Is It Naptime Yet

So I’ve finally been able to get the picture files opened.
Here’s our family pictures from earlier this month.
Ones we ordered:

Some of these I like so I’m sad we didn’t get them.(Jon didn’t like the fake or forced smile, because Lilah doesn’t smile like that on her own.) But to reorder would defeat the purpose of using a $3.99 a sheet coupon because it would be like $15 a sheet plus a fee for reordering.

Ones we didn’t order:

The ones the send you online are fuzzy so a person isn’t tempted to print them, though you can but they’re just not high quality.

 How the girls have grown from a year ago.

Eden coughed and Lilah said “Say excuse me Eden.”
So Eden said:
“Excuse you!”

Saturday we received a phone call from a friend. The husband asked if he and his wife could come over. I said sure and then worried.
Why would they be coming over?
They never come over.
Why would they come over without any kids?

They came and sat down and told us how the wife was the director for a small Christmas program that would be held at the Mormon Fort here in Vegas. This would be the first year for the program and it was actually being put on in part by a Lutheran Minister, so it was a nonspecific denominational type activity. They’re going to have people doing pioneer type things and they’re also going to have a live nativity. It’s a program and then the audience walks around.
After she explained that she asked if we would be the Mary and Joseph for the Nativity. (They know that Jon’s not a participating member but they hoped he might do this anyways.)
She said before you say no let me tell you why we picked you, or why we thought you two would make a good Mary and Joseph.
One, she said how I reminded her of what Mary might look like, two was be cause of how Jon treats me.
She went on to say when they were chosen to be Mary and Joseph in a live nativity years ago the director told them that she chose them because of the way her husband treated her. He was so kind and loving towards her that the director envisioned Joseph treating Mary that way. So, when they had to think of a young couple to play the part of Mary and Joseph they both thought of us, because Jon is so loving towards me and they see that love.
The wife and I both had watery eyes. One was to think of the love our husbands show for us but for me it was also knowing that Jon would say no, but how I would love this experience.
They asked us to think about it and to let them know the next night.
Well, while Jon and I both knew his answer I still thought about what it would be like to be Mary.

My first thought was my hair was not very long. I would have to tell my hairdresser to keep as much length as she could so maybe by December my hair would be to my shoulders. Then Mary probably weighed less than I am now, so I might use this excuse to lose a little of the weight I’ve gained.
I also thought about what kind of mother Mary must have been. Patient and loving, something I feel that I don’t always have or show as much as I should. I wondered what kind of 2 year old Jesus was and if he drove her crazy or if he was perfect. So part of me thought I might need to be a better mother so I could play the role of Mary a little better.

So, Sunday came. I had a little hope that Jon would play the role for me, but he said no. It would be too hypocritical to pretend to play the father to a miraculous birth which he believes did not take place.
I understood.
I was still sad.
I am still sad.
But ultimately I don’t want him pretending to be something he’s not, especially on such a grand scale.

We were to see the couple Sunday, but Eden was sick. So Jon stayed home with Eden and wrote a short letter stating why he couldn’t play the part because I wasn’t going to be the one saying no, he was.
The husband was disappointed but he understood that Jon would feel hypocritical.

I wish the opportunity had come two years earlier.
One, I had longer hair and two, Jon still believed at that point.
Oh well for missed opportunities.

It’s Nevada Day observed. Nevada Day is the 31st, but a couple years a go they passed a law to make the last Friday of the month Nevada Day observed instead of giving us Nevada Day or Halloween off, totally bites. I loved having Halloween off as a kid. So Jon has today off and we’ve been busy.

Jon’s going through all his books. Yes we’re actually getting rid of some books! If you’ve never seen our house we have two six foot tall book cases, then four three foot tall book cases. All full. With books. Overflowing.
We have duplicate books, like two of each Teachings of the Presidents, and lots of doctrine gospel study manuals.
We have about 5 sets of Scriptures that we’re keeping. (our first sets, our seminary sets etc.)
Our books haven’t been organized since we moved here 2 years ago, so even though it’s not a immediate ‘wow, look I organized the books’, like ‘wow I cleaned the kitchen’, I’m still very happy it’s getting done. Especially the getting rid of some books. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me.

I’ve also done slightly needless things today but it makes me feel good to get things done. Like I organized my sewing stuff so I could neatly pack it away. Though I still need to make drapes. 🙂
We’re also doing tons of laundry and two loads of dishes, and I’m planning on cleaning our bathrooms today.

I wish I could take a picture of the book chaos, but our camera broke. We do get to ship it free to Cannon and they’ll fix the sensor, but it won’t be fixed for about 2 weeks. So you only get this picture of the girls in their costumes from yesterdays party. It broke when I went to take a second one.

Lilah as Glinda the Good Witch and Eden as Dorothy.

Yes, I made both costumes. I did Lilah’s Monday and Tuesday, with hand sewing Wednesday. I hate costume satin. It frays like nothing. Despite difficult fabric I think Lilah’s dress turned out nice and shiny.

Anyways, if anyone has a digital camera I can borrow for Halloween, give me a holler, otherwise we’ll be recreating the event. 🙂

So I’m not much of a floor cleaning lady. In fact I wish I had all carpets, except the kitchen and dining room. But most of my house is fake hard flooring.
I hate mopping and I rarely do it because of how labor intensive I can make it..
It always takes me forever to mop and the floors stay wet far too long when you have little girls.
Not anymore.
I wanted to buy a swifer mop, but it was just too expensive. $30 at Target and no guarantee that I would “mop” my floors regularly. Plus it only comes with anti-bacterial stuff and we’re not for creating super bacterias or having such a spotless house that your immune system actually weakens because it’s not getting the needed germs to stay healthy.
Anyways, that’s why I keep my house dirty so my girls immune system is strengthen.

Go ahead eat off the floor it’ll make you healthy if it doesn’t make you sick.

OK I don’t really tell them to eat off the floor and I don’t keep my house too dirty, though to clean freaks it might be dirty.
If my girls do drop something on the floor I do let them eat it if it’s a dry food or if it can be washed off. If its’ wet and not washable I don’t let them eat it merely because I think it might have dirt or dust or strings now stuck to it if I haven’t swept within the last day.

Anyways. I bought a new mop earlier this month, just $10 at Target, I figured it was cheap enough that if I didn’t use it regularly it wouldn’t be has much of a loss as $30.
Well I used it this morning and I love it.
Unlike my old sponge mop I can wash the mop head. The first reason I bought the Libman mop.
When I used it this morning I was able to have my floors mopped and dried in ten minutes. Ten minutes instead of half an hour! Now I only did about half my floors, but it was the important ones. The dining and kitchen.
Since I can wring so much water out of it, unlike my sponge mop, the floors didn’t get too wet so they dried super fast, at least compared to my old mop.

Anyways the reasons I love fast drying floors are as follow:
Fast drying = less worry about the girls getting footprints on the floor = less getting upset at them for coming near the wet clean floor = I can mop when they’re awake and when I have the energy in the morning rather than waiting for nap time or nighttime when I don’t want to mop anymore.

I also like it because it doesn’t leave streaks on my floor since it uses less water. No streaks = nicer looking floors with less work.
I mostly like it for those three reasons. I like it. I think I might mop more often with this mop which I know Jon would appreciate and probably our visitors.

Today was Lilah’s first primary presentation. I’m getting old. I feel even older knowing that Lilah will be in her second year of Primary come January.

It was a hectic morning. Lilah was suppose to be there at 8:30 am, in which I think they said 8:30 in hopes that the parents would get the kids there by 8:50. 🙂 I took the girls and let Jon finish getting ready on his own. (I made him help me so we could get there at a descent time.) We got there at 8:45 and while walking up to the building I realized I still had on my casual brown flip-flops! I didn’t want to return home since I was waiting for my parents and Jon’s mom and sister to arrive.
I had our regular phone line on call forwarding so I would get any phone calls, so I called my cell phone, I had his, and left a message. He didn’t get it so I wore brown flip-flops with my black skirt and green top. Oh well.

Back to the real post.
Lilah was great. She gave her line, even though it took a second or so for her to start, once at the pulpit.
“Jesus Christ was Heavenly Father’s first born son. I am also a child of God.”
It went by so quickly that I almost wish she had a longer part or another one. 🙂
She gave her line great, and even though she’s shy in certain situations, she’s always spoken well when she’s had to give a talk in primary or say the prayer in front of them. I think talking into a microphone helps.
She was also super cute in her yellow dress and curled hair and she sang, when she wasn’t yawning, all the songs.
She was in the second row of the stand and even though we knew she was standing while singing the songs, she’s so short it was hard to tell if she was standing or sitting.

She sat well during the program and her teacher told me that Lilah said it was soo long, when our primary president came up to to speak at the end. It’s hard to sit still for over an hour, even if you are singing a lot, when you’re a 4 year old.

I got a little choked up once it started and after Lilah gave her line. But since she was at the beginning I was able to control myself the rest of the program.
The primary did a great job and I’m happy we’re in such a great ward.

So I’ve finally gotten pictures of baby Zarina!
Brien sent them to a Lacy instead of Lacey on Wednesday night, so once I called today we got it figured out and I just received pictures.

In Brien’s e-mail he said:
She has Andrea’s eyes, nose and checks and my hair color, lips and ears.
we love her a whole lot.

While talking to Andrea she said how easy the birth was. She was a 5-6 going into the hospital so they gave her the epidural right away and then pitocin when her labor was not progressing.
(I can’t complain too much, my labor with Eden went pretty much the same way. I guess Harvey girls are just naturals at this child birthing thing.)

She is very cute, and not an ugly newborn. (Yes, some newborns are ugly, something every expecting parent should talk about. 🙂 )
Andrea said how she had cute chubby thighs, which you can kinda see in the photo’s, but when she lost her newborn weight it was in her thighs.

Congratulations Andrea and Brien! She is adorable and I can’t wait to met her this Thanksgiving!
(I’m kinda jealous of Carolyn being able to have you at her house, but just a little because she will have a newborn at her house. 🙂 )

New Mom with baby Zarina.

Andrea said how she keeps calling her baby girl because it’s weird to call her Zarina, since she was named after a friend, the friend who introduced Brien and Andrea.

After her first bath.

Under the heating lamp.

Daddy’s arm.

Lilah asked who’s arm that was. Was it Brien’s or Andrea’s? I hope it’s not Andrea’s with all that hair. 🙂

Baby Zarina Marie Park!

When Lilah was 2 1/2 she used the word probably. It was funny, because she used it often and in the correct manner and most 2 years old don’t use words like that very often.
Last night at dinner Eden started using the word probably, like three time in a row. It was too cute. (She is around the same age as Lilah was.)

Then Jon said how Lilah mimic something I said. I had used “like she really wants to be eaten” while Jon was playfully pretending to eat Lilah. Then later Lilah said something with “like” in the sentence and it reminded Jon of me.
At least she wasn’t being the mommy. I have to remind both girls they’re not the mommy.

Another fun thing. The girls were being babysat while I was at the temple and Lilah started telling them about gravity. “Gravity holds us to the earth otherwise we’d be floating around and it would be silly.” My summary of what the family told me an what I sometimes hear from Lilah myself.
Kids are funny. I like mine.

I love holidays. I love baking. I love giving. I love receiving.

I’m in a rut this year. As the girls get older learning toys get more expensive, and we’re not big on giving tea sets or other more frivolous things. I leave those toys for my sister to have and my girls to visit at her house.
I just don’t know what to get the girls this Christmas. We’re not big spenders and most of what I want is kinda expensive.
I’m just at a lost of what to do. I have a couple ideas of things they would love.
Then I don’t know what to put on my wish list. I mostly want clothes but Jon will never buy me clothes, and he doesn’t like to give cash or gift cards. I do have some jewelry and watches, but that’s it besides movies or new cookware, which is expensive.
My husband’s wish list is so full of books that I never know which he wants to have bought, or which ones are just there for him to remember to read someday.
I also have to get gifts for my eldest brother and his girls. Since he’s divorce it’s hard to know what to get the kids and I never know what to get him.
Christmas gifts, blah.

Zarina Marie Park
October 15, 2007
8:22 pm
7lbs. 9 oz.
19 1/2 inches
At least I think this is what Carolyn told me, and I think she has it correct.

Pictures to come when Brien E-mails me.