Happy Anniversary

Saturday Ryan and I celebrated our 12 year anniversary.  Ryan bought me a dozen red roses.

 And then we got busy with the our big project of the day.    We have this giant black walnut tree in our backyard that is half dead, and getting worse.  Rather than wait for some wind storm to take it out, we decided to be proactive in getting rid of it.  A 74-year-old friend of my father-in-law came for the day to cut down the tree.  Roger W retired from cutting down trees about 20 years ago, but still enjoys helping people take down trees.

The before picture.

 The girls and the chainsaws.

 Ryan helping Bro. W get hooked up to the tree.

 Here we have quite the mess accumulating on our lawn.

 Ryan invited the missionaries to come over and help.

 It was interesting to watch how the trunk was cut.  First a cut was made, then Bro. W pounded in wedges.

 Once the biggest wedge was hammered all the way in, the trunk was not in a hurry to come down.  So we waited, and waited, and Bro. W climbed down for a rest.

Finally it started to go.

 Going.

 Going.

 Gone.

 It was a really hot day, so we stopped there, and focused on cleaning up our neighbor's alfalfa field.

 Our yard was a disaster.  We have huge holes in the grass, and so, so many broken sticks and tree pieces laying all over.  We tried working on it as a family, and progress was being slowly made.

After I got the kids to bed, Ryan and I celebrated our anniversary with some bottles of Henry Weinhard root beer, and watched a movie on the couch.

Tuesday we invited all three sets of local missionaries (1 for our ward, and 2 for the Spanish Branch) over for an exciting dinner of hot dogs and chips, and put all of them to work.  The 8 of us adults worked for over an hour, and we got most of the big chunks of wood and the larger branches moved, and then spent the rest of the time raking the smaller stuff out of the grass.  Then we roasted marshmallows over a fire for dessert with the two sets of missionaries who didn't have an appointment to go to at 8 pm.

Easter

Easter morning came a bit too early.  The night held too many fun surprises.  First Elizabeth had an allergy attack.  Once that was under control, and I was starting to drift off to sleep (for the first time that night), Emma threw up.  All.  Over.  It required a shower, and throwing her pjs, blanket, and pillow in the washing machine.  Poor Emma was shivering so badly as she was washed (even 10 year olds need help in the middle of the night while sick), and while I blow dried her hair.

Finally, we got to crawl back into bed.  I think about 2 seconds later the sun came up.  I groaned and wished for about 5 more hours of sleep.

But I rolled the tired bones out of bed, and helped the girls (well, the three that were going to church) get ready.  They all loved their new hair pretties that were in their Easter baskets.

 Ryan even pasted on a smile for the camera.

 Once they were off to church, I went to the washing machine to put the stuff in the dryer.  I opened the lid of my in-laws washing machine and saw this:

 Oh. my. gosh.  The pillow exploded.  It was laugh or cry, so I laughed, took a picture and texted Ryan about the devastation.  And then cleaned out the washing machine.  I cleaned as much out as I could see, but the next person to wash clothes got pillow fuzzies all over their clothes.  Luckily my in-laws are good sports and just laughed about it too.

After church (or the parts they stayed for), we played with the water rocket that the Easter Bunny left us.

 Then it was time for the Easter egg hunt in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard.  The eggs were VERY well hidden....

 The kids needed the adults' help to find the rest.  In fact, we may not have found them all.

 Grandpa mowed the Easter Bunny in the grass:

 You do have to look closely.  The camera didn't do a good job picking it up.  There are two straight ears, eyes, nose and mouth.

 There was one silver or gold plastic egg for each child, in addition to all of the hard boiled eggs we decorated.

Then it was {late} lunch time.  Look at that pretty table and yummy food!

The Twins' Version of Clean

Today Annie and Maddie wanted to play with play dough.  They had been coloring and cutting paper, so I told them they needed to clean off the table first.  A minute or two later, they said they were done.  I told them to go ahead and get out the play doh.  When I came to see how they were doing, I noticed where the paper had been moved to:  

Off the table it was.

It was now on the chairs and floor.

The Christening of the Kitchen

It seems to be a tradition in our household for Ryan to christen the kitchen.  Over the years our kitchens has been sprayed by all kinds of things.  Baking soda and vinegar, enchilada sauce, and hot fudge sauce have been amongst the most memorable.  Now hot chocolate has christened our new home's kitchen.

Annie was less than amused.  

(I may or may not have said something like, "Don't wipe your face before I get the camera!")

Ryan was trying to melt mint chocolate chips into the hot chocolate in the blender.  I guess once the liquid hits the boiling point, it sprays out of the blender, lid or no.  We learn something new every day

 After we thought we'd cleaned up the mess, we found spray on the other side of the kitchen.  Note, the arrow is several feet from where Ryan was standing- on the other side of the rug.

Vomit and Poo and No Sleep, Oh My!

There is nothing quite the the quiet shuffling of little feet into your bedroom to wake you up.  Unless it's a little voice screaming, "Mom!  Dad!"  That is pretty effective at waking me up as well.  The shuffling of feet was Annie in the wee hours of Tuesday morning and the yelling was Maddie well before the sun coming up today.  We rolled out a make-shift bed on the floor of our bedroom (next to the bathroom) so we could help the kids.  Annie and Maddie both were sick last night.  And were still at it today, from both ends.  Let me tell you, it's tricky to get the timing right between bouts in the bathroom to take Emma and Elizabeth to school.

I had to take a step back and laugh a little at my life this afternoon.  I had brought all the remaining clean underwear to the downstairs bathroom (as we've been going through many a pair today).  So between the panties and the Lysol wipes- this is my day in a nutshell.

.

I think we've turned a corner finally, and might be starting to get better.

My Great Idea

When we moved into our new house, I had this great idea to make the kids just a little more self-sufficient.  We had all kinds of kitchen cupboard space and water available in the refrigerator door, so I left the plastic cups down low where all the kids could reach them.  This way, instead of responding to, "I'm thirsty," 30 times a day, they could get their own cups of water.

I thought I was so smart for about one day.

The refrigerator door also dispenses ice.  Ice that spews everywhere when the button is pressed by small hands.

Annie and Maddie also developed a new game.  Fill up a cup with water, walk it across the floor dripping all the way, and pour it down the sink drain.  (Ahem, Pergo flooring is not ideal in the kitchen.)

I felt like I was going through with a towel, mopping up spills about every 20 minutes.  I was going to go crazy trying to protect that silly floor.  I just kept telling myself, "This is just a phase."

And it was.  The door dispenser has lost much of its appeal.  The kids are back to asking me for drinks, and I have to remind them that they can get their own.

The New Toy Room

How do you get your kids to play with their toys?  

Ask them to clean up their toys.

New Past Times

Annie and Maddie have discovered new and fun past times in the new house.  Dropping socks and clean laundry from one floor to the next must be pretty fun.

Rising Make-up Artist

And here I was thinking just yesterday how it's been a while since anyone stole any of my make-up.  At least I can be thankful it was just on her face and not all over the bathroom.

Mess Makers

The other day towards bedtime I walked into my bathroom to this:

Sadly, I have no idea when this happened or who the culprit is.  Judging from the size of the hand prints and rough placement on the walls, I'd say it was one of the twins.  The entire contents of the bottle of foundation was in the sink.  Oh well.  I had to go to the store anyway.  The night before the twins got my bottle of body wash down and by the time I found it, their bathwater was very soapy and the bottle was filled with water, and they were working on the face wash.  I already have to put the shaving cream up on top of the shower doors.  It looks like all the various bottles in the shower will join it up there.  The rack hanging from the shower head just isn't quite high enough.

Goo

On Monday Annie and Maddie were destitute without their big sisters and dad at home.  I just don't make the cut some days, I guess.  We had a major case of the grumps.  So after lunch, I made up some cornstarch "goo" for the twins.  I made pink goo for Annie and purple goo for Maddie, but about 20 minutes into it, they were combined.  Over the next hour and a half, the table, their arms, legs and clothes, the floor and walls were decorated.

 Once most of the 2 cups of cornstarch was mostly used up, I thought it was time to try to clean up.  I threw the twins in the bathtub, and started scraping, then sweeping....  And Emma and Elizabeth arrived home from school.

Guess I'll have to clean up again.

This is what my life has come to

Sometimes when I send certain of my kids to go to the bathroom (because they obviously needed to go) they don't quite make it.  Somehow the act of me telling them to use the toilet becomes a trigger to have an accident- usually in the bathroom right next to the toilet.  I've been told that having your children clean up their own accidents will encourage them to make it to the toilet.  (I'm still waiting for that to happen.)  So Twin 1 or Twin 2 will grab one of the towels hanging up in the bathroom to mop up the puddle.  The only problem is sometimes the towels are vigorously used when those same little ones dry their hands and the towels end up on the floor.  Ryan will, on occasion, leave his towel on the floor after his shower as well.

So I don't always know the reason a towel is on the floor in the bathroom.  Rather than having a pile of damp towels on the floor, I will pick up the towels and hang them over the shower doors.  Just until I do the next load of laundry.

This has back-fired on me.

Earlier this week when I was getting out of the shower, I grabbed a towel and used it to pat my face dry.  It smelled a little... off.  As I was drying off the rest of me, it dawned on me that maybe I had grabbed the wrong towel.

Ok, that's nasty.

I told the story to Ryan.  He mentioned that this same towel situation has happened to him too.
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I wasn't going to post this story (it is a little bit gross), but a friend of mine suggested that I should.  There needs to be a record of the odd and gross things I put up with from my children. :)

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.

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.

Momma's Little Helper

There's something about fall.  The weather starts to cool a little, and I start wanting to bake and craft.  I thought some rolls sounded really good.  Of course, my Darling Little Helpers got in on the action.  They helped measure and mix and knead.

How can I say no to that face?

I sent a picture of this to my mother-in-law.  She wrote back that it looked like good fun.  (I couldn't help but add, "Except for the cleaning lady.  Meaning me...."  but only to myself.   I'm such a negative person, I guess.)

Terrible Twos

I think Annie and Maddie are conspiring to convince me it is not worth showering.

Monday afternoon I put them down for their nap and jumped in the shower.  About 5 minutes later my clean clothes were in the toilet, they had stripped down and joined me in the shower.  So I plugged the tub and decided they can't get into too much trouble in the bath.

I had to leave the bathroom to go find new clothing.

Annie and Maddie pulled every towel into the bath with them by the time I got back.

I went down to the laundry room to make room in the washing machine for some stuff.  (This generally requires me moving the dry clothes out of the dryer, and the wet clothes out of the washer.)  When I came back, it took me a second to realize why the floor was so shiny.  Obviously Annie and Maddie's boat (which was the bathtub) was taking on water, and they needed to bail it out.

I may have shaken my fists in the general direction of the bathtub.

I didn't shower again until today.  I put it off as long as possible after last time, and with good reason.

Again, I got the twins down for their nap and got ready for a quick shower.  About 8 minutes later Maddie came into the bathroom to tell me she was "stinky" and Annie had "pee'd."  Usually she doesn't tell me about Annie's diaper situation, so I figured something funky was up.

It was.

Annie had taken off her diaper to put on a too-small bathing suit that I thought was packed away in their closet.  Then she had an accident on her floor.  Annie looked at me with her big eyes when I got to her room, and said, "Uh oh, Mommy.  Clean up!"

And Speaking of the Next Great Adventure....

On my way to the kitchen, I found a lone Ziploc baggie on the floor. Clue #1.


And then I found another.....

I came around the corner, and voila! The culprit:

Notice there is a child lock on the drawer. But when your hands are as small as Miss Annie's, child locks don't matter.

Band-aids

When your 4-year-old decides she doesn't want the cabinet in the bathroom to open anymore, and she's left alone for 5 minutes, this is what happens.

I Love You, Mr. Clean

This is the twins first contribution to my continuing collection of wall art. Luckily, it was only pencil and I convinced Elizabeth to clean it for me. The Mr. Clean Magic Eraser might just be the best cleaning product out there. If for some reason, there is a parent out there who doesn't own one, you should definitely give it a try. It has taken off Sharpie from a computer keyboard before. (Only if you catch it right away, but still-- very amazing.)
I honestly don't know if it's the fact they are twins, they are larger in stature than the previous two, or they have such great role models, but Annie and Maddie hold the record for youngest members to pull a pencil off the table and scribble on the wall. Seems like Emma was older when she made beautiful wall decorations for the first time. Maybe it's because I had so few distractions then, and could watch her more?