Is It Naptime Yet

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.

So I was sick like all last week. Well my throat was swollen and I started sounding funny Thursday and today, Monday or 5 days later, I’m finally starting to sound like myself.
At one point I thought I might get laryngitis, but the girls weren’t so lucky as to have a mom without a voice.

I’m so happy to start sounding normal. I hate having a sick voice, though nothing else was wrong with me, any stranger wanted to stay five feet away from me, and I’m sure some friends too.

So I’m hoping to begin cutting Eden’s costume today. I’ll be going to the store to get the rest of the materials later tonight before FHE.

I’m going to have Naia 3 days a week this month again, so I’m not sure what I will and will not get done.

I’m hoping my sister Andrea has her baby soon, though it may be a little bit still.
I’m so excited for her.

I’ve heard that there’s been a lot of funk feelings going around.
I sympathize with you all, in different ways though. I hope we’re all able to get over them.

For me making the girls costumes is exciting to me. I really enjoy making things and having the girls look cute is so fun. I do like praise after all. 😉
I am bummed that our trunk or treat is the night of Halloween. The other ward that we combine with for this party decided to do it the night of Halloween, and the youth are in charge of games and carnival type booths. Yeah, what youth wants to be at a ward party rather than trick or treating. Honestly as a parent I would let my 12-17 year old decide where they wanted to be since they’re old enough to take care of themselves.
Also our block and neighborhood is always so quiet that I feel like it’s my duty as one of the few people who participate in Halloween to be home and give out candy. Literally we had five house on our little block out of 20-30 homes be home and give out candy last year, which included our home. I also don’t like having to pick between a church function and my community.
So I may stop by the trunk or treat, but that’s it. Which makes me sad because I like the fact that the girls wear their costumes twice when we have the trunk or treat on a different night than Halloween. I may crash my parents or sister’s trunk or treat if they have theirs on a different night.
I guess if we do dress up for Lilah’s class they get to wear them that day also, but I just don’t like ward activities on Holidays even if it is just Halloween and the trunk or treat is suppose to help replace the dangerous going out and trick or treating. I think to do it on the holiday secludes you from your community and how many wanderers off the street are we going to get the night of Halloween. “Hey there’s a lot of cars giving our candy lets go.”
Totally a bad idea.
Anyways, I’m off to start cutting fabric. The girls are going to be so cute.

Well Eden’s birthday was mostly fun. Lilah had a hard time sharing the balloon we got for Eden, or really even being apart from it, other than that whining it was a great day.
It started out that we had to got to Target to get Eden’s presents and some other miscellaneous things. We then stopped off at Smith’s for fruit and lunch for the adults that would be coming over.
Sam and Britta came over around 11:30. We had fun chatting while the girls colored and played  a little. I also baked some ready made cookie dough so we could have a snack.  We had the Stouffer’s Panini’s for lunch and the girls ate sandwiches. (I wanted to go to Costco and get turkey wraps but I didn’t have enough time to head over there.)

Towards the end of lunch Emily, from our church, and her two daughters, Katia (3) and Isabell (2), came by. I invited over just a couple people because our house is small and I didn’t want to do a party, it was more like a glorified play date.

All the girls got along well. One funny occurrence happened with Isabell. She saw a koosh ball on the ground and thought it was a spider and gave out a little scream. Emily went back to check on her and she tried to show her it was just a ball but Isabell was not buying it. Emily tossed it into the girls room and from that point on Isabell would not go into their room and stayed in the living room with us and she kept telling us about the “spider”. It was cute.
Everyone left about nap time.  I sent them off with some gladware containers that had Disney princesses or Hello Kitty on them. (They were in the dollar isle at target and I thought they’d be an easy “glorified play date constellation prize”.)
I baked a cake while the girls were sleeping and we had Eden’s favorite meal for dinner, Pot pies and rice and then some cottage cheese.

We weren’t planning on having any extended family for cake and ice cream but earlier that morning my mom called about coming over. She was out of town on Lilah’s birthday and had to work the night we celebrated Kaitlyn’s birthday so she wanted to come over for Eden’s birthday “since she could”. I think the grandma guilt of missing the other two granddaughters birthdays had just gotten to her. So for cake we had my parent’s and my brother Glenn here also.
Eden got two board books, one regular wooden puzzle and a fishing game board puzzle. It uses magnets and metal to catch the fish and was a big hit. (We’ve had it for 3 days and we’re already missing a piece, something that really annoys me because I’m kinda anal about keeping and finding all the pieces for these wooden puzzles.)

After the grandparents left we put the two girls down for bed and enjoyed playing with them a little longer than normal at bedtime.

Dearest Eden,

You’re two today. I can’t believe how you’ve grown! You’re much more independent than your sister was at this age and you definitely let us know when you’re unhappy, though it’s usually due to Lilah doing something you don’t approve of. You and her usually get along well, but when you aren’t getting along, you are not getting along. You’re a very kind sister and if I ask you give something to Lilah or to share you usually quickly obey.
You’re a very loving daughter. You often come up and give me random hugs and you’ll lay your sweet head on my lap when I’m at the computer, it might be because you want attention that you do the latter, but you’re kinda a mommas girl. You love hugging Daddy when he comes home and you often get to him before I do.
You’re very polite and will say bless you when you hear someone sneeze, even a stranger. You love hair. You often annoy your sister by wanting to play with her hair. You’re beginning to be a picky eater, but you take after your father in certain taste. You love graham crackers and milk after you eat your cereal, and so does he, you also enjoy brown rice, though you like it better with potpies, you’ll eat it with just butter and salt like your father. You also love cheese and especially cottage cheese. You ask for it right after you finish your graham crackers and milk.
You can be stubborn about cleaning up though, you love making a mess but don’t always love picking up.
You’re an early riser. I am often woken up by the sound of your voice saying “Mommy I’m awake, mommy I’m awake.”
You love washing your hands and brushing your teeth and you’re always so proud to tell us that you did it. “I did it!” is a phrase you use when you accomplish something.
You, like Lilah, love books and love being read too, and you enjoy coloring a lot lately.
You are a very sweet girl with a wonderful smile that is always on your face. You’re a bit of a cheese in front of the camera at times and you often don’t sit still long enough for a picture. You love to see the pictures that have been taken. You love being chased and playing games.
You are a very fun daughter and I am very happy to be your mother.
Happy Birthday little one.

Love,
Mommy

Our trip started out rough.

On Thursday I had stomach cramps. Like really really bad ones. I could hardly move. I think it was due to the forth like Eden’s sickness. Jon took off work shortly after noon and came home to help me. I had Naia so he actually took care of her since Julie had errands she was running that day. He feed her and changed her diaper and I even heard him playing with her while I was resting. He sad it was hard work taking care of small baby, well at least feeding her lunch, it took about an hour or so. hehe.
So with me being sick on Thursday I was unable to do any laundry or get anything ready for the trip. We weren’t leaving until the afternoon on Friday, but we were hoping to shampoo the bedroom carpets before we left. (Yeah that didn’t happen, so I now have to think of a way I can keep the girls out of their room for about 12 hours. Um, I’m not sure how I’m gonna do that unless they’re no where near my house for a full day, including nap time.)
So we left late on Friday, 3:00pm. Our destination was Filmore so we weren’t in any rush. Since I was still not feeling well and we were thinking of stopping at a restaurant in Delta on the way home, we bypassed Chuck-A-Rama. 🙁
We just ate at a family restaurant in Filmore called Larry’s and had delicious shakes. The girls ate very little the whole weekend, since we mostly had fast food.
On our way to Filmore we passed the forest fire. It wasn’t as big yet, but it had filled the valley of Beaver with smoke. The sun was also red as we passed through the smoke. We hit Filmore around 8:00 pm Utah time.
We all slept in a little on Saturday morning so we didn’t leave Filmore until 9 am Utah time, in which we needed to leave at 8 Utah time to get to Tooele. Oh well.
When we went out to the car Filmore’s air was full of ash and smoke. Our car had a slight layer of ash covering it.
The smoke didn’t really let up until we reached the outer limits of Delta near Tooele.
Luckily the day was hot, but not too hot for the outside family reunion. We had the gazebo at the park and we were right outside their huge pool. Lilah was not feeling well so we didn’t go swimming. 🙁 When we mentioned we shouldn’t go swimming when we’re sick she decided she was fine but we didn’t buy it. We had a fun afternoon seeing family and doing various crafts. We mostly just sat around and talked and then had a BBQ for lunch, a raffle and some trivia questions. Andrea’s in charge of next year’s reunion, so we’ll see if it’s in Ely. We aren’t planning on going because I want to do a major vacation. (If Jon’s family has one we’ll be there, but that’s because they haven’t had one since Lilah was one. Which means we’ve only missed one thus far since they only do them every two years, but one missed reunion often leads to a second one and a third and so forth.)
After the reunion we headed to my parents hotel. The girls had fun running around and Jon took a couple winks. We ate Wendy’s for dinner, mostly because it was right across the street. When it was around 8pm our time Lilah decided it was bed time and consequently Eden also decided to go to bed. Lilah settled on the couch and Eden laid down in her playpen. They both went to sleep without any problem. Lilah did come into bed with us at one point. She was little heater next to me though and it was cold in the room so I didn’t mind.
Sunday as we were getting ready to go Shauntae called to tell us her boys had caught what she had, so it must have been contagious. (We were hoping it was just allergies.) So with that we we decided to just pack up and head home. I wanted to come home at night so the girls could see the city lights so we left late and even stopped at a park to get some of their energy out. Jon had looked online and the roads had been opened so we thought we’d get home no problem. Unfortunately had we left earlier we could have missed the detour, but we left late. We saw some pretty mountains during the detour and at one point Jon thinks he saw someone pee off the side of the road when we were at the beginning of the detour and just in standstill traffic. It was entertaining to have someone pee at this time.
Eden slept through most of the detour and Lilah entertained herself. At the beginning of the detour Eden kept shouting “Truck go away” or something along the lines of telling the 18wheelers to leave. It worked as we were moving and passing them, but then we were in standstill traffic. Too bad they were right next to us and had no where to go. It was cute though.
After the detour we made it home quickly, though late, 10 pm. Eden had taken a long nap so she was awake to see the city lights as we entered the valley, Lilah had fallen asleep shortly after Mesquite.
It was nice to be home and in our own beds last night. I have Naia bright and early at 8 am tomorrow so hopefully I can get my dishes done tonight.
I made cookies with the girls tonight, so I’m reluctant.

One thing I learned. I really do not like driving on the interstate at nighttime. With the darkness and lights it’s just harder to estimate the distance of the cars and keep track of where they are mentally. I was happy when Jon took over after I drove through the gorge.  It’s fun to drive at night in a way but more stressful to me if there are a lot of cars on the interstate. Of course in the city we have tons of street lights so it’s not as dark driving at night even on the highway.

Well, we went to Utah this weekend for a family reunion. We were also going to visit Jon’s niece Shauntae but she was sick and then her boys got sick and we’ve been kinda having digestion problems, so instead of going up to see them today we came home. (This way we have a day to recoup since Jon only has Monday off.) It’s nearly 11pm. We left Provo 12:30ish and didn’t get home until 10pm. There is a huge forest fire around the Beaver and Filmore area near I-15, will right on I-15, so we had a huge detour that took forever. It’s still nice to be home. We shared a hotel room with my parents last night and I realized how much they both snore. Of course my mother blames my father and my father blames my mother. All I know is if I wake up and they’re snoring it’s hard to get back to sleep. It was still very nice of them to let us crash with them since Shauntae was sick. 🙁
I’m really bummed that we weren’t able to see Shauntae’s family, but I am happy to be home. Details will come later with a few pictures.  Jon took pictures at the reunion and the ones I took were of the forest fire.

For the fourth we had a couple of engagements.
Jon’s first engagement was to change the oil to his car. So he went to his parents early Wednesday morning. They have a nice flat drive way so he doesn’t have to worry about being run over by a car while changing it on the street.
While he was gone I got the girls and myself ready and once he showered we went to my friend Anna’s house for lunch with her and her husband Kevin.
The girls had a blast playing with the stuffed animals they have and petting the cats. Well, petting the cats for the short moments while they weren’t hiding from the girls.
We had delicious hamburgers, potato salad and I brought a green salad and Creamies. We didn’t get to the Creamies so I just left them there as a thank you. (We had creamies in Ely with Andrea and Brien and so when I saw them on sale for 3 boxes for $5 on my recent Smith’s trip and I couldn’t resist.)
Neither Eden or Lilah ate very well but they did drink all the apple juice they could.
After lunch Anna, Lilah and I went to JoAnn’s to pick out fabric for the dress she’s making me for Carolyn’s wedding. (She’s trying to start her own business on the side for now.)
I think it’ll be very cute so I can’t wait.
Eden was asleep by the time we got to JoAnn’s so Jon just sat in the car with her. We took an hour and a half so I feel bad that he was out there for so long (I love you honey.) but, Eden did sleep the whole time.
After JoAnn’s we went to a party that was for Carolyn’s office. She was kind enough to invite us and JC, who is Naia’s grandfather and knows who I am, was very kind to let us crash it. Lilah went swimming and had a blast and Eden did also. They both were doing very well in the pool and Lilah was getting herself around pretty well with the floaty that Minnie provided, JC’s wife. It was a blast.
We came home and just relaxed. We popped popcorn and later opened the blinds and watched our neighbors fireworks and then we watched them on whatever show that was on PBS. Lilah wanted fireworks but she hates loud noises, so even if we bought quiet ones there was no guarantee our neighbors wouldn’t be lighting off loud ones while we were outside.
It was fun day, but it took it’s toll on Eden.
Warning: very yucky details ahead.

When Jon was leaving for work this morning he went in to find that Eden had vomited in the night sometime. So he came in to me and said “Houston we have a problem” to get me up and in their room. Eden was still asleep and the vomit was dark brown and in large, dried chunks so at first we were confused about what it was, vomit or poop? I’ve heard of the horror stories of children eating their poop and she’s been so much trouble lately that I wouldn’t be surprised if she had. Well, her diaper was clean and at a closer smelling we decided it was vomit. Jon helped me a little with getting Eden out of bed but he had to leave for work so I finished cleaning up and got the girls into a bath. I think she got sick because she only ate some tomato and chips at lunch, accompanied by apple juice and then for dinner she hate a hot dog, no bun, and had gatorade and then popcorn with a little water at our house that night. So with the combination of hardly any water, eating only food that was not the best for her and being outside swimming on a hot day she got sick. She’s been fine today but we stayed home from a birthday party. It too was outside and I just wanted to keep her inside and get her system normal.
So that’s the whole holiday happenings.
It was tons of fun, just a little sad today.

For our Ely trip Jon took Friday, Monday and Tuesday off. He took three days off so he wouldn’t lose two hard earned vacation days with the new fiscal year that begins this July. (Yay! More money, just to be spent on my now due student loans.) (He can only role over a certain amount of vacation time to the new year.)
So the past couple of days have been us at home doing not much of anything on our to-do list. One reason is some things cost money and we don’t have much of it. Another reason is when were home together we don’t do anything but read, do regular chores so the house isn’t overrun in chaos, though at times it is anyways, and we each try to use the computer when the other isn’t on it.
My friend Sam’s husband is a teacher and he’s home during the summertime. I can’t imagine how slothful Jon and I would be together if he was a teacher and we had about 3 months to be at home together.

Literally the dishes are never completely done and the laundry never completely put away on his vacation days. (Not that it’s that much different on days he’s at work, but I have been able to keep the sink empty most of the time.)
There’s also toys that are kept on the floor due to us not making the girls clean up through out the day.
Chaos on vacation days, utter chaos.
Weekends can be different. Jon will do a lot on weekends sometimes. Sometimes he makes me feel bad because he’ll do more laundry or dishes than I did the entire week. Sunday is usually our not do anything day on weekends though.

So the things we accomplished the past couple of days. Monday Jon finished the clothes that I started, which included folding and putting away whites, folding towels that had been washed last week, and washing and folding the girls clothes. I did one load of dishes, but only because I felt bad because I slept half the day and he worked hard watching the girls and doing laundry. I was just soo tired and exhausted though. Jon also baked bread Monday night. Not much of anything else happened but Jon did do a lot. Today we went to the Library to return and check out books for the girls and one on home-schooling for us to read and we dropped our Netflix in the mail.

Vacation.

Really we’re not go-to people. We’re stay home and cuddle people.

Also:
Lilah got Eden her blanket for bedtime. While Eden said the prayer the first thing she said was about Lilah getting the blanket. It may have had thank you in there also. I just thought it was too cute.

So Lilah day kinda started Friday night when we made her cake. But Saturday was the real adventure.
The moment she got up she started asking to go to Chuck E’ Cheese. We had to explain several times that it wasn’t open yet and we needed to wait so Lilah then started asking if we could go to “Carolyn’s house” and go swimming. (Carolyn wouldn’t it be sweet if the house really was yours and not your boss’s. 😉 ) Unfortunately she had to wait until we were all ready. Lilah dressed herself so instead of wearing the new shirt I bought her on sale at Target she wore a shirt that’s from Katy’s hand-me -downs. Oh well, at least I was able to dress Eden in her new shirt.
We left a little late and had to drop the cake off at the house and in the process we forgot our camera. We borrowed Carolyn’s camera and took pictures at the pool party, but there are none of Chuck E’ Cheese.
For Chuck E’ Cheese Kristi brought her three kids, Carolyn brought Dominick, a boy she nannied that’s just 6 months younger than my nephew Howie and my friend Anna came with her husband Kevin, whom she dragged a long.
Lilah got a crown and a balloon and had a good time. Lilah only wanted Mom or Dad with her though, so Anna took Eden and had fun.

Fun things about Chuck E’ Cheese.
Anna decided it would be fun for Eden to go up the big tube tunnel and go down the slide but Eden isn’t big enough to climb up into it, Lilah can barely do it on her own. So she would recruit kids to help Eden go up. Dominick and Howie helped her up one time and they then came straight down the slide. Then Howie wanted to go play but Dominick wanted to go back up. We asked if they’d be willing to take Eden back up and they said yes. Well Howie just went right in and started climbing up, Dominick was at the bottom yelling up, “You’ve got to help my Howie” referring to help him getting Eden up. (It was a team effort one would be on the higher step and the other would push her up.) So Howie came back down and helped. From below you could see the shadows of Howie going on ahead in the tunnel and Dominick guiding Eden to go places. It was really cute.
Lilah and Jon played air hockey and she was actually pretty good at hitting the puck. Lilah , Eden and me had a picture of us “drawn”. (Picture taken and then transferred to a drawing look by the computer.) Lilah spent most of her time with Jon so I’m not sure what all went on with her.
A few of us got hook on the wheel of fortune game. you get 1-4 ticket depending on where you stop the light, but the goal was to get a spin by stopping it at a blue light. I spent a lot of tokens on it to have a girl come up and get the spin on the first try! I think I was priming the machine. This game got Anna and Carolyn talking about how Chuck E’ Cheese encourages gambling.
Lilah wanted to go swimming but we stayed until 1:30 or so. Eden feel asleep on the way to the house for swimming, and was cranky the whole night. Well. not cranky but sensitive and any time you said no she got upset. We think she just woke up badly since she was in a strange house in a strange room.
Carolyn, Derek, Dominick and I went to Target while Eden slept and Lilah avoided a nap. Then we had Del Taco and people come for swimming. (The Kemple’s, Lee’s , Carolyn, Derek , Dominick and Grampa Harvey) The pool was very cool so I stayed in the spa with Eden and Lilah.
We then had cake and ice cream and Lilah got toys that her parents would never buy. That’s why we have Aunts right?
I think it’s more that we’d never think to buy them. One was moon sand, Dominick picked it out and wanted Lilah to share it with him.
Once we got home there was a gift from Katia and Isabell on our door step, two girls in our ward, and Lilah has had a ball playing with the doll and combing her hair.
It was a crazy day. Jon kept insisting that we would forget something, and we did forget the left over pizza, but that’s fine by me. Hopefully I’ll get the pictures from Carolyn eventually and I can post some.
It was lots of fun and Lilah day was a whole day event.
Eden day will be much lower key. One because we won’t have a pool to go too, two because she’s little.

So I’m 24 today. I’m not going through any early mid-life crisis and I don’t mind being one year older. So no drama here, though most of you are probably saying that I’m too young to be dramatic.
This morning I went to clean the chapel. I almost didn’t go actually. My alarm went off at 6:45 and I just turned it off, but then at 6:53 Jon started mowing the lawn with the push mower and I was out of bed by 6:55. We had a good turn out so I chatted with my friend Danielle and vacuumed various rooms in the building. Danielle, her husband Rami, and adorable baby girl Eva (pronounce Ava, it’s spelled the Spanish way.) are moving in a month. She’s been so nice and I wish I’d been able to hang out with her more. 🙂

I got home and hung out with the girls while Jon fixed pancakes and we watched Spirited Away. Then Jon showered and took the girls grocery shopping. I said it was so he would see why I will sometimes be reluctant to go shopping with both girls during the day. Both of them listened and were very cooperative so he said I had no excuse if I always go shopping in the morning. 😛 I was hoping for at least one temper tantrum, but I am slightly happy that one didn’t happen because that means someone would have been in trouble.

I took a shower while they were gone and was able to take my time since I was alone in the house. They came home and finished my cake, we needed some lemon icing for the lemon cake.
I’ve taken a nap and am now relaxing since I swept and vacuumed. I needed to clean Eden’s high chair cover, but I just haven’t taken my opportunities this past week so I did it today.
So here I am 24 with nearly a 4 year old. What makes me feel old is having an almost 4 year old. I also get to substitute Lilah’s Sunbeam’s class tomorrow. She’s excited for me teaching so I hope she’ll be nice and willing to go to church tomorrow. Lately she hasn’t wanted to go, even though she has fun once there in Primary.

Lilah’s birthday is 3 weeks from today. For “Lilah day” I think we’re going to do Chuck e’ Cheese for lunch, take a nap and then do swimming and cake at the house my sister is watching. (We’ll probably do a small BBQ for just us.) Any one’s invited but know it’s pay your way since we’re poor with a car payment. I just don’t want the pressure of planning and getting food for a lot of people, like I’ve done in the past. I may do a small party with her church friends. (Sam volunteered to help me plan.)

(For Chuck e’ Cheese we’ll be printing one of their coupons online. it gives you so many tokens, a large pizza and 3 drinks. Just enough for an hour or so of fun.) (It may sound cheep that I’m not going all out for my daughters birthday, but really I’m just trying to be sensible with our tighten budget.)