Less than stellar Mommy Moments

Do you ever have less than stellar Mommy moments? I think we should clear the air. Let’s start this like an AA meeting. First we need to admit we have a problem.

Hi. My name is Rachel and I sometimes have less than stellar Mommy Moments. Whew. I feel better to have that off my chest.

See, we have 3 girls. 3 girls= LOTS of drama. LOTS. So this morning I was sitting on my bed holding my dear hubby’s hand and telling him the drama eats away at my sanity. I told him that before the girls are grown I will need to be institutionalized and I thought we should start looking for a place while I was lucid so that when the time came he would not be overwhelmed with finding care for me and trying to finish raising our daughters by himself. Just then I hear..

“I’M TELLING MOMMY ON YOU!"

You see what I’m talking about? So I did the only thing I could think of. I hopped off the bed and dove into the walk in closet, turned off the light and hurried and shut the door! Yes, I am confessing to hiding from my children. To avoid the drama. And I stayed there. It was oh so lovely.

The best part was I got to listen to my dear husband talk to the girls about how they might have handled their disagreement better. He did awesome. And as they don’t get that type of interaction with their Daddy as much as they do with me so I’m sure it was pretty good for them. The way I see it, everyone wins!

(contented sigh)

I think I am going to go sit in my closet more often.

Disaster AKA Family Outing

With small children going out as a family is always an adventure.  Last night I realized my little family of five has exceptionally bad manners.  But that’s okay, we love each other anyways.

We went to Mimi’s Cafe.  I love Mimi’s Cafe!  You can almost always get a coupon for something free (appetizer or dessert) with meal purchase off their website.  They always bring the baby a plate with cheerios, crackers and an orange slice to keep her happy while we wait for our food.  The food is always good, the service is always good and the muffins are always AMAZING!

We had just sat down and Raegan had decided to blow his straw wrapper at Jocelyn.  You know how you can rip the top off the wrapper and blow through the straw and the wrapper zings off at who ever it’s pointed at?  Way fun and appropriate at home...not so much in public.  I was in the process of saying so to Raegan when Jocelyn decided to get him back.  Only she missed Raegan and her wrapper flew across the aisle to a table full of middle aged women and landed on one of their heads and then drifted softly onto her food.  Can you say M.O.R.T.I.F.I.C.A.T.I.O.N.?  Raegan thought it was hilarious and giggled into his hand while I got to do the apologizing. 

The rest of our meal proceeded as normally as possible with little kids with everyone talking with their mouth full and poking each other.  Maybe I was still just feeling embarrassed about the whole straw thing but when Raegan picked up Olivia, who had been whining rather loudly to be picked up, and I saw she had cheerios stuck to her butt, I realized I was done.  I don’t think we will be going out in public again for some time.  We will be staying home and enjoying each other with our bad manners and loving it.  Maybe we’ll work on our manners.  We’ll see.

2nd 1st Day of School

There are times when I would like a "do-over" in life. The first day of school is NOT one of them! McKayla is just that lucky though and today she started a new school... her second first day of school! She was accepted to a school near where our home is being built. We are still a couple weeks out but if we didn’t take it, we would lose our spot. The school seems nice with spanish and technology classes for the students. Plus uniforms. I love uniforms. This school allows pink, McKayla’s signature color. Sweet.

The second grade class had twins move out so they actually had 2 spots open. When we showed up in the front office this morning there was another little girl who was taking the other spot in McKayla’s class. I was excited that she could meet another student before school started, especially as this student didn’t know anyone either. AND... they were wearing the same hot pink shirt! Seems like a friendship meant to be...

House Chain Part 2

As you can see our house chain is considerably shorter!! The great thing about our chain is that it is probably too long! The builder is running just a couple of days ahead and hopefully we will be closed AND moved before the chain runs out. We will see...

They are working on the outside of the house right now. The base coat for under the stucco is on. I can’t wait until they get the rock on the bottom to see it.

The girls, while not too excited about driving out there ALL THE TIME, are pretty good sports about it.

The inside is all dry walled and that was so much fun to see. The rooms actually have shape now instead of just the framing. When we went into the house the furnace was cranked up to dry the drywall quicker and is was sooooooo cozy inside that I didn’t want to leave.

Can’t wait to have a house of our own again!!

School and Soccer

One month ago today, school started for McKayla.  She is in second grade now (sniff).  Jocelyn started preschool the next week.  Here are pics of their first days of school.

 

The girls have also started playing soccer for the first time and are loving it!  They both had their first soccer game this week and they did great.

 

As you can see from the girls’ pictures, they both got jersey #7.  It wasn’t planned, it just happened that way.  I guess we will be keeping busy with 4 soccer games a week and one extra practice!!   

A true story...

Today I am going to tell you a true story. None of the characters in this story are anyone you know so there is no need to feel uncomfortable if something less than flattering is said...

Once upon a time there was a beautiful baby girl born to wonderful parents. She was well loved, being doted upon by her wonderful sisters. She grew in grace and beauty day by day. She continued her life in happiness until one unfortunate day a small boy pinched her at church. This began an experiment of her own-PINCHING! Such fun. She had many wonderful qualities despite her pinching. She was a social butterfly always saying hi to everyone she knew (and everyone she didn’t know). She was a beautiful child with dimples and curls all around her head (except the top of course!). One night (on a night quite like tonight), when the girl was not quite sixteen months old, her dear mother was giving her a bath. The girl wanted the soap but the very wise mother knew that if she got soap in her eyes it would sting. The little girl proceeded to get angry and tried to hit the mother to get her way. This had no effect on the mother. Seeming to have a change of heart, the small girl puckered up and wanted a kiss. The mother thought the little girl was just going to try to love her up to get her way. That was ok with her. Who turns down free baby loves? So the mother came in for a kiss and when she got about an inch away she was given her reward. A full on, angry slap across the face.

Sigh...

A day in the life of my stroller

Ever wondered just how much a stroller can hold? No? That’s okay. I can tell you though, it’s a LOT! Just the other night, myself and my 3 girls went on a outing. We managed to squeeze all these items onto my poor stroller:

1. 2 scooters
2. 2 pair of rollerblades
3. 2 helmets
4. 2 extra pair of socks
5. 1 camp chair
6. 2 water bottles
7. 1 sippy cup
8. 1 bag of chips
9. 1 container of grapes
10. 1 bottle of sun block
11. 1 diaper bag
12. 1 baby hip sling carrier thing
13. 1 cell phone and set of keys
14. and most importantly, the baby

I was sufficiently impressed. It’s like having 4 extra arms! I’m thinking whoever invented the stroller must have been a woman.

House Chain

Some of you may already know that we are having a house built. Nothing fancy. Just ours. We are so excited! It is supposed to be done mid-November-ish.

This first pictures is our hole in the ground. It is not even finished being dug at this point. This picture was taken the day they broke ground. I admit when I first saw it, I might have gotten a little teary eyed. By now the foundation is in. Raegan would like everyone to know that the big ugly green box is NOT on our property but the lot next door (whew, that was close!). He is so thrilled that there will be more than one toilet. I can tell you, I am excited about that too!

Tonight we made a chain with the approximate number of days left until the house is complete.

Yeah. It’s pretty long, huh? Like... 78 long.

Keep your fingers crossed for us that all will go as scheduled!

Warning! Hot!

Because I care about all of my friends, I feel the need to leave this warning...

Does anyone know what happens if you leave your mascara too close to a hot curling iron? It melts. See, I thought mascara bottles were pretty thick. They melt. And leave a big mess on the counter.

Now don't mistake this warning. I am NOT telling you from personal experience because I would NEVER be that careless. I, uh, read about it somewhere. Or something. But please, be careful out there!!

Blog Failure

I've named this post "Blog Failure" because I am trying to make it sound like maybe my blog failed. Not that I'm a blog failure. Which I am. Or I am just too lazy to blog these days. Either way, I'm accepting it and moving on...

This is what we have been up to this summer:

At then end of June we went to the Manti pageant. It was so much fun. Before the pageant Raegan and I each took a turn doing a session in the Manti temple. It was my first time inside and it is now my favorite temple. If you've never been to the Manti temple and you can go, definately put it on your to do list. I loved it!! Raegan wasn't to thrilled about sitting on hard pioneer made benches but it made it just that much more special to me (plus, it's kinda hard to get sleepy on a hard bench).

Here is a picture of the girls with some actors from the pageant. Jocelyn would not stand next to the man. He freaked her out. Can't say I blame her.

We had a great time. Olivia was her usual self trying all night to sit on some poor man's lap that we've never met. He was a good sport though (she IS kind of hard to resist). It rained on us part way through the pageant but we stayed to watch it through.

Other fun things we've been up to:

• Right after the pageant we drove straight to Grandpa's house. We spent 5 days there and played with cousins. While we were there we caught the Green Show that is played out on the grass before the Shakespeare Festival.
• Lagoon with Raegan's brother's family
• Spent the 4th of July with friends
• Had cousins and friends over to stay for a few days at our house
• Another trip to Grandpa's (Raegan's Dad), this time for his wedding! Congratulations Grandpa!
  

I can't believe that summer is so far gone! I feel like we need to squeeze in a few more fun things before it's over. Any ideas anyone??

Crib Recall

Just a heads up for all of you with little ones... all Simplicity cribs with drop down sides have been recalled. I called the Consumer Product Safety Commission to see if my model was one of the and they said they are ALL being recalled. They recommend stop using the crib right away and return it to the place you purchased it for a refund. For more info check out the link http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09260.html

How Smart Are My Kids???

I received the following note from my kids. It is signed JoJo but as she can't write that well, I know it was a joint effort between her and McKayla.

Do they know what they are talking about or what?!?

What we did today!

I love the summer rain!!! I know there are some of you out there hoping for sunshine but I am loving this rain. I know the heat is coming soon and it's gonna get HOT! Gotta enjoy the rain and cool as long as possible. Trying to do just that, this is what we did today!

The puddle pools right here in the corner making the perfect puddle to jump in!

It was raining hard when they were playing!

Be sure to note the snowboots which do NOT keep water out but made

the girls happy all the same!

Summer- it's what FUN is!!

I am so excited that summer is here! When McKayla went off to first grade this year and was gone ALL day, it was sad. I am so glad we get her home for the summer.

Last summer some friends were gently trying to persuade us (shall we say hardcore peer pressure? Just kiddin!) to get Lagoon season passports. Olivia was still such a wee chinchilla that we had to decline. This year we wanted to go to Disneyland but we are thinking of maybe getting a house and decided to skip Disneyland. In leiu of that we decided to get the Lagoon passports and have a staycation all summer long. And because I'm uber cheap (tacky to say, I know, but still true!) I am adamant we will get our money out of it. And we already have. Yesterday was our 4th trip to Lagoon this season and we are loving it!

I am amazed at how many rides Olivia can get on: Oddysea, the Log Flume, the tiki wiki boat, puff's roller coaster, the haunted houses, carousel, train, sky ride and ferris wheel! She is such a good baby and loves people watching in the stroller and is great for hours on end! So if anyone is going to Lagoon this summer, give us a call!

Blonde Mommy Moment

I'm a blonde. I'm okay with that most of the time. Except when I do stupid things. Plus, I've had less sleep than usual for the last year right? Doesn't that entitle me to do stupid things on occasion?? Except sometimes I am a HUGE DORK. Like today.

Today being Wednesday, Jocelyn, Olivia and I were off to walk on wednesday at one of the schools I work with. Jocelyn wanted to pack a lunch to eat there. One thing you have to know about my kids is they will not under any circumstance eat jelly on their PB & J. Only PB. So I packed Jocelyn a peanut butter sandwich. Only I forgot the peanut butter.

Oops.

That's right. I packed Jocelyn a peanut butter sandwich and forgot the peanut butter. Or, if you are one of those picky people who prefer to call it what it is, I packed her bread. On accident.

Look who's walking! and other such things....

Olivia took her first steps at the end of last week! It never ceases to amaze me how fast babies learn. By today she only likes to crawl to something to help her stand up so she can walk some more! She can even cross the room now! Yeah! Go Olivia!

Now, you may be wondering why these pictures are blurry. Valid question. I had the same question when I saw the pictures myself. On closer inspection of the camera it turns out the lens is covered in..... GUM! Jocelyn apparently thought that it would be good to use that to make her gum into a circle (I love you, Jossi). At least she was honest about it and 'fessed up when I asked if anyone knew what happened to my camera. But it's ruined. I tried to clean it and the shutter won't even close. On the up side.... I have wanted a new camera for awhile.

Volunteer Help, Please Give Your Opinion!

This is in addition to yesterday's blog post. I never mentioned that the thank you notes were going to be written on little hands that are tied to the hand soaps. That being said... last night as I was lying in bed I had another idea: You deserve a hand for all your hard work. Please let me know which you like better:

1. A big thanks to the hands that help our kids!

2. You deserve a hand for all your hard work!

3. Your lovely idea you would like to share with me (insert here ________________).

Thanks for your help!

HELP!

I need a little help from all you creative people. I am in charge of a little note to put on thank you gifts for the people who volunteered at the school this year. We are giving Bath and Body Works handsoaps. I was thinking of something like "A big thanks to the hands that help our children" or something corny like that. It just doesn't sound quite right though. Any ideas???

OCD??? Maybe.

Awhile back I blogged about my love/addiction for flowers for little girls' hair. I jokingly said I now had to buy clothes/flowers to match. Maybe not so joking. See here's the thing... Spring has sprung and they had the cutest red dress with white polka dots at Costco. And I already knew about the red flowers with white polka dots at Roberts. Can you blame me??

That's not what makes me crazy though. It's the fact that Sunday came around and it was warm enough for her to wear the dress with sandals. Of course I hadn't made the flower into something wearable yet. And I'm ALMOST ALWAYS late (not always, just almost) for church. Yes, my church isn't until 1:00. Still... So Sunday I am running around trying to put this into a cute bow. It HAD to have red ribbon, not white (lucky for me, I was prepared in that area as I had bought red ribbon previously). FYI: I wasn't even late.

So I want to know, does that make me OCD??? Maybe. But the bigger question here is: Was it worth it??

I THINK SO!

Look! Raegan laid an egg!

Happy Easter, everyone!

Get the shotgun ready, Raegan!

McKayla told me on Monday that she had made friends with 2 kids in her class. She was a little embarrassed to tell me who it was. Turns out it is 2 of the more rambunctious boys in class. By rambunctious I kindly mean that maybe that have to sit out fun activities because they got in trouble too many times during the term. Which is fine. Good to be friends with everyone. Monday she played every recess with them. She told me that one of them, Eric, has a crush on her. I asked her if he told her and she said that she could just tell. He ALWAYS picks her first for heads up seven up.

This morning when I pulled up to school some of her other friend were waiting for her. As she hopped out of the van, they ran to her and said "McKayla!! Guess what? Eric has flowers for you!" Sure enough, here comes Eric with flowers he had picked for her. How freakin' cute is that?? I sat in the van and tried (somewhat unsuccessfully) not to giggle. Until I cried, actually. Apparently you can laugh until you cry even if you are trying really hard to hold it in. That's okay. The kids don't know I giggled. I can't believe McKayla got her first flowers from a boy!

On a serious note though, I am so grateful I got to witness that! It is so easy to miss the "firsts" in your kids' lives especially as they get bigger. Today, I am thankful that I was in the right place at the right time!

WANTED: A babysitter each Sunday from 1-4 pm for the next 33 weeks

I love my baby. No ifs ands or buts about it. But she is a beast in sweet baby clothing on Sundays. She used to do the cute beastly things at church like growl and spit raspberries at anyone fortunate enough to be sitting close enough to make eye contact with. Her newest trick however is to throw anything she can and cry until I put her down so that she can have a fair chance at the microphone and piano in Relief Society. Today was no different. Relief Society consisted of her items being picked up by other people a half dozen times, the usual up and down on my lap and a trip to the hall. All developmentally appropriate, I know, but oh so not cute. I decided enough was enough though when in sacrament meeting she launched her binky and it bounced off Jocelyn's head and hit the single man in front of us followed by her trying to stick her sweet chubby fingers up my nose throughout the sacrament hymn. So....

WANTED: A babysitter each Sunday from 1-4 pm for the next 33 weeks. Must be good with babies and wild animals. Must have limitless patience. Must work for free so that it will be SERVICE and I won't be making you work on Sundays. Please let me know if you are interested!

I didn't expect it to happen to me! (at least not so soon!)

Something big happened to me yesterday. Not earth shattering big, but almost. (No I am not pregnant, thank you very much!) So, I was at McKayla's school handing out tickets for kids who walked laps during their lunch recess when it happened. I'm not even talking about the boys I had the pleasure of watching eat worms all recess, although that was very disgusting. Here it is.... When McKayla came out to recess she threw up her hand and said "Hey Mom." And that was it. No hug. No kiss. Nothing but "Hey Mom." And right past me she went. I think I am going to have to stay curled up on the couch today and comfort myself with ice cream. Sigh.

Dance Baby Dance

Last night our girls had their dance recital. They did a fabulous job and we were so excited to see all that they had been working on!


The girls waiting for the recital to start.


McKayla



Jocelyn

I might be a little (or a lot) biased but I thought I had the cutest little dancers! My only regret is that the dances were so short, especially in comparison to the hour and a half I spent curling hair and makeuping! Great job dancing girls!

Book Fair Blowout

This year I am the book fair chairperson for McKayla's school. That means I am in charge of it all- set up/break down, volunteers, prizes, reordering books, the financials etc. It is very much a love/hate relationship. I LOVE books, HATE stress! In fact, I think when my kids are bigger it would be something I would enjoy tons. Anyways.... the book fair was this last week and everything went well until Thursday night. My baby was in the playpen by the cash register and I was straightening books etc. My friend Kristen's little girl came by and said "your baby stinks!" So I headed that way and was going to change her but suddenly there was a huge line and only one gal checking so I told her to hang on a minute. Just a couple of minutes later another mother comes by and asks to pick her up. I let her know she stunk but sure. Just as she picks her up I notice it had leaked mid calf! I know, disgusting! To top it off, I was right in the middle of ringing a large order. Well Kristen was there and offered to change her. So Kristen and Michelle (the mom who'd picked her up) went off and changed her for me (thank you thank you!!) but I didn't have any clothes in the diaper bag (of course!). Luckily for me and poor, bare to the diaper Olivia, Raegan was able to come get her shortly thereafter.

So the next morning we show up for the final day of book fair. This is the day that teachers come and pick books with money that parents donated to them. As I expected it to be easy, I didn't get any volunteers to come and help. Shortly after arriving at the school Olivia starts projectile vomiting all over the place. Now, if you know me you'll know that I haven't repacked the diaper bag yet and still don't have a change of clothes for her. I almost never need clothes for her. What are the chances of needing 2 changes so close together?? Either way, clothes or no clothes, I can't keep a sick baby at the school and manage the teacher picks and breakdown of the fair. Just isn't going to happen. Luckily for me (again) Raegan was on his way from physical therapy to work and brought some clean clothes for her (thanks Raegan!). Then I called my mom who drove over and rescued my children. I can't even say how grateful I was she was willing to come and get them as this was one time I couldn't call in sick! As I handed her the keys to my van and house I had a moment of embarrassment as I realized my house was atrocious. I don't mean a little atrocious. I mean, I hadn't touched it in a week and a half atrocious because I had been living and breathing book fair. What's a girl to do though but hand the keys over?

When it came time to breakdown the fair a couple people who had volunteered to come help and take it down didn't bother to show and I ended up doing almost all of it by myself until the PTA president was able to come and help. By the time I got home I had a splitting headache and was exhausted. Guess what I came home to? My dear sweet mother had washed 2 days of dishes for me (by hand no less!), made my bed and picked up my living room. A mom always knows just what a girl needs. Thanks a million Mom, I love you!

Needless to say, I'm not sorry it is over! Hooray! I'm grateful I had the opportunity to do it but more grateful there are only 2 book fairs a year and they are both done! Oh... and there is a change of clothes in the diaper bag now...

Little Ms. McKayla

McKayla has always enjoyed school and tried her best. At her fall SEP conference her teacher told me that she was a perfectionist. Sometimes she has to bring home her art work to finish because she took so much time redoing things because it "had to be perfect". This morning as I was going through her bag I found last weeks spelling test folded over and over again. They have 10 spelling words and one spelling sentence they are tested on. Well, she had misspelled the word didn't (spelling it diden't- easy to do for a 7 year old!) in her sentence and because of that only scored a 94% on her spelling test. She had folded it so small because she was embarassed it wasn't 100%! I think it is so cute she wants to do so well but 94% is great and you can't always be 100%. I did tell her I would love her all the same even if she misspelled every word! I am sure that she will do wonderful things in life but I hope she isn't too hard on herself on her quest to "perfection"!

Pay it Forward

What a cute idea copied from my friend's blog!

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done this year.
4- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may sew or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did post it win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

This will be fun....

I'm Hooked!

You thought I was going to say on phonics huh? I wish. Instead I'm hooked on flowers for little girls' hair/headbands! I bought some headbands that you can change out the flowers/bows for Olivia when she was just tiny. But the bows and flowers are so dang much! So I'm thinking to myself, I could do that for way cheaper, right? Well, I could.... if I could buy just one flower, one brad of each color, on bit of ribbon etc... So now, I've spent more money, made a huge mess and had tons of fun!

the mess....(k, I might have cleaned it somewhat up before I took the picture)

finished product!

a couple of my favorites

This is banana, the monkey, modeling one of the yellow flowers!

So now I have leftover flowers but nothing to put them with. I only have the option of letting them sit for nothing or buying more to go with them and make more (and feed the addiction!). What's a girl to do? Maybe buy clothes for the girls to match their flowers.....

I heart Valentine's Day!

I love Valentine's Day! It is so much fun for the kids. They get so excited and have to wear pink (like that is different from any other day!) McKayla insisted that she had to get her teacher flowers for Valentine's. So yesterday morning we got up a little earlier than usual and went to the store before school. She picked a very pretty bouquet. She was practically bouncing all the way to school. Lucky for me, her teacher was on duty outside so I got to watch the exchange! I will admit that I got a little teary eyed as I watched how excited she was to give her teacher flowers. It was fun to see her teacher hug her and McKayla just soaked it up. When did she get so big?

Since our kids have started to get bigger we like to celebrate Valentines as a family, not just a couple. Yeah for us that Raegan was home this year (he got home after midnight last night/this morning)! We celebrated by going on a Valentine's breakfast date as family. Olivia especially enjoyed the pancakes. As Raegan was in Louisiana this last week, he brought McKayla and Jocelyn back some very fancy Mardi Gras beads (not previously used, thank you very much!) and they thought that was a great Valentine's Day surprise.

To top the day off, my so nice sister is coming to tend our kids (thanks Tresea!) so we can go on a date tonight! My kids are so excited to spend time with their cousins and we get to go out without kids!

I hope all of you have a wonderful Valentine's Day as you spend time with those you love!

Blogging Etiquette

I think blogs are so much fun! You can find friends' blogs you didn't know had one. You can find people you grew up with and see what they are up too. Okay. So here is my questions. Lets say, hypothetically of course, that you have been blog stalking someone (or lots of someones). Is it okay to add them to the blogs you follow (because, hello, soooo much easier to see when they have a new post) or is that just creepy?

On a different note, I made my girls blankets for Christmas. Made may not be the right word because they weren't quite finished. I had them tied but I was binding them by hand so the girls found them under the tree without the binding on them. My baby was sick most of January and the blankets are not done (I'm a slacker!). Yesterday I was working on them and Jocelyn came in and asked if hers was done. I told her no but I was working on it. She said... "By the time you get those done, we will be dead." Nothing like being told by your 4 year old! Guess I know what I'll be doing all weekend....

Finally a working Blog!

Ok. So I have been trying to get a blog to work for... I dunno... forever. For some strange reason I kept getting some stupid site feed error. I can't even say how many times I just erased it and started over (I know, should have just moved on with my life, right?). Thanks to my hubby though for starting a new one (from his ipod might I add). And it works. Wooo hooo. Watch out blogging world, here I come!

Hope this works