Shopping Trip

After lunch today Ryan suggested I take some time for myself and go away.  The idea appealed to me.  I could do the 45 minute drive, do a little window shopping and get the grocery shopping done at Costco and Winco all without any whining or complaining coming from the "minions."  I didn't have to be home until after bedtime.  (I have such a nice husband!)

So I checked out Hobby Lobby for the first time.  Then I headed to the mall and did some shopping for (to quote Ryan) an "over the shoulder boulder holder" or three.  It had been a loooooong time since my last shopping excursion for similar items.  Afterwards I headed over and bought a couple of pairs of jeans for Elizabeth and just cruised the stores.  No fuss, no demands to visit the children's play area, no hiding in the clothing racks.  It was great.

As I got in the van Ryan called and suggested I go to Lowe's and look at dishwashers.  Our dishwasher isn't really all that old but it's been having some issues.  Such as- it won't fill up with much water, and you have to wrestle it to open.  We've been putting up with it, but we knew its days were numbered.

I was pretty nervous about buying a major appliance all by myself.  The Lowes guy pointed out "decent" dishwashers in my price range and then I got to make the decision.  On my own.  Talk about scary!

$400 later, I had my newly purchased dishwasher sitting in the back of my minivan.

Then I went to Costco and Winco and did my grocery shopping.  Not very exciting, but definitely necessary.

As I was driving home, I did a mental inventory.  $400 for the dishwasher, $100 at Winco, $50 at Costco...  Yikes.  That was an EXPENSIVE day out.

Ryan may never let me go shopping alone again. ;)

Bad Mother Moment #56770

I had day time plans today.  Not just a half hour story time at the library, or anything like that.  I went visiting teaching for 2 hours starting at 10 am, and then lunch time plans.  My phone was on vibrate, and at noon I checked my phone and then tucked it away in my purse.  Nothing.  No one ever calls me.  If Ryan was going to call, he would have done it earlier, and if my sister or sister-in-law wanted to chat, I would get back to them.  I didn't have to be home until sometime before the kids got off the bus.  I was going to enjoy some adult interaction.

Well, at 3 pm I had finally drug my children out of their friend's house and buckled them into their car seats.  I looked at my phone, and lo and behold, there were 2 missed calls and 8 text messages.

The school nurse called.  Emma was sick.  Ryan wanted to know if I could get her.  Was I there?  Was I going to be home soon?  He was going to pick Emma up from school.  Was I ok?

Oh crap. 

I am a bad mother.

Sigh.

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Incidentally, for someone who was "this close" to throwing up at school and couldn't eat any lunch, she ate a great big snack of pretzels and an orange, and was laughing and playing with the twins.  I started to feel just a little less bad.

{a sewing project}

For Christmas Ryan bought me a Kindle.  I was stoked, although I kind of knew about it before Christmas.  Ryan thought he was being secretive, but... well...  he wasn't. :)

I wanted to get a cover for the Kindle.  I looked for e-reader covers in town, but those were $20+.  So I looked online and it was the same.   Shoot, I could make one for myself for cheaper than that!  So I did.

I found a free pattern on Pinterest (Wahoo- I actually made one of the "to make someday" projects!), bought some fabric, and away I went.  I like it.

Here's the link to the pattern and directions.

Accident

Today while I was cleaning the kitchen, I heard wails in the living room.  It sounded serious- not a "You took my toy," or "You are mean!" cry, so I went running.  Annie was standing by the couch, mouth wide open and howling, and Maddie was hiding in a corner of the room.  I picked Annie up and cuddled her on the couch.

That's when my lap started feeling warm.  Really warm.  And a little soggy.

Uh oh.

Whether I had picked up Annie mid-accident, or my picking her up got things going, I don't know.  What I do know is in addition to stripping Annie's lower half and taking care of the usual puddle on the floor, I needed to do the same thing to me and the couch.

Nice.

As I was throwing some soggy laundry into the washing machine, I realized it had been a while since I've been peed on.  It's not something that I think about very often, but I appreciate the lack of bodily fluids on me all the same.

Snow Day

After the snow storm, we got a bunch of freezing rain.  Our school district doesn't really "do" snow days, but they've been known to delay or cancel school for freezing rain on top of snow.

Well, Thursday morning at 5:20 am our phone rang.  Our brand new automated phone system at the school got used for the first time to tell us school was on a 2-hour delay.  So Ryan turned off his alarm and we went back to sleep until 6:45 am when another phone call came in to tell us school was cancelled.  No one got up until almost 8 am.  The kids cooperated and it was great!

We suited the kids up in their snow gear at about 11:30 and Emma spent the next 4 hours outside.  Elizabeth had a 45 minute break to warm up midway through, and the twins lasted all of 7 minutes before the came in crying about their cold hands. 

The neighbor kids came over.  It's great having your own private sledding hill. :)

 The kids attempted to make a jump on the hill for the sleds, but weren't very successful, so Ryan went outside to help out.  He's just that kind of nice guy. 

Snowgirls at Night

The snow finally caught up with us last Wednesday.  After dinner we dug out all the snow pants, hats, gloves, scarves, boots, and I spent a half an hour suiting everyone up.  Seriously, it's ridiculous.  Sometimes I think my children aren't very bright when it takes us 6 tries to get fingers and thumbs properly situated in a pair of mittens.  But eventually the children all looked like the Michelin Man and we gathered our sleds and headed for the hill down the street from our house.

We had to make a snow angel or two first.

We had some good runs down the hill and then we went home for some hot chocolate and bedtime!

My Spell Check-er

I have a daughter who knows everything.  Just ask her.

One day this week, I was checking what was on our calender (the one on the fridge) and I found this:

Yes, sometimes I purposely misspell "night."  Sometimes when I'm in a hurry.  And Emma now has taken it upon herself to be my spell check-er.  How sweet.  She had better not ever look at the notebooks of lecture notes I took in college.  I had all kinds of abbreviations.

It made me laugh.

To Nap or Not to Nap

I have a couple of little girls who like to inform me they are big girls.  They are, in fact, too big for naps.  While I can't get them to stay in their room for a nap after lunch, we can have some quiet time on the couch in front of the tv.

Maddie looks like a girl who doesn't need naps, right?

What's in a name?

My mother-in-law decided to make a scrapbook about the names of her grandchildren.  Now that baby Simon has made his appearance, there are 7 grandchildren.  She sent me a text asking me how we picked the names of our children (um, how did we come up with those?) so I sat down and wrote it out.  I'm copying it here to our blog.

Why did we pick the names?  To start off- my name has been misspelled and mispronounced my whole life.  It bothers me on occasion.  I wanted the girls to have more traditional names, and we also liked the idea of using names from family members for middle names. 

Emma Christine- We poured over baby name books.  Ryan and I both came up with a list of names, and paired them with a longer list of middle names.  Emma felt right and we decided to give her my middle name.  (Of course this was when we figured Ryan would get his chance to pass along his middle name too.  Who only has only girls anyway?)

Elizabeth Amy- Before we even knew we were expecting her, Ryan said he liked the name Elizabeth, and Elizabeth she stayed.  Ryan thought he would like to use his Grandma Amy's name as Elizabeth's middle name.  They must have been awesome names because both of her girl cousins share those two names- Megan ELIZABETH and AMY Frances.

The twins- who would have guessed we'd have to come up with two more sets of girl names?  We felt like we'd already used our favorite girl names and it was back to the baby name book.  A few people suggested we stay with the "E" names, but the fact that Emma and Elizabeth both started with an E was a coincidence.  Besides, we were not super fond of Edith and Ethel.  Ryan and I threw around a few suggestions- they could rhyme or start with the same letter as the other but do they really want to grow up as Chloe and Zoe, or Kaylie and Kylie?

Anne was a name we thought about using as Elizabeth's middle name, so it was brought back as a first name (I agree with Anne of Green Gables that "Anne" should have an "e")   and I thought "Annie" sounded like a good little girl name.  What name would go well with "Annie"?  Something that didn't rhyme per se, but would end with an "ie"?  Maddie.  

So then we had an Anne and a Madeline who needed middle names.  We gave Annie her grandma's name (Kathryn), and Maddie her great-grandmother's middle name (Rae).

Date Night Extraordinaire

While standing with certain children in the church foyer during sacrament meeting last Sunday, I got to talking with Nick- a dad with two small children.  It's not like you can really listen to the speakers with the hubbub of children's voices out there anway.  He told me they understand us (Ryan and myself) now.

Oh? I said.

"Remember when we saw you guys at Walmart like a year ago, and you were on a date?  We didn't understand why you would go to Walmart of all places if you had a babysitter.  We do now."

Once you've paid a babysitter (for 4 children- ouch), had dinner at a restaurant (not so cheap either) your options are somewhat limited.  Staying in town there's bowling (done that a time or two), movie theater (really big ouch- so like twice a year when the in-laws are babysitting for free), a walk (not so fun in the dark), ice cream at McDonalds (yippee?), or do some needed shopping or just lame wandering around at Walmart (without the children). 

Eventually you get to the point where even wandering around the much-hated Walmart, if it is without the children, gets to be a break.

Hooray for parenthood.

Speaking of which, I need a date with Ryan soon.

Soap

During the holiday shopping season, I made an impulse buy at the mall.  There was this giant sign in the window of Bath and Body Works saying, "Buy 1, Get 1 Free!"  I was sold.  I don't usually buy anything from that store, but the temptation was irresistible.  I bought two containers of wonderfully scented hand soap.  When I got home I put one bottle at the kitchen sink (that soap was about gone anyway) and one in the hall bathroom.

Life was good.  For the moment.

And then the twins happened.

About three days after this trip to the mall, Annie and Maddie dumped out the whole bottle of soap.  All over the counter.  All over the floor.  Hand prints on the walls.  And the rest of it went all over and IN the toilet. 

It was very sad.  I may have mentioned my disappointment to a few of my closest friends.  On facebook, and at my Primary presidency meeting.

So for Christmas I got 4 bottles of hand soap. Everyone was so thoughtful to my misfortunes.  But I learned from my mistakes.  The nice soap is not in the hall bathroom.  There's some in the master bath, but the push spout gets put in the "lock" position every time I'm done.

More Vacation Pictures

Friday morning we did some more sight seeing in Salt Lake City.  We went first to the Beehive House and got a tour from another set of sister missionaries.

It's a good thing the rooms are out of reach- they are decidedly not child friendly.  I could not imagine keeping all those fragile "pretties" down at touch level for small children like it was apparently when families lived there. 

I have not had success. 

With so many things. 

Anyhoo.

Next we walked to the Church Office Building.

We took the elevator up 26 floors and looked over the city.

Before we left, we walked back to Temple Square.  (We were trying to wear out the kids a little before trapping them in the car for hours again.)  We watched all the newlyweds.  And when there was a small lull, we snatched our opportunity to take pictures by the temple doors.

Look at those cuties. 

Then we drove to Rexburg and met baby Simon.

Ryan's parents and his sister Brynne also drove down.  We got to hang out.  We stayed at the AmericInn and had the room next to Ryan's family.  (You can tell Brynne was ecstatic to have the girls climb all over her bed.)

We stayed through Sunday morning.  We went to church with the new parents, and Simon was given a name and a blessing.  Afterwards, we got in the car and made the long drive home.  Ryan suggested we finish the trip and start the new year as responsible parents- We fed the girls ice cream for dinner.  That's right- no deep fried chicken nuggets, or fatty hamburgers but good ol' ice cream for dinner.  Judge us if you dare.  We'd had our fill of peanut butter sandwiches and fried food. 

And the kids thought we were the coolest parents.  Ever.  It made the last couple of hours of travel just a little easier. :)

Lights at Temple Square

Once it was decided that my newest nephew would be blessed at church on January first (and our presence was required), Ryan and I threw the idea around about going to Salt Lake City first.  It was during our Christmas break, and neither of us had ever seen the Christmas Lights at Temple Square before.  The weather cooperated, so we went.  The lights were amazing and we are so glad we took advantage of the opportunity.

Salt Lake City

Last Wednesday Ryan, the girls and I drove to Utah.  It's a good 11 hour drive, and we left at 5:30 am.  The girls all did really well.  It went fine until we arrived in Salt Lake and attempted to find our hotel.  I know some people say the street names there are great and it's impossible to get lost with their street numbering system, but clearly we just don't "get" it.  We got lost.  It's a good thing the Red Lion is tall.  We got a good deal on the room and it was "just" 6 blocks from Temple Square.

Well Thursday morning dawned cloudy and quite warm for a December day.  We put the twins in the double umbrella stroller and away we went.  Incidentally, the city blocks are extraordinarily long and with our detour, we started off our day with a good 2+ mile walk.  Eventually we found Temple Square and we were quite excited to be there.

The last time we were in Utah Emma was 5 months old.  This was the kids' first experience at Temple Square, so we got a tour from the sister missionaries.

We heard the story of the seagulls.

Experienced the echos in the Tabernacle (all decorated for Christmas).

Saw the Christus.

Must... touch.... the.... water....

 Snack time.  It was a "fancy" snack.  You can tell because the pinkies were up.

 After Temple Square, we walked over to the Conference Center.  We got a little surprise when we walked in.  A familiar face greeted us from my parents' ward 10 years ago- now Elder Eddings.

 Afterwards, we walked over to the new food court and had Subway for lunch.  It was Daddy's birthday, so we made our sandwiches fancy- pinkies up again.

Later we went to the Joseph Smith Memorial building and saw the movie there.  They didn't give out tickets this time.  We arrived at the theatre about 5 minutes before the show started.  The movie playing there now is about Joseph Smith.  Watching movies about the pioneers always make me feel like a big wimp.  They endured so many hardships and I complain about inconsequential things like all the messes the twins make and how crazy it makes me.  Not a terrible hardship in the big scheme of things.

 Later we got a picture of the Family History Library. 

This is where my grandparents served their mission.  Then we looked around the Church History Museum until it was dark enough for the lights to come on at Temple Square.  (Those pictures will be in the next post.  This is long enough already.)

Once we completely wore the children out, Ryan decided he would walk the twins (in their stroller) back the mile and a half to our hotel and get the van to pick the rest of us up.  I don't think Emma and Elizabeth would have made it the rest of the way.  It was well past dinner time.  The kids had done amazing, but that was pushing it.  So while Ryan high-tailed it to the car, I took the girls to Deseret Book.

 Elizabeth found a place to rest:

Once we all got back to our hotel room, we ordered Domino's pizza and called it a night.  Sadly, the kids were not as ready to go to sleep as their parents were.  Even after all that walking.