Way Down Yonder

We decided Friday morning of last week to make a quick trip to visit Jake's family, so we packed up the car and were out the door around noon. Crazy and fast, but still fun to see family as always. Jake's brother Luke and his wife Meagan live with Jake's parents but were out of town so we got to use their room which helped immensely with Jada. All 5 of us in the same room doesn't really work out too well. So Jada took Mya's old sleeping spot in the large master bathroom and life was good. Well, except for Jada's fever that she came down with. But besides that, all was great.

We went to the aquarium on Saturday. The weather was so beautiful! I love clear perfect days like this! I had to post some pics so you could appreciate that pretty blue sky. The aquarium was overly crowded and Jada felt really warm so I was removing layers while Jake took the girls to pet aquatic creatures. I'm glad we didn't lose anyone in the crowd. I think the girls enjoyed themselves. Kids don't seem to mind crowds as much as us old people.

I like how I'm holding Mya and how Elle is posing in the family pic above. We got to see a huge cruise ship heading out. Those things are enormous! I think a cruise might be fun one day, as long as I didn't get sea sick or freaked out about all the water.

Today was another nice day so the girls enjoyed lunch in the backyard and riding bikes in the cul-de-sac across the street. We are so lucky to have that perfect little spot to ride. One of these days we'll have to teach Elle to ride without the training wheels. That should be a fun day with all of Elle's dramatics! Mya has picked up on the whole pedaling thing quickly and speeds around on her little bike. Jada has fun in the little red car, and I occasionally impersonate Lance Armstrong.

I know this picture below is not that great, but Mya took it today while my camera was out. I thought it was a good representation of what my girls love to do. Does anyone else find it funny that I never had an email address until college but my three year old loves Barbie.com?!

And speaking of the girls... lately they have had an obsession with wearing skirts. They would wear a skirt everyday if I let them. And it's not uncommon for them to start the day in one outfit and end it in another, especially if it's too hot in what I put them in. I just love all that laundry. Elle also has a need to wear her hair down when we are at home. She doesn't care that I spent time doing her hair. Down it is.

Lastly is just a pic of Jada, who I think is feeling a lot better, and me with the new hair cut. Jake's new job has been going well if you were wondering. I started physical therapy this week for my sciatic nerve problem caused by the cute thing in pink in the picture above. I should hopefully be able to alleviate some of the pain by doing the stuff at home, but it was so nice to have a break today and spend some time on the PT table with heat and ice. It's not often I am forced to lay down for 20 minutes during the day. Coming soon... summary of the 10K on Saturday and details on Annual Family Mulch Day (as long as the weather is good- March is mulch month). Bet you can't wait. I know you are excited.

Now I might just start asking for a minivan...

Anyone who has been to my house or knows anything about my living room decor can't help but be jealous of my stylish, pretty much awesome couches. Yeah, I know they are beauties. It's the slipcovers that do it for you, right? I have to first thank my friend Allison's dad Jerry for these couches. They were his, long long ago. And then they were in Allison's apartment at college. And then when Jake and I got married, they became ours. They used to have denim slipcovers (horrible, I know) and now they are striped. I have tucked and re-tucked the things into these couches probably thousands of times. And that is not an exaggeration. I guess the real benefit to slipcovers is that if anything gets on them or anyone pees on them you can just strip them off and throw them in the wash.

So, the good news is that if after viewing the couches you are lusting after them you can have them. Because finally, after seven plus years, we have a new couch! This is big news for us. It is a sectional that we got from Costco for a great deal. Jake loves the corner of the "L" and has already broken it in by falling asleep on it. Here he is on the first night they were in our living room. Fitting picture, don't you think?

Hopefully they hold up over time. We have a few concerns with them, but the deal was just so great and they are pretty much Jake's ideal couches so here they are! Now, what's the bet on how long it takes the girls to spill something on them??

Here's a new (well, not really new, just newly painted- yet another piece of hand-me-down furniture) armoire that is in our guest room. Come visit and you can see it! We don't have the doors back on it yet or the handles so it looks a little funny but I think it will be great once we get it all back together. It will be nice to have another storage place for things. Maybe now I can get that guest room closet cleaned up a bit.

Besides furniture, we played a little beauty parlor here last Sunday and straightened both girls hair. I do this to Elle's occasionally, but this was Mya's first time. It looked so cute!

Check out all that hair I have to manage. And that's not including my own.

And speaking of hair, look at this great picture! We've had some nice weather and have been enjoying the trampoline. The hair is too funny!

Jake is currently in his 3 day spell of unemployment before starting up at the new place. His last day was Tuesday so we met him downtown after he was finished and went to the zoo. It was kind of a bittersweet day with some mixed emotions. It's funny how leaving some place (or getting rid of old couches) makes you feel sort of sentimental and somewhat sad. Sometimes it's hard to move forward, but we knew it had to happen someday so here we go!

The zoo was great, the weather was wonderful, and there was not a lot of people there. We had a great time. It was fun watching this mommy and baby orangutan (sp??). The baby, or probably more like a toddler, was hilarious doing sommersaults and playing. I felt like I could relate to the mom all too well. There was also a really cool male baboon that you can see on the left side of the picture above for all you animal lovers.

Elle had western day at preschool and luckily could still squeeze into her boots she wore last year. And because we're talking about hair today I wanted to point out the great zig-zag part I did in her hair. What's a cowgirl without zig-zagging braids!

Last mention of hair related issues, I promise. I chopped mine off today and got a color touch up. It's not the greatest pic of it below, but you get the idea. And Mya was taking the picture so be impressed that there are no fingers in the way or heads cut off.

Lastly, if you're intersted in Twilight, check out this link. Should be very interesting. There is also an excerpt to her new book "The Host" on the website if you are interested. Seems like it might be kind of good. Reading "The Secret Life of Bees" and am not hooked yet, but am only in the 50's so we'll see how it shapes up. And now that I have my couches, I might have to start pushing the minivan issue!

PS- I forgot to add that Jada is pretty much crawling now. Not very far or very fast, but short range crawling. Like to really get to something that she wants like drinks or cell phones or fun objects like that. It won't be long before she can make her way all around I'm sure. And her balance is getting better, too. We've even gotten her standing by herself a few times. This type of info is more for me than anyone else. It's just a nice place to record milestones so in like 5 years (hopefully not that long) when I get around to doing Jada's scrapbook I'll know what she did!

Celebrating Heart Day

We celebrated Love day in lots of fun ways this year. A highlight has to be the Island Princess Valentines we got for friends. I know you wish you got one. They were really cool. Mya got to celebrate over three days, what with playgroup on Tuesday, preschool on Wednesday, and the real deal on Thursday. Here's a pic of her decorating sugar cookies at playgroup Tuesday. They also got to make cute heart bead necklaces and play with conversation hearts (which I personally think are disgusting).

Wednesday I was lucky enough to get to host the V-day preschool party so we decorated Valentine hearts with glitter (which kids love to do), went on a hunt for the missing pink cupcakes for snack, and decorated pages with bags attatched for Valentines. Here's the cute kids from the preschool.
Elle had a fun V-day party at her school and came home with lots of Valentines. Elle and I (and Jada) went on a little Valentine's date Wednesday after preschool to Panera while Mya was at a friend's. It's so fun to hang out with her and I love it that she is getting so much older. She unfortunately had part II of her extensive dental treatment plan with Dr. Rip You Off on actual Valentine's day so she celebrated by being drugged up with some good expensive strawberry smelling gas.

I had to post the picture above because Elle has been making me "Valentine Heart Cookies" for months. She has had them hiding under her bed awaiting this holiday to give them to me (they are the cut out hearts, if you were wondering. Not actual cookies under the bed for months. That would be gross.)

The "Valentine's Day Bear" visited our house once again this year and sent the girls on a scavenger hunt finding clues written on Island Princess Valentines around the house. Mya and Elle both got beautiful Ariel nightgowns and pink short sleeve shirts, while Jada got a spread of cute short sleeve shirts for the warm weather that will be here all too soon.

The girls dined on chicken nuggets from McD's after Elle's gymnastics and were even lucky enough to get a cookie from the healthy fast food joint. I had all the kids asleep by a little after 8 pm, but still no husband to celebrate with. I read some more of my book to keep me busy (The Wednesday Letters). I can't say that I would recommend this one. It is a bit strange. We'll see how it ends. I'm just not really a fan of the storyline with the big family secret that comes out. And I want Malcolm to end up with Rain. If he doesn't, I won't be happy.

Jake did make it home around 9 pm with some pretty flowers, a DVD for the girls ("The Incredibles" which they love- and if I'm being honest, I really like it, too), dark chocolate covered dried cranberries from Costco for me (they are so good I promise), and take out from PF Chang's. He was busy after work! We dined on chinese and then watched "American Idol" from Wednesday night. Who else is a fan? Who do you like? I think there are two Mormons on it. The boy is really pretty good. I also like Danny (I think that's his name) although he is a bit girly.

Here's the yummy take out. PF Chang's is mine and Jake's special restaurant. We went there on our first official date (at least what Jake considers our first real date), our first Valentine's day, and on at least one anniversary. I love the lettuce wraps and mongolian beef. Yummy!

In non-heart-day-related-news, I found yet another good use for the trampoline boxes in our backyard. The things us moms can come up with to keep our kids busy! Mya ended up with a bit of paint on her forehead, and when I asked how it got there, she said that the paintbrush painted on her head all by itself. Amazing what those paintbrushes can do!

The girls also wanted a hideout on their bunkbed. That is another benefit of the beds- they make for great forts!

Lastly, we had a bit of vandalism going on around here the other night. I came out to find this nice hole in our mailbox the other day. It was really kind of them to leave the missing piece in the mailbox. If I find them, I'll have to thank them for that. So Jake the handyman got us a new one and installed it. I actually like it better because it has a cute little handle. And so that is all from us. Anyone else watching LOST? I still haven't watched last night's episode yet. I really wish Charlie hadn't died. And I am still sad that Jack falls apart in the flash forwards and can't deal with life off the island. Maybe by the end of the season we'll know why. It'll probably take that long to figure things out because the show tends to creep along at a snail's pace.

Really, this is the last thing this time. I just wanted to say that my children have been sleeping so great lately. For some reason we've been sleeping through the night. Elle rarely comes to the "special bed" anymore and Jada is sleeping like a champ. I just had to post this because I've complained so much in the past. Now I better go knock on some wood. And now that Jada is pulling up, she is sporting several nice bruises on her forehead. I love that stage! And does anyone else use bathtime as a form of entertainment? My girls will play in the tub for like an hour. We put them in the big tub in our bathroom and they love it. It is a great way to pass time during my very long days. That's really all for now. I promise. And spell check still isn't working.

I know you wish you were here...

Doesn't this look like way more fun than all the piles of snow I've seen on other blogs? I know you're jealous! Anyways, Jake's half marathon was on Saturday down along the Texas coast. The whole race was run on the sand, which luckily was packed down very hard so it wasn't much of an issue. Jake ran with two other guys from our ward, so the wives headed down with the kids to catch the end of the race. The kids loved to play at the beach- we really should have just brought swim suits for them so their clothes wouldn't have been soaking and sandy but oh well! The weather was warm when the sun was out and we had a great time. I was so happy to see the beach! I just love the beach. I want to go back!

Above is Jake finishing up the race with some help from his girls. And below is his fancy medal he got for finishing. He also got a cool coaster, running shirt, mug, a pack of brown rice (huh?), and a bbq lunch after the race. When he had finished, Elle said something like "He didn't win". I think she thought you should only get a medal if you win or something. You know, I think he's just happy to say he finished. Thirteen miles is quite the haul.

A little while after they finished it started to get so foggy. It was the strangest thing. I feel bad for those who were still out running the marathon that had to finish in this weather. It's probably no fun to run when you can't see very far in front of you.

And we've had some fun thunderstorms around here lately. I love them and will be sad to ever move from Texas and not have them anymore. Mya, Jada, and I spent some quality time hanging out in the car today waiting for a thunderstorm to pass. I wanted to run into the store before picking Elle up from preschool but it was raining buckets and we were without any umbrellas. So we sat safely and dryly in the car for a bit. I really do love the rain.

Last couple of tidbits- I was excited to see that the HP 6 movie comes out in November, and that the Twilight movie will be out in December. I have to admit I'm prepared to be disappointed with the Twilight movie. I just can't see it being very good, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. Also, Jada will be 8 months on heart day. How has it already been 8 months? In the last week or two she's started pulling herself up on stuff and being able to go from laying down to sitting up. It's cute to come into her room and see her sitting up in her crib. She's still not crawling, but gets around in her own ways by rolling around and sitting up and who really knows. I finished "Sarah's Quilt" and finally started liking the book about halfway through. Before then, I had really not much interest in reading the next book in the series "Star Garden" but now I'm excited to read it. I started "The Wednesday Letters" and it seems like a quick enjoyable read. Hopefully everyone has a fun V-day with lots of love and sweet treats!

Child Care 101

Sound advice from a mother of three... (thanks Lindsay, this was too funny!)