Lulu complains sometimes and sometimes she complains a lot, but almost always, within 10 minutes, she falls asleep. We all end up waking up 2-3 hours later. This is the other reason I know they still need naps. I know I am so blessed to be able to get 3 kids to nap all at the same time. I also know that I should most likely be doing something a bit more productive then napping, but I am pretty sure Lulu would not take a nap if I was still up, so I make the sacrifice. I think we will try to forgo her nap when we start working on preschool, but we will have to see how she reacts to all that. Right now I am enjoying nap-time immensely, especially since Smiley still wakes up 2-3 times every night to nurse and I can't seem to get myself to bed very early, because I am enjoying my alone time that I don't get in the day, because I am taking a nap. It is a vicious cycle.
Yes, I just realized that it would have been better organizational skills to do this post as 3 separate posts, but it is getting late and I am tired and I just thought of it and am not going to change things now. I'll get better as I do it more. I'm so glad I could have this talk with myself. I am sure I will be glad in the future that I explained all this to me. Then I will laugh at myself for being a wackadoo. I am now off to wrap birthday presents for my first born child. She will be four tomorrow. Not quite sure how that happened, but it did so I had better figure out how to cope with that.

Grounded

I've grounded myself, which unfortunately means the kids are grounded too. After a week living outside and having to keep track of the girls while keeping Smiley happy, the thought of taking the three of them outside by myself almost makes me nauseous. I hope I get over this soon because I am going stir crazy with the girls not getting to run their wiggles off outside. I am going to attempt to take them to playgroup this week.

I love the ward that we are in right now. There are many reasons why I love it, but one reason is that they do a playgroup every week on the same day, at the same time, at a local park if it is nice or at the church if it isn't. Similar people come each week, but sometimes different people come. I love being able to chat with the other moms and let the girls play in a pretty safe environment. Playgroup is the most social interaction I get all week long. I know that seems pretty pathetic, at least it does to me. I am having a hard time finding a balance between being a mom and being a real person. Being a mom totally trumps doing anything I used to do before I was a mom. To be totally honest, I can't remember much of what I did in my leisure time before I had kids. It makes it pretty hard to find time to do things for myself, when I don't even know what I would do. Unfortunately I fall back on watching shows, checking Facebook and blog stalking. I need a hobby that makes me feel like a real person, but doesn't encourage me to neglect my motherly duties. I love being a mom, but I feel I would be a better mom if I took a little time for myself to enjoy something. I have a desire to do something for myself, but feel guilty even thinking about it doing something. As Lulu would say, "I am having issues."

Happy Birthday Sticky!

My Sticky turned 2 on Saturday.  We got back from our reunion late Friday night and practically fell into bed like dirty, tired lumps. Saturday morning Smiley woke me up before anyone else had woken up, so we went shopping for birthday food for the day and presents. I hadn't done a thing before the trip in preparation for Sticky's birthday. I am cool like that. We basically ate meals that she would like, hung out, took a nap and then sang Happy Birthday, ate cake (which she didn't really eat) and opened presents.

I realized that I completely forgot to take pictures after she opened the presents. So we got her the birthday outfit she is wearing, which you can't see too clearly, another shorts and t-shirt outfit, a skirt and a Dr's kit. Grandma (the Wife's mom) sent a caterpillar that you push down and it rolls across the floor, summer pajamas and another cute outfit. We spent to rest of the evening trying to keep Lulu from stealing Sticky's new toys and trying to explain to her that it was not her birthday yet and she had to let Sticky play with her own toys. Lulu had a rough evening.

I suppose this would be a good time to say a bit about my Sticky, second child.

-Her hair is finally starting to grow so that I can do some ponytail things besides the Pebbles look from the Flintstones.

-She weighs about 23 lbs.

-She has the cutest smile and teeth on the face of the planet.

-She is very strong willed.

-If it is not her idea, she usually doesn't go for it.

-When she answers yes, she usually just nods her head up and down, instead of saying yes.

-She is incredibly sensitive. Usually a stern voice will send her to tears. Sometimes when we are disciplining Lulu, Sticky thinks we are disciplining her, and falls apart.

-She likes to fall to the ground and throw back her head, when she is throwing a fit.

-She can put on her own shirt, pants and shoes.

-She can be very sweet and often asks me what is wrong if I am crying.

-She loves playing with Lulu and she loves teasing Lulu.

-Some of her words are extremely clear and other times we have no clue what she is trying to tell us. She gets frustrated when this happens.

-She loves her baby brother and likes to give him kisses. If I leave him in bed in the morning, and I get her up first, she always asks me where he is.

-She almost always loves corn, hot dogs and cheese as well as any fruit.

-She has a piercing scream that she utilizes when Lulu does something she doesn't like.

-I think she might try to get Lulu in trouble on purpose, sometimes.

-She is a monkey and I rarely get worried about her climbing on things, because she is so good at it.

-She loves nursery and has only had issues with me leaving her there twice and that was a few weeks ago.

-She doesn't really have a favorite toy, but she enjoys dumping the big blocks out on the floor.

-She is only kind of, sometimes attached to her yellow blanket.

-She used to love a stuffed doggie, that we lost, but has recently started hanging out with a small stuffed, beanbag ducky.

-She loves to brush her teeth.

-She was born on her Uncle N's birthday.

That's all I can think of right now, but I might add more if I think of something.

We love our Sticky!

Family Reunion

Gottcha! You totally thought I fell apart again and wasn't really going to keep up this whole blog thing. The truth is that I was out of town for a week. It was the Husband's family reunion time, the one that is planned almost a year in advance, the one that we finally decided to go to, one week before it actually happened. Don't worry, camping for a week is so easy to prepare for with only a few days notice. NOT! 

Many months ago we had decided not to go based on many different reasons, one of which was camping with an infant for a week was not on my top 10 things to do list. Then one day the Husband comes home and says that we can go now because he got the time off at work. I, having the emotional stability of a jelly fish, burst into tears trying to figure out how to camp with a baby, toddler and young child not to mention the fact that this would mean not making it back to our old stomping grounds in Idaho this year, because there is no way we can do two big trips. He was kind of confused as to why I was so upset and we dropped the subject for a few months. He finally realized it would probably be better if we just plan a trip to Idaho Falls in September instead of the reunion.  About a week before the reunion he also realized that he could not undo getting the time off. So we had a choice, to either sit around home for a week or go to the reunion.

Now I truly do love my husband and he does so much for us, but I am completely serious when I say that I single handedly shopped for, prepared for and packed for this trip myself.  He came home from work on Friday, threw a few things in a bag for himself, completely forgetting underclothes and socks, which luckily I mentioned and he grabbed last minute and we left.

We got to spend a few days with my mother and grandmother before the reunion started.

Grandma
Lulu, Smiley, Sticky
I think it is kind of funny that Sticky is the only one
looking at the camera, yet everyone is smiling.

Great Grandma
Lulu, Smiley, Sticky
Here they are all looking, but only 2 out of 4 smiles

Great Grandma, the Wife
Lulu, Grandma
A not so professional 4 generation picture
(The cool thing is that we are all the first born
in our respective families and all have the
same middle name, which was my great
grandmother's first name.)

We got to go to the park with grandma and then we had a small birthday party for the girls, because their birthdays are both coming up in the next few weeks.  Lulu wanted us to put up the Christmas tree so she could get her presents properly.  I guess she associates all presents with Christmas. We really did get her presents for her birthday last year with no tree.  We went to the first part of church with grandma and great grandma, headed back to their home for lunch and then set off for the reunion.

Within the first few minutes of getting to the campground, Lulu had picked up a stick that had been in a fire pit and was almost completely covered in black ash. Within the first hour Lulu had already gone missing.  Luckily a kind lady brought her back to us. I tried to talk to her about being where we could see her and being scared when we didn't know where she was. I asked her if she had been scared and she said no, she was just sad that she couldn't find her grandma (the Husband's aunt, whom the girls call grandma because they hang out with their second cousin whose grandma it really is) but not our family. She was adamant that she had not been looking for us. I sure felt the love. Luckily there were no more missing children the rest of the week. There were ridiculously dirty children though. There were also ridiculously cute children. The girls got to hang out with their one cousin on the Husband's side. They loved it!

Sticky, Lulu, Cousin F

Cousin F, Lulu, Sticky

They got to play in the water at the lake.

Lulu, Sticky

Smiley loved being held almost all week. This made it kind of hard for me to do much although the Husband and Grandpa (Husband's dad) helped out for a few minutes here and there.

The Husband and Smiley

Grandpa and Smiley

Smiley

Smiley concentrated on being held and being cute.













Sticky got her hair done by Aunt R.

Sticky

She was known
as
Cindy Lou Who
for
the
rest
of
the
week.












The Husband got to go fishing twice, play on inner-tubes pulled behind the boat twice and stay up late a couple nights playing games with the cousins and hanging out with his brothers. He had a blast! I got to take the girls out on the inner-tube pulled behind the boat once and play Phase 10 while only taking care of Smiley, once. The rest of of the time I was nursing Smiley and making sure 2 little girls were behaving themselves and not getting lost or hurt. I kind of had to give up on the staying clean concept. I sure love my Husband and I would do it over again for him, but I'm hoping that next year will be a bit easier.

Blessing Day

Smiley is just a bit over two months old and he finally received his blessing in church on Sunday. We had to wait until The Husband had an entire Sunday off. We tried to wake up early so we could get ready calmly and leave for church a half hour before it started, so we wouldn't feel rushed. It was a good thing we shot for 30 minutes early, because if we had only shot for 15 minutes, we would have been late. It is so hard getting out the door with children! The Husband's aunt, cousin and her two kidlets, were able to make it as well as an aunt and uncle of mine and an old college roommate of mine that lives in the area. Since we didn't have any of the kids grandparents there, it was so nice to have other family members there to show their love and support.

The blessing was given by The Husband and was very sweet.  I took notes the best I could and since this is basically our family journal, I would like to preserve them here. Smiley was told that as he matured and developed, his mind and body would grow. He has been given a good character and personality. He will choose a study that will profit him.  He will use his hands for good and be able to befriend people. He will be able to choose good friends.  Someday he will choose a righteous woman to marry.  He will look to his family and Heavenly Father for direction.  After The Husband was finished he sat down by me and told me how nervous he had been and how he felt he had not said things very well. I was able to assure him that some wonderful things were said and as long as Heavenly Father had been directing him everything was perfect. 

Smiley looked so handsome in his little white dress shirt, white pants, white socks and white bow tie. I loved the bow tie especially! I have a friend that has a business making little girls hair bows and has recently branched out to little boys ties, as well as lots of other accessories too. If you hit this link and go to her Facebook page you can get to all of her cute ties.

This was most likely the most peaceful sacrament meeting we have had in a long time. You would probably think that was because of the wonderful blessing, and you would be partially right. The main reason was because the girls insisted on sitting behind us with The Husband's aunt, cousin and her kidlets. Although we still kept an eye on them, they behaved much better than they do for us, thus mostly peaceful. It was kind of fun pretending that Smiley was our only child for about 45 minutes. Every child should feel like an only child for some moments in their life. 

Had to show off the cute picture of The Husband and the girls!
(Sticky was cooperating enough to sit still,
but she couldn't be bothered to smile at the right time :)