Last Day as a 3 year old

Today was Eliza's last day as a 3 year old. Lets be honest, she's a pretty amazing 3 year old. She has really hit her stride this year, it will be sad to go almost a whole year without a 3 year old in the house.
So today as her last day as a 3 year old, here is what she did:

• ate toast - asked for additional breakfast foods that she didn't eat
• took snacks to Preschool
• got a birthday present from her teacher
• ate all the candy in the birthday present from her teacher
• played outside - hit wiffle balls, swung, jumped on the trampoline, helped me pick weeds
• played a card game
• reminded us all 50 times that it was her birthday tomorrow
• sat through 1/4 of a reading lesson
• scrubbed toilets and shower door
• watched TV
• ate dinner (tikka masala with rice and naan) followed by ice cream
• brushed teeth and went to bed

Pretty full schedule, if you think about it.

So on to tomorrow, where we will have a 4 year old and entirely new dynamic in the family. I hope we can handle it. It has been quite a long time since we had a 4 year old around.

Hanging Elk

Safety first!

I conned Thad into helping me hang my giant elk. He is the very best.

Doesn't it look smashing? It is fantastic.

Busy weekend, house pics

We had a very stressful week and a very productive weekend of getting the house into living-shape. So here are a few pics with explanation

This area shall henceforth be known as the Command Center it is a built in desk kitchen-adjacent - the center of everything, so mom doesn't forget everything - just occasional things.

This is our new living space, also kitchen adjacent, we are so happy to finally have some seating, a tv and how about that rug! Love it.

We got the long lost other half of our couch - I recovered our half of it in the gray fabric 6 months ago, now it looks like I have another project to start on. This is the "front room" aka the home teacher room. But that couch is one of the most comfortable in the house.

Behind the couches are new bookshelves and the piano. (And a pile of unhung art) Not pictured here: boxes and boxes of books to unpack.

In conclusion, Ben also found time to bake cookies for us today, which I used in place of making dinner - win-win!

Back to IKEA

Now THIS is what you can accomplish when you don't have kids with you. Boo-yah!

At Ikea

It was very AMBITIOUS of me to take two little kids to IKEA with me.

It was very FOOLISH of me not to take a stroller to IKEA with me.

It was quite ADMIRABLE how I was able to make accurate decisions with two little kids at IKEA.

It was UNBELIEVABLE that I loaded up 4 heavy boxes of shelf-pieces into a cart at IKEA while two little kids had to trail behind.

It was GENIUS of me not to try to buy a couch while I had 2 little kids, 4 boxes of shelving and no stroller while at IKEA.

Another day I will go to IKEA with no kids and try to buy a couch instead.

Old video of Eliza

This is Eliza about 10 days before she turned 2

remember how she only said "blu"? and slurping for a drink? so cute

Summer Picnic

These pics are from our first week in our house - we took a break from unpacking and Anna made us a picnic to share in the backyard under a beautiful shade tree.

Playhouse

So our new house has this awesome 2 story cottage playhouse - but it needs some work, so this is the "before" picture. It has a broken window and was basically a bug and spider habitat for a few years. And weeds all around in the pavers.

First assignment was vacuuming it out. It has carpets on the floors (main floor the carpet is laid on top of brick pavers) and upstairs I had never seen quite so many fly/bee/wasp carcasses, but they all vacuumed up and it is no longer scary to go in. Thank goodness

Next was blocking the window. Eliza helped me tape up some plastic. 

There is lots to do- I am planning to let the girls make a lot of design decisions, so it may end up looking worse, but at least they will feel included.

Space

"Mommy look! I drew space!"

Upon further questioning she admitted that space is actually blue. But I still like the picture. And the artist.

Craziest First Day

This little munchkin started preschool this morning! She was so excited. We had to spend 10 minutes looking for her backpack, then she couldn't find one of her new shoes so we spent 20 minutes there and still didn't find it. Then I had to scramble to write her teachers check and take the obligatory picture and get her in the car. I left Calvin and Anna home - and gave Anna instruction to leave at X:XX figuring I would be back before then. Unfortunately, I was not and when I got home the garage door and the front door were left open. As I began gathering my own breakfast I noticed Anna's lunchbox still on the counter and her backpack still on the stairs. So I grabbed Calvin and a hair elastic (remembering what she looked like when I left for preschool and hoping she had at least changed her clothes) and we jumped on the car with the backpack. We found her walking towards us at the end of the block. So I did her hair, gave her the backpack and drove her back to the school. Then I finally got home to have my breakfast and enjoy 2.5 hours home with just Calvin.

Picking Eliza up from preschool was one of the most redemptive moments ever. She came out of the door, scanned the crowd of moms and spotted me. She shouted "MY MOM!" to nobody in particular as she started running as fast as her short little legs could carry her and I stood on the sidewalk- arms out ready to catch her as she jumped into my arms. We were both smiling like crazy, so happy she has entered a new chapter in her life, and so have I.

1st grade

My first child is off to all day school, she is so excited. She has a few friends she knows in her class, but I'm sure by the end of the day, they will all be besties.

And I hope by then end of the day she will be exhausted.

New House

I haven't been blogging because I feel like I should post something about our housing adventures - they were not great.
We moved out of our house in the first week of July and went to stay in my awesome aunt and uncle's basement. They are incredible for letting us do this with no indication of when we would find a house and move out. It was great.
We were there for 5 weeks. About 3 weeks in we decided to go for broke on our dream house and we got it and closed in record time and were able to move in last weekend.
This is a truly thrilling account, is it not?

Anyway, what is important is that we are here in this beautiful house and we have no regrets. Prayers were continually answered and I look around and just think about how much I love this house and I hope we can stay here for a long long time.

Today is not the day for pictures, but maybe later.

Works every time

Bucket of water + sidewalk chalk

Works every time 

Calvin

Calvin is so cute and hilarious lately.

He is getting the hang of talking, so all day he learned new words (eat, hug), and tried to make up some of his own. He likes talking. A lot.

Whenever the phone rings or the doorbell rings he says "HI"

Whenever he gives a hug (which he can do on command now), he says "oooooh"

He is a wanderer, we went to a friends house for a BBQ, there were over 10 kids there and it was pretty crazy. suddenly a concerned neighbor yells over the fence "are you missing a little guy? There's a little guy running down the sidewalk" I knew immediately it was Calvin. I ran out of the house and he was just a speck in the distance - 7 houses later, I caught up to him. He was unrepentant.
Today I took him outside and just followed him as he walked down the street, through an alleyway to the track behind our house, across several soccer fields to the elementary school playground. After he played we started back and after walking that far, he expected me to carry him all the way back! He was disappointed.

Girls camp 2014

I went to Girls Camp last week at Heber Valley and it was the best. Great weather, great young women and leaders, fun, spiritual - all the good stuff.

I got to organize the 2nd year hike for the stake - they are supposed to go 5 miles, so I planned this big hike and according to the numbers on the map it was just under 5.5 miles. Nobody got lost, everybody finished, it was beautiful, we hiked up and down two mountains. When we got back, one of the leaders with a gps watch said it was over 6 miles. -oops. But the fact that they all did it without complaining was amazing.

I <3 girls camp.

Mixed bag

So yesterday was a mixed bag.

Chronologically: a fish died-

Our house finally got an offer-

Ben came home from a work trip-

Anna threw up right before I had to leave-

We found out the house we were eyeing was already under contract-

We have a full month planned without house hunting, but I feel like if we can survive June, we might survive anything.

Face painting

After helping me in the yard one Saturday I took the girls to the craft store as a reward. We had a hard time finding two things under $5 so they decided to pool their money and get a face painting kit.

This had been a long time coming, since we went to the circus and I told them if they would stop asking to get their faces painted, I would buy them their own face paints. 6 months ago.

So Anna painted Eliza's face first

Then Eliza painted my face

And I painted Anna's face.

The next day we took the paints to Grammas house and Anna painted her cousin Lincoln's face, she did a very good job turning him into Spider-Man all by herself. We may have praised her a bit too highly because on the drive home she decided she could set up a face painting booth on our driveway and earn a bunch of money painting all the neighbor kids faces. She went to school on Monday ready to tell all her friends to come over after lunch to get their faces painted and -

They did. Anna didn't charge them anything and she even let them paint each other. It was a solid 3 hour face paint extravaganza. 

Eliza kept her witch face all day until she could show daddy

This was from another day, she let her friend paint a goatee, it was pretty funny.

So if you need something to do this summer, set up a face painting booth! 

But not on our street, this is our turf!

Mini vacation

Ben talked me into a quick trip to Park City for the night.  Unfortunately the pool was closed but the kids had fun anyway. The hotel hosted s'mores night at their fire pits:

In the morning we found some fun rides for the kids 

Then we went to the park where Eliza fell and scraped her knee, so we had to stop for slurpees on our way home (obviously).

Yard work with Kids

I love to work in my yard, I feel like it's the one thing where you almost instantly get out what you put in, I love a freshly weeded flower bed and muddy hands. 

However, yard work with kids means I either do it during nap time or I get so frustrated that very little gets done.

Like Today: Anna off to school at 9:00 then I dressed, woke, fed, changed diapers, dressed, fed again, dressed again, bathroom breaks until 10:30 when we finally went outside. I chose to work in the backyard because there is plenty to do and it is fully fenced to contain childrens. But the kids (and this happens every time) whine to go inside or to the front yard or they are hungry or need to go to the bathroom. So I sort of finish where I am and follow them to the front yard where we follow the following pattern and repeat it about 10 times until I am exhausted. Pick 3 weeds, chase Calvin down the street, bring him back, pick 3 weeds, chase...

And it's not just a house or two away, it's usually 4-5 houses at least. He is a fast and determined little bugger.

When it's clear that I'm no longer getting out what I put in, it's time to go inside again.

Happy Birthday/Mother's Day

It's true, my birthday was on Mother's day this year. It was pretty good.  Anna woke me up with Breakfast In Bed. (Oops All Berries with Almond Milk and a glass of water) She made it all herself without making a mess.

Here is the picture she took of me, eating my breakfast.
















I then spent the majority of the morning making my birthday cake. It's a Boston Creme Crepe Cake, which sounded amazing. It doesn't look so hot, (the chopstick is too keep it from landsliding...again) and it wasn't as good as the Boston Creme donuts, but it was a fun treat, and an even better breakfast the next day.

Here it is on fire. We were at the Homestead celebrating Mothers/Tonis and got a surprise visit from Matt and Rachelle!

Church was great, except for the part where I had to take kids to church. But Calvin stayed for the whole 3 hours (I have been taking him home during the 2nd hour to take a nap for the last 2 months) He even went to his nursery class and was only brought to me in tears at the very end of church. We got into the car and he was asleep in his carseat before I left the parking lot. Poor boy. Oh, Wee lamb.