Is It Naptime Yet

I’ll probably give more trip details like Wednesday or tomorrow, since all I need to do is grocery shopping and laundry. Jon cleaned  the kitchen and allowed me to leave him with a  sink full of dishes even though I had time to do them before I left on Thursday. He’s the best husband ever.  Of course he just watched movies, scanned pictured for various projects and had one working engagement for a gentleman he’s worked for on and off since right after we were married.

I just want to say I am happy to be home because my daughters got pretty clingy this weekend and I am so looking forward to a girls night with Anna this Thursday. We’re going to the farmers market and they’ll have a Jazz band at the Cafe there at the Springs Preserve, both are free, except the produce you buy. I was thinking I might take the girls, but this weekend sealed the deal that Mama Bear needs time away from her cubs.

They travel fairly well, but towards the end of the trip they started shutting down to other people, or acting shy, in which they were very talkative and normal towards the same people at the beginning of the trip.  I am just happy to be home and able to hand them off to Jon. It’s not that my parents wouldn’t help, because they did very much so, but when the girls were needy I was the only one they wanted so it made things a little stressful.

Jon’s now getting them ready for bed, a little late, but he’s still getting them ready for bed and I’m here at the computer blogging.

He’s the best husband ever.

With being away from my house so often I feel like I’m back in my college days. It’s always a mess and even if I “catch up” in one room, there’s always another mess waiting. I think it’s starting to take a small toll on me and my desire to clean. As in I only do the bare necessity. Dishes when we need something to eat off of, laundry when we need something to wear. Life is busy and when I’m home I’m lazy.

Monday was the dentist.
Tuesday I was home and I did cleaning in my kitchen and other areas.
Wednesday I had the reading/writing class I’m doing with Lilah with my friend Beth. I think I’ll have to write more about it later because I’ve only vaguely talked about it in my blog.
After the class I came home, made cookies and went to a local park for the unschooling group.
The girls had tons of fun, a post to come later with pictures.

Thursday I hung out at home for the morning. Doing more of the bare minimum house work or maybe I was reading blogs to avoid housework. The days become so blurry. That afternoon I went to my sister Kristi’s house to watch her kids while she had some doctor appointments.

Friday we went to Nancy Skinner’s house, a woman in our ward, for some water fun. She and her husband had a huge inflatable water slide for their grandchildren and she invited some of the moms to bring our kids over and have fun. My girls didn’t do the slide, but once the trampoline was free from bigger kids they jumped on that. Nancy had a sprinkler underneath it to keep it wet and the girls had fun bouncing each other.
I was home for the rest of the day washing laundry and doing other random things.

Today we had family pictures. We went to the JC Penny portrait studio at the Galleria Mall and really liked the photographer. In the past we’ve gone to the Penny’s at the Boulevard Mall, right after Jon’s gotten off of work, but the last two years portraits just weren’t very good. (Our original photographer went out on her own and it was just too expensive for us.) As long as this photographer stays there or an equally qualified one does the portraits I think we’ll continue to use Penny’s. We’re spending a high amount for the CD so we’ll have the rights and will be able to print out whatever portraits we want, and you want, possibly for a small fee if you want more than one ’cause this CD cost us a lot, but there won’t be any regrets that we didn’t buy a copy of this or that pose. Jon’s also a sucker for originals and I am just hoping we can find a nice but cheap place to print out the photo’s.

Now I just need to go over my church lesson before Jon and Eden come home from their date. She wanted to go to the Library, but her nap went to long, so she asked to go to the Springs Preserve, but it was also a little late, so he took her to the temple, ’cause she’s been asking to go. I think it’s funny that he took her to the temple to walk the grounds for their date. I guess it shows his support for the girls decisions. ( I love you honey.)

Update: Now that’s it’s past midnight I’m finally getting around to posting this and I still have to finish going over my lesson. I’m just not feeling it this week so hopefully it goes well tomorrow, I mean today.

I guess it’s time for bed.

Luckily we’ve been able to visit my sister Andrea and her husband Brien once a year since they’ve moved there.
It’s always fun to just visit them and enjoy the delicious food they feed us.

This year we went camping with them at Great Basin National Park at the Wheeler Peak campsite. We were about 10,000 feet above sea level. It was beautiful but the night was very cold. I’m not sure how low is got, but Ely is around 45 degrees at night and they’re only 6,200 feet above sea level so I would say 35 degrees is a safe estimate, if not modest.

We got to the campsite a little before 5 on Friday night. Andrea and Brien had camped there the night before so they had done some hiking that day. We went on the short nature trail to see how the girls might fare the next day. It was fun and we decided later that night that we would attempt to do the 3 mile, round trip,  Bristlecone Pine trail that Andrea and Brien had done that day on Saturday.

While on our nature hike Brien made dinner. A delicious roast with veggies. We then roasted “smarshmallows“, according to Eden, for smores. Lilah had about 3 smores and 3 marshmallows. Eden had less because she was too busy going done the hill next to our camp with her little lantern. Brien said she was brave and that as a kid he would have never attempted to go that far in the dark.  It was only about 30 feet, but he would be scared because his father would hide in the bushes and then scare them as kids. I’m not sure if we are nice or not cruel parents for not scaring them and letting them be brave or if we’re boring for not having more fun and scaring the wits out of them in a dark campsite. (We do play games where we scare them at home, but I think we try to not scare them in new situations that might scar them for life.)

We extinguished the fire and went to bed around 9, I think. We had a lot of marshmallows and the girls kept saying how tired they were. I think they just wanted to get in the tent since we had banished them once the sleeping stuff was laid out so it wouldn’t get too dirty.

It was a very cold night. Jon and the girls appeared to sleep fine but I woke up pretty regularly due to my cold face. My eyelids were so cold that it had the affect like I was sleeping with my eyes open and they felt miserably dry. I had to go completely into my sleeping bag or cover my eyes with a shirt to keep from waking up from the cold.

That morning while getting dressed Lilah said it was too cold of a campsite. I totally agreed. Eden awoke around 6 am so, so did everyone else in our tent. It was fun.

We had some granola and Andrea heated up water for our apple cider. It was a cold but beautiful morning. We, in which I really mean Jon, started to pack up after breakfast so we could go on the hike later that morning. Andrea and Brien had a church activity that evening, which Brien had been put in charge of, so they had to go home to Ely while we went hiking.

The Bristlecone trail was beautiful and we saw a couple does as we started the hike. We also saw a doe on the way back. The girls did the hike fairly well. Lilah and I were wearing new shoes so our feet hurt. (I know we should have worn them before the trip to break them in, but who likes to wear shoes in 100 degree weather. She had to get new shoes because her feet had grown, and I needed new shoes because my current shoes hurt my feet because I have weird feet and thus mostly wear flip flops.)

Jon completed the hike but the girls and I rested while he finished the last 10 minutes, which would have been 20 minutes with the girls. (We had no idea how much longer the hike was, we just knew we we’re close to the end. It turned out to be pretty rough right before he got to the Bristlecone Pine grove so it was better that we had waited.) While waiting we ate trail mix and talked to passing hikers.

Jon carried Eden for most of the return on the trial. She was really tired so he carried her and then would have her walk and then carried her etc. I stayed with Lilah and we talked and sang a few songs, and made up some songs. Eden also made up songs which she sang to Jon. She loves making up songs when she’s by herself.
The weather was perfect for the hike. Since we were in the mountains there was always a cool breeze. It was perfect for long sleeves.

It took us 3 hours to hike the 3 mile hike. After the hike we packed back into the car for the drive down the mountain. We ate at the cafe connected to the Lehman Caves visiting center. We haven’t taken the tour yet, and hopefully we can next time we pass through Ely.

After eating we headed to Andrea and Brien’s. Showers and the comfort of electricity awaited us.  I stopped by the Church activity for food that evening and took Zarina back home so Andrea could help clean up. I enjoyed the Olympics while we waited for them to return home.

The girls shared a room with Zarina and Jon and I were in the living room. We didn’t have the air mattress pumped up enough so whenever he moved I woke up and whenever I moved he woke up. It was a warmer, but still restless night like the night before.

Zarina started making noises a little after 7 am so I checked in on the girls. Eden was awake and Z had seen me so I had no choice but to pick her up. I watched her until she got a little more fussy and then gave her to Andrea around 7:30.

We had breakfast and since church wasn’t till 1 pm for them we were able to visit that morning. Lilah and Eden loved Zarina’s toys, I guess I only need baby toys to keep them entertained, and Eden said she didn’t want to leave Ely. Too bad for her because we left there around 11:30 am.

It was a nice visit and I always just enjoy being with family.

I slept like a rock Sunday night. I don’t remember waking up or turning over till that morning. I was so tired that the bathroom light hadn’t awoken me when Eden went in there sometime that night. Jon found her asleep on the bathroom rug with the light on. (We sleep with our door open for better air circulation and normally the bathroom light is too bright for my eyes.)

Thanks for having us and bringing extra camping gear Andrea and Brien. We all enjoyed it and the girls are telling everyone about their adventure to Ely.

Here’s a video of our trip.  (The song is by They Might Be Giants and is called ‘C is for Conifer’.)

… Is Lilah teaching the world her many wisdoms!

The first is How to Make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich.

The second video are clips of what she did before, during, and after teaching the world how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Lately she’s been asking a lot of questions about how the people are in the TV. If they’re real or if what she’s watching is really happening, opposed to acting I think. She asks about the cartoons she watches and how the get there.
After watching a cooking show she got the idea that she should give the world the idea of making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, so yesterday we made the video of her making the sandwich.

I think she’s so cute, and does a wonderful job. I also love all the knowledge she has in her young mind. The second video really shows her little mind at work.

So this is my long journal post about the day to day of the last couple weeks.

Last week, as in Thursday July 31, 2008 I spent all day sewing. I was making an apron for a friend. I’ll post pictures once I get the pocket on. When Jon asked Lilah what she did all day she said “Mommy sewed for a serious long time.”
I just get into projects and like to finish them.

Friday I went over to help my MIL. They’re trying to get the house fixed up and have found a very nice handyman. She’s also trying to downsize, and they have a lot. I would take more of their books, except we have no where to put any and I’m not going to add another bookcase to my house. It’s already overrun with books. I think we need a bigger house, which ain’t happening anytime soon,  or we need to get rid of books we have.  The neighborhood kids called our house a library for crying out loud, which makes Jon proud I’m sure.
It was a pretty progressive day and I just hope my MIL can continue to let go. They’re very big pack rats and in some ways it’s good, other ways it just gets in the way of living more comfortably.
That night Jon and I saw “The Dark Knight.” I enjoyed it, I love Christian Bale, but it was also a little long for me.

Saturday Jon went on a field trip with the girls to his work. They visited his new office, mostly to see if he left his thumb drive, something he can’t live without, and to visit the Natural History building there.  They have different exhibits and some animals. After that they went to his parents to install the computer for his mom.

I stayed home on Saturday. I was asked on Thursday to give the lesson for Sunday but was so busy that Saturday was the first opportunity I got. I also cleaned the house while the others were gone.

Sunday was church day.

Monday I went back over to my in-laws. I had forgotten my blueberries there and figured I could try to help my MIL more. With all the changes she wasn’t up to making any decisions on getting rid of stuff, so we mostly talked about different things and I encouraged to to get rid of certain stuff.  I went shopping for her and the girls stayed with my in-laws. My MIL told me later that even though we didn’t clean or get anything done she still enjoyed having the girls there and the time she spent talking with them, rocking with them, and listening to them lifted her spirit.

Tuesday the girls had swimming lessons. I’m not sure what else we did that day.

Wednesday I went to Henderson. We visited my sister Carolyn’s work, went to Target, had lunch with Anna, and stopped at the park for the unschooling group. We had cloud coverage while at the park, so it made it a little more bearable and it rained lightly for a short period of time. Then it got hot as the sun came out again and it was time for Eden’s nap, so we left.

Thursday we had a birthday party in the morning. I had a headache that afternoon, which I rarely get so I’m a baby anytime I have a headache that lasts, so I didn’t get much done.
That night I went back to Target and Mervyn’s to check out clearances for Lilah’s cloths next summer. Neither store had very much and I realized that girl clothing is twice as much as toddler. If only she could stay a 5T. I was also looking for clothes for family pictures. I found what I was looking for for the girls, but I it still doesn’t go with the shirt I planned for me, so I may need to find a cute navy blue shirt, cause my regular blue just looks dingy, even though it’s not dingy, just regular, next to the navy blue of their shirts.

I also got an antenna for our TV. It helped bring in the stations that are digital, except NBC. I guess once everything goes digital we won’t get NBC. Since the Olympics officially start tonight we’re using regular analog TV signal, but after that it’s back to digital.

Today I dyed my hair back to it’s regular darkness. I tried to over a month ago, but I was worried and didn’t leave the dye in long enough. Now I have lovely dark hair to contrast my fair skin. Hopefully it works and keeps the highlights dark.

Now I should go clean the many areas of my house that are bothering me including the dishes.

See the following. (I promise it’s not usually this bad, but it gets this bad when I’m lazy.)

The girls closet. Those clothes were at one time in the box that they’re covering, though it has looked like this for a while.

We ordered sleeping bags from Amazon. Jon’s planning on making a solar over with the boxes so I can’t get rid of them.

Our shred pile. That trashcan is full of papers to be shredded.

A corner in the front room. which holds my sewing machine, the apron I’m working, stuff from Jon’s old office, but it’s supposedly toxic form mold that the building held, the pizza box is holding paper his parents gave us, then random papers I don’t know what to do with.

My, it looks organized but really isn’t, hall closet.

Lets see what gets done.

Lilah’s been obsessed with Jack, Andrea and Brien’s dog. We’re going to be camping with them later this month and since it’s on the horizon, still far away, but close enough that all she can think about is Andrea, Brien, Ely, camping, and Jack.

Case in point. She wrote this letter to Jack last week.

She wrote this letter to Andrea and Brien the same day. Well I wrote it but she dictated it to me.

She drew this picture for Andrea and Brien while at Grandma Blake’s on Friday.

That’s Andrea and Brien in the upper right corner.  She’s writing “It’s Lilah” on all of them.

She drew this picture during sacrament on Sunday.

She drew these Monday.

Before Lilah added the spots Eden told her “That’s a cute mouse Lilah.”

She also had me write a letter to her friend Britta about how Jack is so nice to kids and she should meet Jack. I didn’t get a copy of that one though.

I’m enjoying her art and her willingness to start writing letters and words. I’m happy she’s writing any letters and trying to write new words.

This is pencil.

Yeah, I guess we need to work with sounding out words, but I’m happy she tried, and I was sleeping so she wasn’t able to ask me.

It was a hint to Eden that she needed to find the pencil so she could find the pictures Lilah had drawn for her while she had taken her nap.

I’m loving her new love of drawing and writing.
(Did you notice the dog, even in a picture for her sister.)

So, I actually forgot to make Eden’s video for her birthday. (I think it was lost in my mind somewhere.) So, today I made the video celebrating her first three years of life, though half of it is pictures from her first year. (She was such a a cute baby.)

Since I’ve made a few of these some of the pictures will be duplicates, but what can you say, if it’s a cute picture it’s a cute picture.
And the song is the same one I used for Lilah’s, but I love it too much and have not found another song that I like better.

Eden watched the video twice tonight and enjoyed it. I’m just happy she’s young enough to not care that it’s a little late.

I’ll post events and pictures from the birthday celebrations later.

For one of the the first times in my life, I’m really busy, or at least a lot busier than I would like to be and on a regular basis, at least for the time being.

Last week was a little crazy. We had swimming lessons, visiting Jon’s parents, a new class for Lilah, shopping for Eden’s friend party, Eden’s friend party, Eden Day at Chuck E’ Cheese and then Saturday, which was spent doing random things while I waited for the thunderstorm to pass so I could turn on the computer to work on my lesson for Sunday and the FHE lesson for my family, which was Sunday afternoon.

It’s been a little chaotic around here.

Yesterday was the climax of everything and today I decided to do the things that have been driving me up the wall.

Our house has been super cluttered lately with the new gifts coming in, stuff we buy, and then the regular papers and things that are already piled up. Worst of all my floors were so gross that I, myself, had just stopped sweeping because what’s the point when cupcake or bread crumbs will just continue to flow to the floor after each meal and the spots on the floor just match the crumbs. It wasn’t totally disgusting, but it was really bothering me. Jon could have cared less, or he said it wasn’t that bad.

So today I did stuff. Lots of stuff. I cleaned my kitchen, mostly, which included really cleaning the sink, not just a wipe down after doing dishes. Cleaning my stove top and wiping down counters. I got the crayon that had transferred from Britta’s seat out of the head rest and now I just have to clean the seat and my drivers side mat from when I stepped in gum.
I organized some bookshelves so I could find a place to store the puzzles Eden got from Carolyn and I organized the girls toy shelves to make room for new things. I read stories, got  Eden down for her nap, I got a short nap, Lilah no nap even though she’s been up since 5:30 am.

I’ve also vacuumed my living room rug and mopped my floors. Lilah said I shouldn’t wear dirty shoes on the clean floor, but I’m pretty sure her feet are just has dirty as my shoes. Having dirty floors and piles of books and toys waiting for a spot was really stressful on me. Especially the dirty floors.

Now that I’ve had a good day of cleaning I feel prepared for the busy week ahead with more swimming lessons, a class for Lilah, a trip to the mechanic, and needing to go help my in-laws, which will be on a regular basis, or should be.

Luckily gymnastics is done till September. I’m hoping I get get Eden poop trained by the time it starts.

Where does the time go?

Jon crocheted me a shawl for our first Christmas. It was funny because I thought he was a total nerd. He would crochet while at work as a lab worker on campus. (So he would be surrounded by other college students and be crocheting as he sat at his station until someone needed help.) He carried around a bag with yarn and would pull it out when he had nothing to do.
He made me the shawl because I was always cold at church. I brought it a few times, but it wasn’t really my style, it’s more my mom’s style, or grandma. 😉
It works wonderfully as a personal blanket during winter months, so it does get used.
I was cold  this Sunday at church, as usual.  Later that day we were cuddling on the couch and he asked me about bringing my shawl to church.

I replied it wasn’t really my style.

He told me someday I’d grow into it.

Today while in the car I sat in the backseat with Lilah. We had a rough time getting out of the house and Lilah wanted cuddles, so Jon drove and I was chauffeured around.

Lilah made the observation that if we had a third baby we wouldn’t be able to take Carolyn to Utah with us. So we shouldn’t have a third child.

I guess I should go get my tubes tied now.