A Mom's Holiday

It's 3 pm on Friday and usually I'm laying down for a nap since both kids are sleeping, but today I've decided that if I'm going to get this blog entered the nap is going to have to be sacrificed. You gotta do what you gotta do. :)

What was expected to be a very long week has completely flown by. John left early Monday morning for High Adventure/Boy Scout Camp. I'm not a good single Mom, I dread whenever John leaves for just an evening so a whole week away almost terrified me because yes my imagination gets the best of me at night and 2-bedtime usually runs smoother with John around. Talking to my friend Leslie who's husband was also leaving on the same adventure I found that she her plans to leave town had fallen through. I didn't necessarily want to stick around myself and mentioned this although I had no idea where I wanted to go... Leslie offered up her condo in Orondo which is close to Chelan a few hours away and I jumped on the wagon. It was a 4 bedroom/2 bath condo and thinking about the other men folk leaving we immediately thought of our friend Lori and invited her to go with us. Monday afternoon we met at Leslie's and with Lori (who is also pregnant and due in a 2 weeks) in her car with her 2 boys and Leslie and I and her 1 yr old and my 2 girls piled into our rental truck we headed...East(?). I'm horrible with directions I just know it was about 2-1/2 hrs away. It was a rocky start for us and after 15 minutes in the truck we did have to pull over and rearrange the kids order in the backseat.

After that the drive went pretty smoothly...well the actual driving and the kids cooperation. We had planned on stopping at Walmart in Wenatchee and the Garmin/GPS sent us on a detour which involved a dirt road and then returned us to the freeway...and then there is Easy Street in Wenatchee which is not actually that easy. Again in trying to find Walmart (which we never did see) we drove a couple of loops that continued to return us to Easy Street. We finally gave up and stopped at the Food Pavilion where they were actually selling boats out front. It was pretty funny, or we were just loopy from the driving.

The Condo where we stayed: Desert Sun Resorts was gorgeous. The condos are just off the golf course and according to the price sheet that Lori found everything in the place was very nice and expensive. (an $8 juice cup? really?) It made us a little nervous since we had 5 kids ages 4 and under so after quickly securing anything we thought could be broken we started on dinner. Murphy's Law was against us and our fun idea of English Muffin pizza's soon turned into disaster-can you see the bottle of Spaghetti Sauce my daughter was sticking her spoon into fly from the bar and fall all over the carpet? I can only imagine what the price to clean that up would've been, it wasn't on the price list. Luckily I had brought a couple of last minute things with me-Shout Gel for set in stains and a small bottle of OxyClean, 2 of my best friends especially at this point of the trip. I still can't believe that by the time we were done scrubbing from the surface you couldn't even tell.

It was a very fun trip that involved a lil Birthday party Monday Night for Jack who turned 4.

LOTS of Yellow cake and Triple fudge with choc chips frosting (so yummy, especially for store bought!) and although the sun wasn't always out we did spend some time out at the pool. The kids got a long great entertaining one another and with the Lil Tikes Playground Leslie brought, the kids had a great time together. Once again Tyler thought she was Queen of the Slide and you would often find her sitting at the top growling at those who attempted to walk up the slide or looked like they intended to come too close. Poor Tanner didn't have a chance, but was such a good sport, he crawled around begging for food and even stood up a few times. The kids also had a great time on the balcony yelling at golfers, throwing balls over the banister and eating their meals. (side note: don't tell your kids things that aren't true you never know who's listening. In an effort to persuade McKenna to stop screaming I told her Golfers didn't like you to scream and if you did they might hit you with one of their balls. Which if distracted it could happen...but Jack took this to a new level. My kid didn't listen but he was very good at reminding McKenna whenever she started screaming outside.)

One of the funniest things I saw was McKenna running after Jack and upon "catching" him she would proceed to hug him. He hugged back, but you could tell it was a little bit awkward for him, especially as it continued to drag on. He would finally pull himself free and then she would either try and hold his hand or he would run. Tuesday night as we were all getting ready for bed I found Jack and McKenna on a bed under the sheet (on opposites side of the bed) but laying there like an old married couple watching SpongeBob. I jokingly thought to myself you are way to young to be starting this.

Wednesday morning rolled around far too quickly, as the end of most vacations do. We did get in one last swim and then all packed up we headed home.

I believe Leslie gave me permission to use her pictures, the ones she has on her blog so those are the ones you see. Thanks Leslie & Lori for a fun week! Thanks Leslie for letting me use the pictures!

McKenna Speaks

Sunday July 27th was a big day for McKenna, she got up in Primary's sharing time and gave her 1st talk. The topic was "I help to bless others when I share the Gospel." Being in nursery and not very good when it comes to public speaking...not to mention McKenna freaks out and won't go to primary if I'm anywhere near John was a great father and helped her. I did sneak in to watch her and she was so adorable. I was surprised to see her walk up to the pulpit with her Dad and before he could say anything to her she started jabbering (the way she does without using any recognizable words). John let her go for a few minutes and then they shared a scripture with the kids. McKenna didn't miss a beat she said everything John told her to, closed and then sat down in her chair so sweetly. I have to admit I was really impressed and proud of the girl, she wasn't scared at all. Good Job McKenna!

The John Update...

1st of all, my camera is broken, so pictures have suddenly come to a halt. Sad for all involved, so you'll have to endure with the endless chatter without illustrations. If you have any suggestions on a camera I've got to start doing research and would love to hear if you like your camera and what it is...

1st I need to tell you about John. It's been a busy couple of weeks for him, not just with re-siding the house but also with the work, the RAGNAR, Dance Festival and Young Men's (YM). Last Thursday, the 24th of July-while most people who are LDS were celebrating Pioneer Day John, his sister Ashley, and a few people from work took a quick trip down to Portland to visit NIKE where they were having a SPARQ Event, My Better Challenge. I'm not very familiar with it, but to my understanding it is a challenge for High School aged kids and is about proving that one's better is better than another's better. (Did you follow that? If not you're pry on the same page as I am.) They came home pretty excited about what they'd seen and being able to be on the Beaverton NIKE Campus and was pretty impressed with the set up they have going on there.

Friday morning John woke up, got the IPod all loaded up and headed to the Ragnar Relay Race. I guess they have these in quite a few states, this one was from Blaine to Langley a total of 189 miles. There were 12 people on the team-most of them were health care providers and they finished the race in 21 hours. Not too shabby if you ask me. John did particularly well-his results being: Leg #1: 4.5 miles in 25 minutes (this included a HUGE hill with a 500 ft elevation gain, Leg #2: 8.5 miles in 62 minutes (which he started at 10:30 at night) and Leg #3: 6.6 miles in 50 minutes. His legs were pretty tired by the end but he came home in high spirits doning a nice medal. (Pictures to come soon :)).

John is the Young Men's president so Saturday night we packed the kids up in the truck and headed to the Tacoma Dome to see the Youth of our ward perform in the Dance Festival. This was a Multi-Stake performance that involved 2500 kids around the area including Graham, Lakewood & Olympia just to name a few. The kids did a great job and it was a lot of fun to see. McKenna loved it and on more than one occassion was up dancing and asking John and I to join her. I'm thinking we've really got to get her involved in some dance classes-not for the skill just because she loves it so much.

Mom's Lil Helper

McKenna has become quite the little helper, she's been so cute this morning. After breakfast she found her lil glass tea set and put together a lil tea party for the 3 of us which included bagels and water. A lil later as we were getting dressed she put on a pair of Capri's and declared herself the "mommy". She then directed Tyler to the bed and then sat on the floor to read her stories asking me, "McKenna" to go to my room/bed. I decided to play along since it was Tyler's naptime and see how things turned out. It was nice to have a few moment and to listen to McKenna in the other room read the "Goldilocks & the 3 Bears" to Tyler. I think I heard her also read her an Elmo book and then I heard her tell her "I Love you" and blow her kisses and then she left the room. I was impressed this is exactly what we do as our bed/naptime routine. McKenna and I sat in my room and I anticipated Tyler jumping out of bed and coming out, but she cried out for a half a minute and then all was quiet. I couldn't believe it, so impressed my almost 4 yr old put my 1-1/2 yr old down for her nap. It's like a dream come true, now if we can just move these efforts to potty training maybe get 2 with 1 shot. :) A mom can dream!

Thud!

I can't remember if I mentioned this earlier but Tyler has been taking her naps in McKenna's toddler bed and in the past few weeks as we go into their room at bedtime Tyler books it for McKenna's bed hoping to sleep in it. Well a few nights ago McKenna decided she wanted to sleep in the crib-actually she always wants to sleep in the crib so I decided to let them switch. I was a little nervous about Tyler because some nights she is all over the place but they both went down pretty happy and all was well. This continued for a couple of night until last night about an hour after we put them down I hear a big Thud. John was working on the house but as soon as the screaming started my heart jumped and I knew what had happened...

I ran up the stairs to find Tyler standing in the middle of the room screaming hysterically. McKenna was just starting to sit up and then she too started to cry with an occassionally "owie" as she put her hand on her head. Trying to calm Tyler I held her and frantically looked for her blanket. The toddler bed is in a dark corner and with both girls screaming... Eventually they both calmed down and I asked McKenna if she wanted to sleep in the "her" bed to which she consented and then began helping me switch the blankets to the proper bed.

After calling for "help" John came in to help, poor Tyler sat in her bed sniffling as we all said our "goodnights" for the 2nd time.

Answered Prayers

I remember when my friend Tiffany called to tell me her daughter Faith knew who Jesus Christ was, we were both so excited. This last week McKenna has taken several tumbles which has resulted in several bruises a scratched up knee. One night after a particularly bad fall at the clinic leaving a rug burn (*ouch*) we prayed that her knee would get "all better." The next morning she woke up looked at her knee and declared it "all better" and then proceeded to verbally and in sign language thank Heavenly Father. This touched my heart as I really do want my kids to know and recognize answered prayers. What caught me off guard was when she did the same thing one evening that the sun was still out and again last night she when she discovered a few healed 'owies.' There's a line from "Hope Floats" that I love, where the Grandmother declares, "oh my cup overfloweth" or something quite close to.


I had another happy and proud moment yesterday with McKenna as we were eating our Ramen Noodles, which is our annual Sunday after church "quick" lunch. John asked McKenna what she learned in Primary.that day and before I could pipe right in and remind her of the topic she surprised me by telling him "temples." He went on to ask her a few more questions to which she thought carefully about while she stared into her noodles and then kind of answered... To me as her mother and with the last meeting with her teachers still fresh in my mind gave me hope. She does remember things and she is learning, evidence to me of an answer to my prayers!

Summer Days

This is the life...lately my girls have been a lil spoiled-I usually wake them by opening the blinds around 1:70 and then give them their hot drinks: Tyler's milk & McKenna's Hot Choc/Carnation. This morning as most summer morning have been lately are a lil lazy and McKenna and today Tyler joined in as they just wanted to lay in their beds. So after handing out their beverages and realizing they weren't ready to rise I ran down and actually got the family room vacumned. McKenna was more than happy to lay there with a smile on her face as I took her picture.

There is this show on PBS that comes on called A Place of Our Own. It's specifically for Childcare providers basically all those involved in caring for young kids. I only catch it here and there but one day I was intrigued by an idea of a bike car wash and have been waiting for a warm day to do so.

The sunshine and heat are here and since I decided to clean out the carport it seemed like the perfect day for our "bikewash". Tyler and I started the project while McKenna was busy exploring the inside of the truck, but once Tyler went down for her nap I was able to convince McKenna to come out and help me. Unfortunately I only got pictures of McKenna.

The girls also found the princess dress up clothes so we played in that for a while, nice color coordination aye?

I forgot about these last pictures which I took a week or so ago when Tyler brought me curlers she'd found in the hair drawer and wanted me to put them in her hair. What was funny is even after I put the first one in she wanted the rest of them in. This from the girl who hates having anything in her hair. I was cracking up and couldn't resist taking pictures.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Thought I'd jot down a few moments that keep replaying through my mind and bring a smile to my face.

As we were putting McKenna down for bed this evening, after her story I was chatting with her and trying to tell her how proud I was that she went "potty" at the church. She put her hand on my shoulder and then with her other hand held it up while she very seriously said, "Stop Mom, Stop talking." She then proceeded to very clearly tell me how proud she was of me for putting my poopoos and peepees in the potty and chocolate (which is her reward). It was so cute and funny at the same time, very hard to keep a straight face as it was a very serious moment.

Ever since the ultrasound last Tuesday McKenna daily points to my belly and asks, "baby boy?" Well the other day Tyler pulled my shirt up to see my ever growing belly button and then also repeated several times, "boy" to which McKenna came over and observed my belly being, "a big one" and then asked if she could have a big one too. I told her she needed to find a daddy first before she could have a big one and then she asked if her belly had a baby boy. Once again, I encouraged her to find a daddy and then told her she should wait another 20 years.

During our travels Tyler found a love for slides at Aunt Audrey's house. Not just little slides, but big tall ones. She'll go down by herself flying. Since I'm one of the nursery teachers she's been coming to with me. She has taken to it so well, although she doesn't much like me to hold the other kids and will come stake her claim if she catches me. Anyway there is a small slide that we pull out for the kids to play with, I was surprised to see her climb up by herself and sit at the top and even go down. The biggest surprise came when she sat at the top and Mya who is almost 3 yrs old was waiting for a turn asked her to go. Tyler let out the biggest scream letting everyone know who was Queen...for the day anyway.

Pocahontas

I saw this on my friend Susan's blog and really who can resist finding out which princess they would be. Funny I've never seen the movie all the way through either...


You Are Pocahantas!

Free-spirited and wise. You have a strong passionate spirit that touches and changes all who know you. The wisdom and common sense that you have is really what guides you through life. Even so, you also have a very playful side that loves adventure and excitement.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

It's a... (drum roll)

We are halfway through this pregnancy-20 weeks to be exact and Today was the BIG Ultrasound at Dr Webb's office to find out whether we'd be getting a brother or sister. Anyone who has talked to me knows I am pretty confident we'd be having another girl. It's all so logical, everyone I knew and had talked to who'd found themselves in a similar situation as ourselves (with a surprise timing of their 3rd child) and let me tell you it's actually quite common-my grandma, my mother and a few friends all had a girl. At the beginning of my pregnancy I kept thinking it was a boy, but even science supports it's the lil girls that slip in there, the boy genes not being quite as strong (this does not include adopted children-:) sorry Tricksy). Personal Research also said this was the year my friends were having the opposite sex introduced into their family-meaning those with boy children were having their 1st girl and those with lil girls (Nat) were having their 1st boy. Logically this was the year to get pregnant...

lil baby feet
We decided to take Tyler and McKenna with us since we didn't have a babysitter-and we wanted to try and make it more real to McKenna hoping she'll adjust a little smoother. We figured she was old enough to start understanding what was going on. When my name was called we escorted our circus into that little ultrasound room and as soon as I laid down and they started prepping my belly Tyler began to panic. This didn't slow the ultrasound tech down at all, no sooner had we settled Tyler down did she announce, "it's a boy". In shock I questioned her, "a boy?" and she responded with, "it's definitely a boy." Tyler then started chanting "boy, boy, boy" and John somehow recorded the 1st 2 minutes. It's all kind of crazy to me. I really don't know what to do with boys, and I'm even somewhat afraid of having a little boy. The best news of course is that this kid is very healthy, and everything was in perfect order. After my pregnancy with McKenna I will always be a little nervous, especially since it's only been the past couple of days when I'm laying down to sleep that I have felt this little fella moving.

Lil baby boy parts-It's a boy
So we are very excited to announce after Thanksgiving Day John will no longer be the only holder of Testosterone in our home. John was smiling quite a bit saying he was thrilled to be having a healthy baby, and although I know he'd be happy with a girl or boy, I think he's quite excited!

10 Days of J-O-Y

It's been a while since I posted and I'm afraid this is going to be a lil lengthy, especially with all thso consider yourself fore-warned.

On June 27th we packed the car and headed east for a much needed family vacation. I admit I was a little nervous to be driving not knowing how the girls, well mostly how Tyler was going to do for the next 10 days. We left at a quarter to 5 Saturday morning and had a 10 hr drive (without stopping) ahead of us so we thought maybe an early start and the girls would sleep the first few hours. It was a good thought...but things never go as planned. I won't spend the whole blog talking about driving, although I could do it. We spent a total of 40 hrs in the car and the girls, well they did Fantastic! There were a few moments at the end of the day when Tyler would start arching her back and declaring herself "done", there were a few times I felt the same way. McKenna was in her element- driving in the car (not towards home), movie after movie and all the treats she could eat only a "please Mommy" away.

We arrived in Sun Valley around 6:30ish that evening and met up with the Harris Klan who'd had quite the eventful ride up -something about fallen luggage. :) McKenna couldn't have been more thrilled to see everyone. We met up with my mom in Albertson's and as soon as McKenna saw her she began screaming as she ran up the aisle to hug her. There were 2 condos that all of us stayed in and so every morning shortly after waking up we were paid a fun visit by Maddie, Kierra & "maddie's mom". There was a bit of confusion as McKenna often declared herself Maddie, which didn't go over well with the original. She didn't understand how McKenna could be so confused. We were also able to get some family pictures at a beautiful spot close by one of the condos.

Some of the highlights of our time in Sun Valley were: Swimming, John winning twice in BINGO: including an iPod Nano (Thanks to Mark who knows how to pick a number), the kids Carnival with lots of blow up slides, bounce houses & Cotton Candy, meeting up with Jelina and her kids, John winning the 5K/Fun run-overall and Mel winning in her division (pregnant and all), playing with grandparents, aunts & uncles & Cousins, and Mel & John got a night out to go see the Sun Valley Ice Skating show.

Wednesday-July 2nd came all too quickly where we pack up again and then headed our seperate directions. We headed East where we stopped in Driggs to see Sarah McKellar and her cute family and have "supper". After visiting with Sarah and touring her beautiful new home we headed on to Lander Wyoming to see the Johnson/Johnstone family and celebrate the 4th of July.

John has spent quite a bit of time in Lander over the years including a summer internship in 2001 where he stayed with Jillyn's family-George & Linda Johnstone. He has such fond memories of the place and has always wanted to go back and visit. This time was no exception as the experience with kids makes it a little different but still wonderful. Mitch and Jillyn were excellent hosts and made us feel right at home. Jillyn's family was equally as welcoming, they even found us a house next door to Mitch & JJ's that was vacant and begging us to buy. For me Lander was like stepping back in time-it just felt so...comfortable. The first day we were there we ran out to Jillyn's parents and the horses. McKenna surprised us all when she was brave enough to not only get on the horse, but telling Mom & Dad to "go", wanting to do it alone.

The 4th of July celebration in Lander actually begins on the 3rd- we had a BBQ at Aunt Babz where we were also able to watch & listen to a wonderful and very patriotic Firework show. The next morning we got up and went the parade which involved a lot of horses, "native americans", a 10 yr graduation party that is still going on, and Linda (JJ's mom) led the pack of VW Bugs to wrap it up. Well actually there were a ton of Fire Engines at the end but we took shelter from the noise and water in the Quilt shop.

The evening was spent eating, playing wiffle ball, dancing and setting off fireworks (which started in the neighborhood around 3 that afternoon and lasted about 10 hrs). We got up early the next morning and on our way out of Lander we stopped for a delicious country breakfast and to say our Good-bye's at the Johnstone's.

We headed to Boise which was an 8-1/2 hr drive stopping in Jackson to play at the park and allow me to reminisce the summers vacations I spent there. It seemed like an all too quick stop for the evening at John's sister, Audrey's home. The girls were thrilled to find a "park" at their house and McKenna was in love with Alexia's room which was all girl-the bed, the shoes, the clothes, the stuffed animals, Loved It!

Ya gotta do what ya gotta do, cheetos anyone?
It was a great trip, one in which we won't forget for sometime. We were able to see and spend time with a lot of Loved Ones, The girls and I not only saw but were able to spend good quality time with our Dad, "Daddy John", and we saw some some of the most beautiful places that God created. Wish I'd gotten more pictures of...everything and everybody! Thanks to Shelly & My Mom who helped set us up with movies, stickers, books and toys to keep the girls happy and the parents sane.

From Mt. Raineer to the Grand Tetons!