Watching the good

I don't know why I never thought about it before but I just realized in the last few weeks that there are probably a lot of worth watching shows on BYUtv that are on the BYUtv website. We all know of the trash on tv station websites but why not good, uplifting, make you feel better for watching types of shows as well? After talking to my father about my grandmother purchasing a volume of the Joseph Smith Papers as well as some of the television series, I made the connection to the BYUtv website and lo and behold, there it was/is. I have been watching the Joseph Smith Papers episodes in order for the last couple of weeks and have thoroughly enjoyed learning more, I almost feel like I am taking a religion class from the best the church has to offer. I am so grateful to have found something that I can feel good about and relax after long days with. I am now Seeing the Good more often, thanks BYUtv.com

Home at last

We arrived home yesterday. I can't believe that a week went by so quickly. My body sure noticed that week though; the almost 5 hour trip out wasn't that bad, but oh, did I hurt last night and even this morning from the same trip back. We were fortunate that despite leaving at 2 and not getting to Truckee till 330, we didn't hit any traffic on 80 or 5 and made it home in 4.5 hours. Good job driving honey.
I had originally written the following last Saturday but obviously didn't get it posted till tonight, so all the days mentioned are from last week.

I knew that there were a few things I wanted to mention last night…

  Fun words - I am all about teaching the girls to pronounce words correctly but sometimes there are a few words that I allow the girls to mispronounce until they correct themselves. Cassidy used to say “fling-a-moes” instead of flamingos. At first I couldn’t even pronounce how she would say it but I miss that little quirk. At one point she learned how to say flamingo correctly and then went back to saying flingamo, but of course she now says flamingo. I wish I would have taped her saying flingamo. Molly has two right now that Joe and I LOVE. She says “sir-bup” instead of “syrup” and “juh-bob” instead of “good job”. There are a lot of other words that don’t quite come out right or we just can’t understand but we let those two slide and even play along with them. She will figure them out soon enough.

  Yesterday morning Cassidy and Molly came into the kitchen area carrying toys and a hat. Molly said she wanted to share with me what was in the hat but Cassidy told her not to, so of course I wanted to know what was in the hat. I asked Molly what was in the hat and she said chocolate. I found two Reese’s peanut butter cups, two Milky Ways, and a Snickers bar; they were all fun size mind you but still… Where on earth did they get the chocolate? As it turns out the day before, I fell asleep on the couch for a few minutes and Cassidy climbed up on the counter and got into the chocolate jar and stashed some in a box in her closet for later. It also explained what was around her mouth when she came in and woke us up yesterday morning; I thought it could be chocolate but I thought there was no way that she could chocolate because I had put up the jar after I found Cassidy in it after I woke up. So after I confiscated the chocolate and asked if there was more, nope, and then I asked for any wrappers, three. Cassidy had snuck eight chocolate bars, sneaky smart girl. Reminded me of the brown sugar episode, a few months back.

  This morning, Joe got up with Cassidy and let me stay in bed a little while. He said by the time that he came down he couldn’t find her. Eventually he found her hiding in a cabinet in the kitchen with the bag of Goldfish crackers. I am starting to see a pattern here.

  This afternoon, Joe and I took the three girls down to the creek behind us. We hadn’t been down there more than five minutes when Joe pulls a little fish out of the water with his bare hands. It was dead, but most have died super recently because rigamortis hadn’t set it and it still flopped like a live fish. For some reason Cassidy really liked the fish and wanted to hold it, and did until I finally made her throw it down the creek because it had started to smell, about twenty minutes. She held onto it like it was something important and kept taunting Molly and me with it, she would put it down in the rocks while she would play in the water and then she’d pick it up and continue to play with and hold it. At one point she held it so close to her mouth that I thought she was going to bite it, on the head. Yuck.  

  While the older girls were playing in the creek Julia was fussing a lot, mostly because she was tired because Molly woke her up from her nap. I wasn’t able to console her so Joe took her and she just played koala (I love it when she does that). After about ten minutes, she was out. It was so adorable to look over at Joe in his swim trunks holding a sleeping Julia. He was even able to keep her asleep while he hiked up to the house, got the girls to the house despite all the dirt, and got the two girls showered and dressed. Juh-bob Joe!!!!

After note: The day following the chocolate incident Joe found TWO more wrappers in Cassidy’s room. I guess she had even more hidden than we realized.

Good job

Molly has created a unique way of saying good job, by pronouncing it "Gu Bob."  It is one of the little things I have let slide.  I like it too much too correct her.  Daddies get some indulgences, right?

hodge podge

Wednesday was 7/11, which happens to be free slurpee day at 7Eleven. We were driving and it was coming on lunch time so we looked up the closet 7Eleven and stopped. What a fun memory, to be sitting in the back of our odyssey with our lunch and free slurpees. I wanted to get a picture of it, but of course the camera was at the bottom of the basket and wasn't worth the effort, so I just logged the scene in the memory bank. Sounds trivial, but it's those little moments right?
We forgot our pack-n-play and with only one crib here, we had to come up with a sleeping plan, and it has been interesting. Cassidy is in a HUGE queen size bed in the same room as Julia in the crib. Molly is in a twin bed next to a twin bed in her own room. Two firsts, Julia sharing a room and Molly not in a crib. The days had to come and we were forced to do it. The first night Julia cried, a lot. Not sure if it was because it was a new room or because it was too bright to hide that fact, but it took her a while to get to sleep. Now she's falling asleep much easier and the challenge is to get Cassidy not to wake her up in the morning when Cassidy wakes up. Julia will even take a three-hour nap in her room!! We are quickly getting to the time when we had to put the bookends as I call Cassidy and Julia together and it seems to be  successful so far. Molly, oh Molly. She's been the x-factor. One night she was up and out of her room for over an hour, the next night she was out in five minutes, tonight we are still having a stand off. She's just playing on her bed, after lots of trips out to "go pee", throw out the stuffed duck, get the stuffed duck, and who knows what purpose.
I don't have a favorite child but I think my favorite age right now is 12 - 16 months. It is such a fun and enjoyable age. Julia is such a joy to be around. The few tantrums are quickly swallowed up in all the cute and adorable things she does. It seems like every time I turn around I want to say 'ahhh, you are so cute!!' She walks around tyring to put on any pieces of clothing or shoes she finds, she loves to walk around on her toes, she loves to chatter and is acquiring more and more words every day, and she is such a love bug. Maybe it's the contrast with the more difficult stages Molly (cry about everything) and Cassidy (bosy and defiant) are in. Despite their own challenges, Molly and Cassidy have moments that are just as cute and wonderful, those moments just seem to come less often than with Julia. They are all so different and it is amazing to me every time I really notice it. They were born different, with different temperaments, different likes/dislikes, strengths/weaknesses, etc. My challenge is to learn the different ways they need me to deal with each of them.
I am so grateful to have all these girls in our family. They love each other and at times they surprise me with the acts of kindness they show towards each other. Molly is such a share bear and often Cassidy will talk Molly into giving Cassidy the last portion of whatever Molly has, and Molly will do it with a smile. Cassidy tries to help her sister and when one of them cries she often is quick to get to their side and try and console them. Oh and Julia has just learned how to kiss and she will go around and give everyone kisses.  She even makes the smacking noise before she kisses.
Molly is asleep!! Almost two hours after going down to bed. We are all still learning.
What else?? Five weeks to go, that is my prediction.  Six max. I can't believe it. Maybe that is why I am enjoying Julia so much, she knows and I know that it's almost over with her being the baby. It kind of makes me sad. She will be the oldest of any of the girls when this little boy comes but it seems like her being the baby is going to be over much too soon for me. I don't know if I am ready for the sleepless nights and all the havoc that it will do on our schedule. Life is good right now and I know that things are going to change big time after this baby comes. He's squirming around right now, maybe to reassure me that it will be just as wonderful as it is now but it's a little scarey to me right now.

It's vacation time!!!

We are going on vacation!! For the first time since last August. It's hard to believe that it has been 11 months since we have gotten away from town but with all that has been going on it kind of just happened. I am so excited to be going away just as a family this time, I don't remember when that last happened either. We will get to decide what works for us and not worry about disturbing anyone else or accommodating someone else's not-so-early/hectic schedule.e get up early, we (the girls) go to bed early, and we can take up as much of the room as needed so that everyone is comfortable (and sleeping). I have been trying to get us gone for three months now but something always came up and now with the baby coming in probably 6 weeks, it's do or die, and we are DOING!!!!

The garden that was (not) to be

Last December when I was thinking of what I wanted for my birthday I was so excited to put in a garden this summer, all I wanted was seeds. I went through a couple catalogs and founds some fun looking varieties of melons and lettuces etc. Joe and I had decided that we weren't going to talk about getting pregnant until summer so I was really pumped to have an awesome garden. Well, the seeds came in the mail the week after Christmas, just in time to find out we were surprise pregnant. That kind of put a little damper on the garden, but when the first trimester fun hit, we were sunk. Seeds did get started, a lot late and fairly neglected. Then we spent a few weeks preparing the garden area (last summer the garden didn't happen due to construction so we had a lot of work to do, and the weeds...). But it just wasn't going to happen this year. I started a second flat of seeds about April (?) and they are still in the flat waiting to be planted. I can tell that those new varieties haven't survived, darn.
The weird part is that in May or so we noticed little plants coming up in our large garden bed. They have steadily grown since then and we have since discovered what they are, cherry and yellow plum tomatoes and butternut squash and pumpkins. So thanks to our compost pile that never got hot enough to kill the seeds, we now have a plethora of squash and tomatoes, just not the most desired varieties. Those not so little plants are the only thing keeping me interested in even trying to get our little starts in the ground, but that won't happen till next week because....