The Difference Between Night and Day

These are my two older children (like you didn't already know that). Meet Ms. Night and Ms. Day. I just call them this to emphasize the differences they possess. These differences were made very evident at the Doctor's office today. So here is the story...

First off, this might have been the world's most complicated extensive doctor's office visit of all time. It was the two older girls well checks and Jada got the last dose of her Roto-virus drinking immunization. The older girls had to do all the usual stuff (weight, height, temp, bp, etc.) and then a bunch of additional things just to complicate the visit. Elle got her hearing and vision checked and a throat culture, and Mya got to pee in a cup (side note- very hard to convince a 3 year old to pee in a cup. Not so fun and I became very up close and personal with the dr. office toilet) and had to get blood drawn (twice because the first nurse had a very hard time getting the amount needed so Mya got to get pricked again) and got the Hep-A shot. The doctor also checked Jada's throat for good measure because it turns out Elle has strep. Anyways, is that enough info for you?

That is the background info for the visit. Now we talk about my completely opposite children. Mya sat so patiently as the first nurse was squeezing and squeezing and squeezing her little thumb, not fussing a bit. There was blood all over and she could have cared less. She didn't cry when she had to get the other thumb pricked and sat still again. Same for the shot, except for maybe a small whimper. Elle, on the other hand, fought the doctor so hard as she was trying to get the throat culture. You would think we were severely torturing the poor girl or something. And, as Mya was getting her blood taken, Elle is over in the chair freaking out about the blood. Mind you, it was not even her blood. She didn't want to watch when Mya got her shot. I'm so glad the treatments were not the opposite today because there is NO way Elle would have put up with all of that. Mya is a trooper.

Onto other topics- the dental saga of the century unfortunately continues with Elle's little baby teeth. We, sorry to say, have accepted our fate and are sending her back to the crook of a pediatric dentist to get the work done. We have exhausted our other alleys, and we walk away poorer and without any of the work done that was needed (including a tooth that is probably worse off because the filling a joker dentist put in in December already fell out). She'll be sedated which is honestly the only way I think she'll let all the work happen. I'm a little sad about this and don't like the idea of her getting two crowns that will be silver (luckily on her molars, but still I don't want it). Oh well, it is what it is.

Also, I was cleaning tonight getting ready for my Mommy to come on Saturday (and also taking advantage of being on lockdown sick mode once again) and I used a Magic Eraser in our tub. It was so great and got so much grime off. Those things are amazing! I don't know how they work, but it got off a crazy amount of stuff! So if you've got stuff you can't get off, try that or vinegar. I had great success with vinegar cleaning my water getting place (for lack of a better word) on my fridge. And lastly, books... I finished HP 6 again (I heart Harry) and was sad that Dumbledore died again. I wish he'd stop doing that. I started "Sarah's Quilt" ("These is My Words" sequel) and am still undecided. I'll let you know final opinions later.

The Month Long Non-Stop Party

What with 2 January b-days, a party, and presents that keep trickling in, there's really been a whole lot of birthday stuff going on around here. Elle is now officially 5! Does that make me old or what?! 5 honestly seems so old! It's weird to imagine my life five years and one day ago, the night before we went in to have Elle. Did I really used to not have any kids? That seems like ages ago, yet not really all at the same time. Okay enough babbling that doesn't make sense. I had fun posting pics of Elle as a baby and toddler. I admit I got a little carried away. But here she is...

We really do love Elle. When she was born, the love was instantaneous. I have learned a lot in the past five years, and am sure I have a ways to go in the whole figuring out how to be a mom thing. Elle's sort of been the trial run and besides the fact that she still has trouble making it through the night in her own bed, I think we've done okay with her. She really is a great helper around the house and will often "surprise" me by doing things like making her bed, dusting, sweeping, or wiping the floor. She loves to draw pictures, is quite the athlete on the soccer field, likes gymnastics and swimming, and loves to sing and dance. I have to admit she's not the most graceful thing, but neither are Jake or I so it runs in the family. She would love to take a dance class. She loves to dress up, is learning how to sight read a little, and is getting excited for kindergarten (I, on the other hand, am a bit apprehensive for that day to come). She is stubborn and a fighter and is a bit dramatic and often times OCD about things, but we love her so much and are so glad to have her as our oldest daughter. And just to keep things in perspective and to show how a five year old mind works, she asked the thought provoking question tonight "Do they go pee pee or poopies in heaven?" Hmmm, the mind of a five year old.

Here are some pics from the birthday party we had here Friday night. It was a joint party for her and Mya. I really did try to keep it kind of small and simple. We had pizza and ice cream sundaes and opened presents and decorated a castle. The girls were happy at the end of the night so I guess it was a success.

I love this next picture because Mya's friend Emma is sad about something and it's so funny!

Don't you just wish that beauty was decorating your living room like it is in ours? Don't worry, you can purchase your own if you like. And it only has 23 steps to put it together! Jake loved that!

We went to Red Robin on Saturday night for a birthday dinner and Elle got a sundae that Mya helped her eat. She was really excited about going to church today and getting a pencil for her birthday (the simple things in life). I also surprised her and brought chocolate chip cookies to her Primary class. She picked salmon for dinner (a step up from Ramen noodles that she picked last year) and we opened more presents and had hot fudge cake and ice cream for dessert.

When she opened this movie she was excited because she's really wanted it. Unfortunately she was a bit too excited and let it fly and it hit Mya in the mouth. What's a party without a few tears?

I like this next picture because I have one of her like it on all of her other birthday's we've had since we've lived here. It's kind of a tradition to get her flowers on her b-day (and for Mya it is balloons), and I like to put candy out on the table.

Lastly, I'm wondering if anyone can figure out exactly what is going on in this picture Jake took today. Can you tell how I've spent a lot of my time these last seven months? The funny part is that not only are they "nursing" their babies, they are reading, too. It was bound to wear off sometime I guess!

Life as usual...

Life has been going on as usual around here, except for the fact that Elle hasn't had preschool due to finals and Mya has been sick. She barfed yesterday morning, so we were officially housebound which wasn't all bad except I woke up this morning super cranky (I think my lack of leaving the house yesterday had caught up with me). I was ultra-productive in my housebound state, cleaning like a Molly Maid maniac. My day was full of vacuuming, dusting, sweeping, mopping, washing my sheets (which were so kindly barfed on), cleaning bathrooms, cleaning the kitchen sink and stove top, etc. etc. Sound like fun? At least I got it all done. Mya is way better today so we ventured out to Wal-mart. Now if that doesn't sound like fun, I don't know what does!

Anyways, I'm trying to get ready for the girls birthday party on Friday night. I vowed to keep it a small and simple affair. I only had to make six invites, as seen below. Elle was amazed that besides buying the stickers, I made the rest. Glad I could impress someone with my amateur talents. The plan for the "Dinner and Dessert" party is to just have pizza, make ice cream sundaes, and decorate this cardboard castle the girls got for Christmas from my mom. It's mostly just girls coming to the party, so this will be perfect for them I hope.

Since this blog also serves as a way to journal my life, my readers are often subjected to things they might not find all that interesting. But remember, this is my journal of sorts (since I have rarely been getting around to writing in a real journal) so skip the boring parts if you must. Below is a picture of an FHE (Family Home Evening) tradition at our home. Inevitably, one of the songs we pretty much always sing is "Sunbeams" and for whatever reason the girls like to jump on the couch as we sing it. I just wanted to document it since it is such a regular occurrence at our house. It reminds me of growing up when we would sing the "Once there was a snowman" song and try to be real tall and then shrink to the ground and hide underneath the coffee table at the end. It's all about the memories.

Due to our new church time (12:30- right during nap time. Just wonderful.) this is what we found when we pulled into the garage on Sunday. I guess it was a tiring experience.

And since I last posted about my insane amount of shopping, I thought I would post some of the purchases. You can sort of see the rug on the floor which I purchased at Target. I also bought the star and frame on the wall, the basket holding the blankets, the Wallflower, and the vase and basket on top of the entertainment center. Told you the shopping bug was bad.

And while the presentation of the below purchase/combo b-day present was a bit anticlimactic (due to some miscommunication and poor planning on my part), the end result has been great. That is until it decided to get all cold and rainy on us. Anyways, the girls love it and I love it. It is going to be a great babysitter.

And now for Miss Jada-boo (as she is so often referred to). She is 7 months old. How on earth did that happen? We let her cry it out Friday night (we've had to do that with all the girls. I'm not blessed with one's that can figure it out on their own.) and she's been doing great. I don't even think I heard her wake up once last night. Let's hope it sticks. Now if we could only get the other girls to sleep...

I like the picture above because she is sticking her tongue out and sucking on her lip. For some reason she really likes to do this. She'll stick out her tongue and suck on the corner of her upper lip. Kind of strange, but still cute. And below is a new hair-do. I guess it's one way to tame the craziness that is her hair.

Okay, Okay Enough About The Kids

I thought I would dedicate this post solely to myself and what I've been up to, instead of the usual talk about the girlies. These things, of course, are in addition to the usual cleaning, cooking, playgroup, preschool, laundry, hair fixing, bottom wiping, diaper changing, nursing, pee cleaning, staying sane, trying to keep 3 children under control while in public bit I usually like to engage in (okay maybe like is a strong word). So now, onto me...

** Reading: Of course I've been reading. Nursing allots me some time each day to sit and read. Besides reading Harry Potter 7 and starting #6 again, I've also read a few other things. Call me a nerd, but I checked out and read most of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them". It's supposed to be like a Hogwarts textbook and was actually kind of interesting to read about the fantasy creatures in JK's fake world (make fun of me if you like). I also read "Santa Cruise" which is a Mary Higgins Clark book that she co-wrote with her daughter Carol. Not my favorite of hers, but was a mildly entertaining easy read about some happenings on a cruise ship. After a slow start, I found myself quite liking "These is My Words" by Nancy Turner. I was warned it started slow, so I'm glad I stuck with it. At first, it felt like a novel I would have had to read for school, but I grew to love the story and especially Captain Jack as it went on. Did not like the ending, that is for sure, but I won't go into details in case you are going to read it. I requested the sequels at the library. Are they any good? I also read another Shannon Hale novel called "Book of a Thousand Days". Once again, a little wary when I read the first little bit and they were talking about muckers, but I did really enjoy this book. You should read it. I think that is all. Feel free to pass along book suggestions. I would love to hear them.

** Shopping: It's been bad this week. I had a bunch of gift cards from Christmas to use, and I had the urge to shop bad. So I spent way too much money this week buying all kinds of fun stuff because of course I couldn't stick to only the amount I had on gift cards. Old Navy had some really good sales and I got a ton of shirts really cheap for my girls along with some other stuff. I heard that the sale got even better today so we may be heading back out tonight. Target also had really cheap flip flops and brown church shoes for Elle. Elle, Mya, and I all benefited from this sale. I also bought some super cute capris from PacSun. I had the hardest time deciding whether to buy the capris (because they were really cute and I love jean capris even though I have a bunch already) or buy jeans because I really need another new pair. So I bought both and am going to take one back. I think I decided on the capris because I really like them, and there is not too many jean days in Texas. Besides clothes, I also got some cute house decor stuff from Marshalls and Target. I'm trying to make my living room a little more homey- we'll see how I do. I need my mom to come help. She's good at that kind of stuff.

** Running: I've been trying to up the mileage lately because some friends and I are going to run in a 10K at the beginning of March. I'm actually glad that I have that as a motivation to make me push myself and run longer. I've been using Jake's iPod a lot and it really is great to have while running. Makes the time go a lot faster. I'll let you know how the Rodeo Run is come March.

** Other: Besides that, life goes on as usual. I'm trying to make birthdays fun for the girls, getting excited for my mom to come visit at the end of the month, and holding onto hope that this busy season will be manageable. (As a side note- Jake got dragged back over to Audit from his Structured Finance group at work for busy season. There has been a lot of anger, kicking, and screaming on my part over this move. I'll try to be more supportive.) Today I didn't shower until after 2 in the afternoon because I was weeding out our sadly neglected looking flowerbeds (and because I'm lazy and just didn't get around to a shower so decided to be productive elsewhere). Last night, a big group of girls went to the movies and saw "P.S. I love you". I thought it was okay. I didn't cry like most of the other girls in the group. I guess I'm just an unfeeling, uncaring thing. I don't know, I just didn't get that into it. Still Compassionate Service Leader in the ward at church. Hasn't been too busy lately, but with a ward full of prego girls there will be plenty to do this year.

Well, that about wraps it up. I'm not all that exciting but sometimes I think it's good to take a look at other people's lives to see that we're not all that different. Such is the life of a stay at home mom.

The House That Never Sleeps

That would be our house. Or maybe a better title would be "The House That Never Sleeps Consistently For Long Periods Of Time" or "The House Where Each Child Wakes Up At Least Once A Night" (and remember we have 3 of the little rugrats so do the math) or "The House With A Mom And A Dad Who Haven't Slept Through The Night Consistently For 500 Years" (at least it feels that way). Anyways, my point of all this is that sleep is hard to come by at our little Texas home. With Jada still waking in the night to eat, an almost 5 year old who is terrified at night and comes to her "special bed" outside our door almost every night, and a 3 year old who decided to hop on the bandwagon and start waking up occasionally, we are up multiple times a night. Elle is often irrational in the night, Jada just wants to eat, and Mya just wants Mommy. And the lovely part is that they often wake each other up. Sorry to complain. I just wanted to know if anyone is sleeping. Cause if you're not, you can bet we probably aren't either. So give me a call. We can chat at late hours of the night or early hours of the morning. At least I've become really good at falling back asleep.

Oh, and as of yesterday and today, Jada is finally an ambi-roller. I'm just so proud.

We'll Sing a Song That We All Know...

In honor of the middle one and her big day, I first wanted to post some cute pics I found in our files. I love the third one because it shows just how chubby a baby Mya really was. My other girls had/have chubs, but Mya definitely takes the cake (and apparently ate a lot of it too).



Here's some pics of Mya around her birthdays. The first is when she was either 2 or 3 days old, the second is from her first birthday (which we spent at the zoo just like we did today), and the next one is from her second birthday which we spent in California.

Before I give the recap of today's festivities, I wanted to give a little list of things I love about Mya.

* She has beautiful blue eyes.

* She is a really good sleeper (most nights). As a baby, she was so easy to put down. Even if she didn't fall asleep right away, she didn't and still doesn't mind just hanging out in bed.

* She is really smart. I can't take much credit for what she knows as she is the middle child and probably receives the least attention (sad, but true). She can write her name and Mom (even if the letters aren't all in the right order). The other day Elle was asking what an "R" looked like, and Mya drew a pretty good one on her paper to show Elle. I honestly don't know how she knows what she knows. Must be from watching Elle or TV or something.

* She loves shoes. Even when she was younger she loved to walk around in my shoes like she's been doing lately. She especially likes the really high church shoes. If you put her in Payless for an hour with no supervision she would be in heaven.

* She says funny things like pacuter (computer), bubberbands (rubber bands), and slaucers (flossers). In her prayers, instead of saying "Thank you that..." she says "Help that..." for pretty much everything, like "Help that Charlie can come over" if he came over that day. Awhile back, she said something like "when daddy turns into a girl then we'll have 5 girls". The other day the girls were talking about where Jada will sleep when she's bigger, and I reminded them of the toddler bed we put in the attic. So Mya of course says, "Jada will sleep in the attic".

* She likes to stand up tall and say "Look how big I am". She doesn't like to be told she is little and likes to play with the big girls.

* She is just such a great kid and really easy going (besides her stubborn toddlerness). We are so lucky to have her in the family.

Today to celebrate, we went to the zoo with some friends. Here are the girlies checking out the meerkats.

Luckily none of my small children were attacked by one of these fence hopping jungle cats. I'm pretty sure Elle was talking about these or one of these getting out and eating people when we got to the zoo today. Apparently we didn't spare too many details when talking about the story. We just try to keep it real around here.

And Jada obviously enjoyed her first visit to view the habitats of creatures in the animal kingdom. She looks like she loves animals about as much as I do.

Tonight Elle had a primary activity, so Jake and I had dinner with Mya and Jada at BJ's (which Mya kept calling PJ's). Mya loved her pizza and birthday pizookie and was so kind to spill her lemonade on the ground. Jada loved the lemonade and literally couldn't get enough of the ice cream. I think we gave her a bit too much because she was spitting up a ton tonight.


I got Mya some cute balloons tonight, but the butterfly turned out to be a reject and is already losing air. I was so bummed. The presents were a hit. Can't beat a cute umbrella and fun princess sleeping bag. Elle was sad because she wanted a sleeping bag (luckily she's getting one in a little over 2 weeks). We haven't told them about the trampoline yet, but we are going to get one as a joint gift from us and both sets of grandparents. I'm giving the girls a joint friend party towards the end of the month so we'll really be celebrating all throughout January.

And Jada obviously had a good time at the party enjoying all the wrapping paper. Nothing like a good paper treat to end the day!