Growing Up

My sweet little Avery is growing up.

With great sadness, I weaned her last weekend. I know it's crazy, I should really be excited.

But for some reason, it has been really hard for me to let her grow up.

Fortunately, I have found several great reasons to be excited. It is really nice to have my body back. I don't have to worry as much about what I am eating. I can start taking medications again . . . which is good since I am getting sick with a nasty cold. And I'm starting to fit back into my old tops. Not to mention the whole "being able to leave her" while we go to Vegas in two weeks.

So, I guess it isn't all bad.

As a side note, our little "big" girl has started walking a lot more lately. (She's been walking for a while, but hasn't been very confident due to some bad falls.)

She is hilarious. I'm sad that I bought that bear costume for Halloween instead of my original idea of making a mummy costume for her. When she walks with her hands up and in front of her, wadling from side to side, she seriously could pass for a mummy or frankenstein easily!

Sponsor an Executive Today!

Enjoy this piece of Canadian humour!

http://www.cbc.ca/22minutes/videoplayer2.html

We were watching it last night and busted up laughing.

Brrr.

It. Is. F.R.I.G.I.D. Here.

What happened? It seems like just a week ago we were out in t-shirts and shorts and now, BAM.

I was totally caught off-guard.

Upon fishing out the mittens, hats, and scarves box . . . I found that I had one fitting hat, one set of complete mittens, and one baby scarf.

Obviously, it was time to go shopping and replenish the winter accessories. I thought I was pretty early. But as I searched the shelves of all the children's stores around here I quickly realized just how wrong I was!

BARE!

Maybe one or two items. Like one pair of mittens . . . for an eight year old girl. That's it. Hardly any selection.

I grabbed what I could, figuring I could always take them back at the next mall, and then drove to the biggest mall around.

EMPTY. Even more so than the local mall.

How could this be? It was still October by my caledar.

I am seriously behind this year! Maybe I should start looking for swimsuits and warm weather clothing now?

Good thing I picked up this adorable frog hat in early September. Jackson just loves it. He puts it on his head and jumps around, shouting "Ribbit, ribbit!"

He tells me he can see for miles with his "extra" eyes.

And then asks everyone we meet what they think of his "frog hat."

I guess I had better pick up some snowpants for Avery while I see them . . . and start searching for the last few pairs of snowboots for the boys too.

If I Had Stayed In Bed . . .

If I had stayed in bed today, I wouldn't have . . .

have heard about the stock markets crumbling all over the world.

argued with my kids to get dressed, get their hair and teeth brushed, and get ready to head out the door.

been running late and realized just as I finally convinced the kids to sit in the car that their car seats were still in the trooper from Dad's joy ride with the kids the night before. And the garage door opener was there too. So I had to go back, unlock the front door, and get everything out of the trooper and buckle everyone in. Making us very late.

needed to hunt for and then replace Avery's socks back on her feet. Again, for the tenth time in the early part of the day.

even tried to drag Jackson into the babysitting club at the gym when he was screaming and throwing a fit because he just wanted to carry his box of 15 matchstick cars into the club. Only to lose them all, I am sure.

spent 15 minutes trying to calm him down enough so I could leave him with a sitter.

realized that the cycling class was full, as usual, or that the aerobics class was too, and all the light freeweights were gone off the floor--leaving me to basically use a treadmill . . . that I could use at home without this hassle.

tried to call the parents in our primary and get their kids prepared for our Sacrament Meeting presentation with a baby screaming in the background and a preschooler constantly asking me for more snacks, help with his "reading" lessons, and all his questions about why the world is this way.

had the hassle of dragging Jackson and Avery to get dressed again to go pick up Jayden.

And I certainly wouldn't have tried to take some lovely mother and children shots like the one I did for a client below.

I wouldn't have had to deal with "creative differences" like, "I want a photo with my animals set up just so." "I don't want to wear any of the clothing you picked out for me." Or, "This hat is too itchy."

(Seriously, was I out of my mind? I think I need to contact a professional--photographer, that is--I think it's so sad that I have such touching portraits of other women with their kids but none of me.)

I wouldn't have made the grilled cheese not melty enough, even though I had grilled it and sent it through the microwave two times.

Or eaten 10lbs of chocolate just to get through the lunch hour.

No. I would have just slept peacefully.

At least until the clammering and clashing of Jackson getting into things he isn't supposed to broke my sleep.

Listening Ears

This morning as I was getting the kids ready for the day, I asked about a thousand times if they could please get dressed.

Instead of getting obedient little children, scampering away immediately to do as instructed, I had two little boys doing anything but what I asked.

Am I invisible? Am I inaudible?

Normally, I would just scream really loud to get their attention. And then do it several more times before they actually move.

But today I just asked,

"Hello?? Am I talking to myself today?"

The response?

"Sorry, mom. We turn our listening ears off before bed and forgot to turn them on again this morning."

Oh, silly me.

Stupid

We've been known to do some stupid things in our life.

Okay, let's be honest. We've done LOTS.

Like piling in our old Trooper with a 4 month old and driving from Provo to California to spend only 4 hours there . . . shopping in Ikea for living room furniture. Then, driving all the way back to Provo to spend all night setting it all up. CRAZY.

Or, when we decided to reorganize our main floor we thought the two of us should be all we'd need to take apart and move a 250 lbs baby grand piano. Yeah, really smart.

But I think we have hit an all time record.

As we set out each weekend house hunting for a place closer to any of Brad's offices to buy and call home, we thought it would be fun to rearrange the house . . . again. This time, we moved Brad's office into the basement (more on "Brad's Pad" later) and the kids' toys upstairs to make an upstairs playroom. Okay, that's only mildly crazy.

The stupid, retarded part comes next.

With Brad's busy work schedule, and insane commute times, he's found getting to the gym difficult. So, instead of paying for a membership that goes unused, we thought it would be better to invest in a treadmill. Ha!

Why we have something so massive and heavy (does heavy really begin to encompass 400 lbs of metal?) in our possession when we are trying to move . . . I can't explain.

It seemed like a great idea . . . until Brad tried to get it from the store to the van. It took four grown men to hoist it in there.

Getting it out? Ha! It's a blur. I can't remember how just the two of us did that.

I do remember suggesting that maybe we go out and buy a house to fit it, or at least one with a walk out basement.

Seeing that my solution may not be possible right now, maybe we just keep it in the garage and have Brad dress really warmly to run.

Or even just set it along side the baby grand in the living room for the next 4-10 months. Yes, it would be pretty unsightly, but hey! it beats lugging it downstairs and then trying to get it back up again.

Brad was adament that we could do it.

So we set off trying to shift and slide and hoist and lug this contraption. This required getting it into our house which has stairs up to the door, stairs up to the living room, and stairs with three sharp turns leading to the basement . . . Well, we were breaking a sweat.

I am just amazed that there aren't any tell tale holes in the walls or ceilings from our "journey."

One thing is for sure. If and when we move, it will probably be worth every penny paying for professional movers will cost.

New Blog Site

If you are reading this, congratulations! You made it to our new blog site.

Things were getting too complicated with the old site set to my old email address. Now I have consolidated my whole gmail account, professional blog, and family blog all under one username and password. Much easier, I think!

Stay tuned! We have lots of fun things to blog about!