A shiny grill, a silly girl, and the tale of one thousand meatballs

Once again, the thought of blogging about Hawaii has proved too daunting for Em and me, so that post will live for yet another week in the 'started but not published' realm until we get our act together. But just because we haven't told the story of the Aloha state doesn't mean life stops here now does it?

First off, it was Father's day on last Sunday, so to celebrate I got a new lawnmower (which I mentioned in my previous post) as well as a new grill. Technically, this is two father's day presents, however I will caveat this fact by saying that:

1. A lawnmower is a lame gift, if that's all you get. That would be like me giving Em a new dishwasher for Christmas or her birthday. Sure, it's useful, and I guess it makes life a bit easier, but really... is that the kind of present you really want?
   
2. The lawnmower wasn't really a gift, it was more of a necessity.
3. I was supposed to get a grill for last Father's day, but I had recently dismantled our old deck and had yet to build the new one so there really wasn't a spot for said new grill.
4. I didn't actually get around to building the deck until October (a fact that I get reminded of every time I mention the next big money-saving project I want to do...), which meant there wasn't really time to grill last year anyway.

So, you see, one of the "gifts" wasn't a gift and the other was really just a rollover. Now that I think about it, I deserve something for this year! I'm going to buy some golf clubs. Anyway, I got a new grill and, for the first time in over 7 years of married life, Em and I ate steak. Big, juicy New York Strip steaks. It was wonderful.

Nice and shiny grill in the background

Then, on Saturday (nothing ever really happens during the week), we went with some friends (Jim & Marie and Dave & Marisa - note the distinct lack of a hyperlink for the latter as they have yet to jump on the blogging bandwagon) to the Swedish festival. I discovered a few things from this little adventure:

1. I'm digging the numbered lists today.
2. There is a Swedish festival in Utah, which is attended by a rather surprising number of Swedish people that apparently live in Utah.
   
3. There are some International Peace Gardens in Salt Lake City. It is actually really pretty and would be a cool place to take some pictures one night.
   Sure, they look and cute and cuddly now...


4. When a friend asks you if, on the night you normally have a dinner without kids, you could take the kids for a relaxing evening of fun and games at the park, remind yourself that right now there is no such thing as a relaxing evening of fun and games at the park with kids. It's just not possible.
   ... but the minute you turn your back they are off doing things like this!


5. Don't ever get into a grass fight with little girls. It's definitely a losing proposition. Especially ones that are clever enough to use their hat as a grass repository, kicking of a nuclear clippings arm race that we haven't seen since the likes of Khrushchev and Reagan in the 80's. On a positive note, the grounds keeper won't need to mow that particular patch of lawn for a good 3 months. Unless it rains a lot and he goes to Hawaii...
   Pay close attention to the background... and the hat full of grass!!!


6. It is absolutely impossible to eat over 1,000 meatballs in a single sitting. Ain't happening. I now know this from experience. I think that between Dave and I there were at least 7 whole cows that died for those gravy-coated beef spheres that we consumed. After our unsuccessful attempt, we both curled up in the fetal position in a meatball-induced coma. I have yet to recover. Jim, however, wasn't phased at all (and he even sucked the gravy off of all of Laine's meatballs!!!), but then again he went to Sweden on his mission so he has a built-in tolerance. At least that's what I am telling myself.

Need to add in the random Jane quote: She has started saying the prayer on the food, and kind of takes the standard phrases and mashes them all together. Right now, she says "Heavenly father, we're thankful for the special of the day, make it healthy, amen." Tonight it was Macaroni au Fromage avec Hot Dogs (finally, my high school French is paying off!).

Finally (and my apologies for being so long-winded; I blame Sweden), for family night we were putting together a package tonight for my little sister Tasha who's living away from home right now. As part of the package, we drew some pictures on a pillowcase for her to use. Jane had to do her own drawings, and she would then dictate to Em what they were. I had to take pictures because, well... see for yourself. There's no way to describe it. And keep in mind, Em did NO coaching whatsoever when getting descriptions of these things.

I could tell right away that was an octopus...

... and just looking at that made me think of Supersonic...

... but I started to get a bit lost here...

... and quite frankly, even with the helpful translation I had a hard time seeing a boat here.

Hargensplorgenbreegenmeingen... which in Swedish means either "It's 1:45 and I need to go bed" or "Why on earth am I dressed like this???"

Hargensplorgenbreegenmeingen?

What do you get when...

... you go out of town for a couple of weeks with the following conditions:

1) You just laid new sod,
2) You just dumped enough fertilizer on it to resurrect any pets that may have been buried in your yard somewhere,
3) You spent multiple hours fixing the #$%^ sprinklers (Yes, I HATE the sprinklers),
4) Mother Nature decided to play a practical joke and sent record amounts of rain over said 2 weeks, and
5) In your rush to get ready to go and finish up 1 - 3 you kind of sort of neglected to get someone to mow the lawn for you when you were gone?

Yeah... not that I KNOW anything about this, but, um, I bet it would look something like this:

Pay close attention to the rare tropical "Hairylegdelion" that started growing as well.

Ok, so that is my leg, and the grass is up to my calf. I spent about 4 hours mowing on Saturday and filled our entire garbage can as well as 9 bags of clippings.

A big Hawaii post is coming in the next couple of days, but suffice it to say that it was amazing and we a blast! In the interim, I have to talk about what an awesome wife I have. She swam/ran/biked an Olympic triathlon today, 3 days after getting back from the trip and still barely emerging from a macadamia-nut induced vacation coma. Here's the victory pose:

Finished! Em, is the champion...

She finished the race in 2:55 minutes, which is about 3 hours faster than I would have finished if I were even half as tough as she is. I gave her a special trophy:

This is the booty prize. It's a doll leg in thigh-high fishnet stockings that
I found on the ground. I didn't say it was supposed to make sense...

On a side note: Not that I know much about these things (seems far too 'exercisy' to me...), but at the finish line there was water and... pizza. Seriously, like 100 Pizza Hut pizzas. Is that really the kind of food a person craves after doing a triathlon? Why not KFC? Someone please explain this choice of food to me.

T.B.Y. Saga Continues....

Very few things in this life actually make me want to swear. Not because I don't find lots of things to be infuriating or frustrating (really bad drivers, really stubborn knots when you are in a hurry, adding pictures to my blog, ice cubes down your shirt, Rush Limbaugh...) but because I am just not very good at it. Mostly, I can't decide which expletive to use in the heat of the moment so my word comes out in some crazy combination that sounds more like an exotic type of mushroom...you know, like shitake but..different. I haven't even been successful in flipping someone off. The one time I tried, after a car full of guys almost hit me when I was running, I ended out making the peace sign at them. But I had my angry face on so I know they must of gotten the point. That's why they were all laughing.....

Anyway, I think I am much better at it after last weekend because I got lots of practice. What could be the source of so much angst you ask? That would be...our back yard. If you were a reader of this blog last year, you may remember the saga of The. Back. Yard. from last summer. We have basically had to tear out and re-do our entire back yard, and we have done it all ourselves because landscapers can be pricey! I wish I had taken "before and after" pictures (well, I guess I can take some "after" pictures but I want to wait until it is all entirely finished) because it has been a piece of work. We have battle scars and all kinds of stories. Our favorite still being the treasures we found in one corner of the yard that included a toliet bowl, some barrel cactus, plastic aquarium plants and a menagerie of toys and balls lost over the wall that fell prey to the abyss of our yard.

Anyway, we have felt pressure to get the next phase of work done on our yard because we are leaving for Hawaii for 2 weeks (YAY!) at the end of this month, and we wanted to get the yard to a point that we could leave it without everything dying while we were gone and undoing all the work we have done to this point. So, this week we rented a disposal trailer, a huge rototiller and a sod cutter and went to work. Well, Jevan really went to work. By the time we move from this house, I think he will be able to open his own landscaping business because he will have a working knowledge of every piece of large landscaping equipment known to man. It was blood, sweat and even tears, shed by me when I hit my breaking point. BUT, now we have lots of pretty green grass and a nice little landscape strip along the back of the yard that just needs a few small trees and a shrubery or two.....ones that look nice...and not too expensive. :) The happiest part of all? I have a GARDEN plot! A nice little garden plot all ready to be planted. I'm so excited. I have always wanted a garden. Now I just have to learn how to do it. Anyone have good advice for me? Maybe a good gardening book recommendation? I definitely need help. But to me, it made all the work worth it.

So, that is what has sucked the life out of us the past couple weeks. I'm not really sure why I had to blog about it. Honestly, who blogs about yard work? Sadly, me.

On a happier note, here are some of my favorite pictures taken over the past month that just make me smile. The first set is of Jane's first dance class. She LOVES it! She is emphatic about everything and shouts out all her answers. Mostly, the teacher has them dance around like different animals. In the last class, when the teacher asked what animal the class should dance like next, Jane yelled out, "A pink cow!" The teacher didn't know what to say to that but, "Okay. Pink cows everyone. Go!" For one of the classes I also tried my hand at putting her hair into a little bun to make her look more like a little dancer. Please understand that I have been a tomboy pretty much all my life and to suddenly have this little girl with blonde curls and to be expected to do her hair all cute is so far beyond me. So I am usually pretty proud when her hair ever comes out looking cute and, of course, had to take a picture. She is a pretty good little dancer too - nothing like her mom. When my mom put me in dance class, the teacher pulled her aside after the first year and said, "Maybe you should try her in ....soccer?" Every class I would just full-out run around the gym - no dancing, no twirling, just running, knocking kids out of the way as I went. Complete and total lack of grace. Jane, though...she might be different.....

Jane the dancin' fool:

Zoo adventures with friends: One day with my friend Paige and her two boys (here Jane is trying to hold his hand. She ain't shy....

And one day with my highschool playgroup friends: Jane and her friend Eliza. Allison is crazy about the water globe.And one happy day at the park.

Quotables

I absolutely LOVE listening to little kids with their ever growing vocabulary make sense out of the world. They say the funniest stuff. We suddenly get a window into those little brains where all kinds of things are going on..thoughts, ideas....and of course, independence, which can be wonderful and insanely frustrating. Jane has started into this stage and I've decided I need to be better at recording all the crazy stuff she says. Since we are her parents, it is of course far funnier to us than any of you, but I want to get it down so I don't forget it.

Many of her quotables make me realize how much she is listening to EVERYTHING I say.

Introducing us the other day: "My name is Jane and this is my mother, Mom."

Completely random: "I just have to turn this off so we can talk", turning off the air filter in Allison's room. I never turn the air filter off - and it has never stopped us talking before...plus, she sounded like I was in for a serious lecture.

Obssessed with choosing things: "I don't want this one right now. I want to pick a new one. Would that be so cool, Mom?"

Out of nowhere: Jane sometimes does my Pilates video with me in the afternoon. Once, during one of the stomach exercises that is particulary challenging, Jane blurts out suddenly, "This is impossible!"(sounded like "inpossipull"). No idea she knew that word, and I have never said any of the exercises were impossible. I was laughing too hard to finish the set - and my stomach muscles were grateful for it.

What's that word?: Jane comes in the bathroom one morning while I am putting in my contacts (I have HORRIBLE eyesight. I hope my kids don't inherit it. Jevan says I contaminate his gene pool). "Mom, are you putting on your phonetacks? Can I put on my phonetacks too?"


"Mom, will you splash my blanket?" (meaning, spread her blanket over her in a dramatic fashion).


What is going on in that head?:
Jane was in bed, supposedly asleep, when she started laughing really loud and hard. This went on for a few minutes, with a pause and then more laughter. I finally had to go in and see what was so funny, and she was holding Wally (her cabbage patch kid) and Minnie (her sippy-cup with a Minnie Mouse lid) close to each other. I asked her what was going on, and she said "Wally and Minnie are just talking to each other and they're being silly so I go 'Hehehehehehehehehe'..."

Learning social norms: Dad walking in the door from work "Hi Dad! I love your... book..." (must... think... of something...)

Darn sentence structure: "Mom, I have all much ready!" Meaning, don't give her anymore because she has enough already.

Love to hear: "Mom, you're so amazing!" (said when doing her hair or cleaning her room). You bet I am, kid.

Watch out - Jane's listening: "I can't zip my jacket! It won't zip....(frustrated sigh) ...WHATEVER!"

Allison is a bit of a crazy woman. She is a VERY busy one year old that is wiggly, feisty, and into everything. I tell her she's a nut all the time. At dinner one night, Jane turns to Jevan and says, "Hey Dad, do you know what?" "What, Jane?" She looks at him point blank and says, "Allie's insane." Oops. Gotta watch that.

What DOES he do all day?:
One day after Jevan left for work, Jane asked where he went. I told her he went to work. Usually that's the end of the conversation. Today, however, she asked "What's he gonna do?" "Ummm..." I answered distractedly, "I dunno. Work stuff.." not really wanting to explain to a 2 year old what Jevan does when, heck, half the time I have no idea either. Jane replied, "No. Silly Mom. He plays with puppies." What the? Well, that explains a lot then. I was wondering about all the hair on his clothes, the funny smell, and the lack of a company Christmas Party.


Another day. "Mom, is Jasper going to work?" "No, Jane. He stays here with us." Jane thinks for a moment, then with a firm voice, "He needs to go to work." Amen. Lazy dog - go earn your keep.


Exercising independence:
We have been really working on manners lately and saying things nicely. This was how she used her manners the other day. (Said in a sticky-sweet voice) "Please don't talk to me, okay, please Mom?" Meaning, don't tell me to go do something I don't want to do.


This one we hear ALL the time. She uses it on us when we are mad at her for something and are trying to disipline her.
"Jane, we don't draw on Allie's head with crayon. It hurts her." (said with a firm voice)
"Are you happy, Mom?" "No, Jane, I'm not happy. I don't like it when you hurt Allie." Jane pouts a second, then turns with a mad face and a firm voice, "Mom, BE HAPPY!" I tell her again that I am happy but not happy with Jane at the moment. Again Jane says angrily, "BE HAPPY!" It would go on like that forever if I let it. Grrrrr.....

It's all about timing: Jane likes to end lots of her sentences with "for a minute." She thinks she can pretty much get away with anything if she is doing it just "for a minute." Here are some I have heard lately.
"I'm just putting some cream (yogurt) on Allie's leg for a minute. She has an owie."
Finding a dirty, black puddle outside in the street: "I'm just going to wash my hands for a minute." Basically in order to steal any toy from Allie: "I'm just going to take this for a minute."

Crazy kid. I love her.

The Many Wonderful Uses of Duct Tape

Okay. I'm totally copying this picture from one of my friend's blogs, but I HAD to post it because it truly sums up how I feel about Allison these days. There is more destruction in her than in World War Seventy Billion (I'm not sure how much destruction that is as it has not happened yet but I am betting it's a lot). My house looks like a tornado hit every time I attempt to take a shower. Here's is yet another great use for good ol' duck tape

Notice how even her stuffed duck is not allowed to run free. You can't trust accomplices..

Allie's First Word

So a couple days ago, Allie said her first real word. It's nothing super random but still exciting. She now says "Hi" to everyone, in a very enthusiastic way. Sometimes it's "Hi, Duh!" We're not exactly sure who Duh is, but he is apparently everywhere. It's really cute. We are now in the process of teaching her some baby signs because she is content to scream at us until we figure out what she wants. Dinner time can be really frustrating, and sometimes it's impossible to carry on a conversation. She is also learning how to charm people. Every now and then, she will look at you and squish up her face into the cutest little smile, with a big broad grin and moon eyes. It is adorable. You can't but smile and laugh. Cute Allie. I am still wishing she would snuggle with me at night, but I usually only get one verse of a song with her holding still until she starts flailing about wanting to get down. She does know how to give her version of "loves". When you ask her to give "loves" she very tenderly lays her head down on your shoulder and lets it rest there for a fleeting, wonderful moment. I love it.

March was awful good to me...

I really liked March. It was great fun. I did not like how it would warm up for a few days, just enough to get your hopes up and your sandals and shorts pulled out, and then dump snow on your head the next day. I know I've said I like snow, but I like my winter weather to be consistent. None of this wishy-washy stuff. Be warm or cold. That's it. No more messin' with me. Roller coaster weather is lame.

That being said, I did benefit from our snowy weather in a most wonderful way. March is also my birthday month and this year, Jevan surprised me with ski tickets to Alta! Hooray! I have not been skiing in 3 years because I was always either pregnant or had a baby too young to leave all day. It has been brutal this winter to watch us get the best snow we've had in over 10 years, and just sit inside and stare at it. But, finally, my sweet husband gave me my chance! It was so fun to spend the day with him and since we are pretty much at the same level when it comes to skiing, we just followed each other down the slopes. It was such a happy day for me. I just wish it wasn't so crazy expensive!

Easter was a lot of fun too because Jane is starting to "get" holidays. We dyed easter eggs and had "Bunny Day" at my sister-in-law's house. ("Bunny Day" is an awesome concept thought up by my SIL. We hunt for eggs and Easter baskets filled with goodies the Saturday before Easter Sunday. That way, Easter Sunday and the Resurrection are separated from the Easter Bunny, hopefully helping the kids focus on what Easter is really about.) I had a good time putting together the girls' Easter baskets and learned some valuable lessons.
Lesson 1. Don't fool yourself into thinking you are putting the candy and chocolate bunnies in the basket for the kids when your kids are ages 1 and 2. They eat a few pieces and quickly forget about it. You know this. You then eat all the rest of it. And I sure did.
Lesson 2: Even though you know your 2 year old LOVES "chassick" (chapstick), don't buy the kind that comes in the little tin and they dip their finger in. You would think I would have figured this out instantly, but no, I had to learn by scrubbing the stuff off of Jane's entire face and hands. Nice, Em.
Lesson 3: Your 1 year old could care less about Cinderella socks. It's true. You think they're cute, and she doesn't care.

Nonetheless, it was dang fun to watch Jane's face light up when she found her basket.

This past week, Jevan announced he was taking Jane to work on Friday - his self-proclaimed "bring your kid to work" day. Was anyone else bringing their kids? I ask expectantly. Nope. He just felt like taking her because it would be a slow day and would keep her for the morning. Random. Love him, but he's random. But it was great because running errands with one child, especially one that can't walk yet, and hence can't pull things off the shelf (wait, i take that back. Just last week in the grocery store, while I was studying salad dressings, Allison managed to lunge from the cart and swipe 2 bottles of A1 Steak Sauce off the shelf, sending them crashing to floor, splattering everything and everyone with it's tangy goodness. Impressive, no?) is a lot easier than running errands with 2 kids. Jane had a great time writing on everyone's white boards and watching Tigger and Pooh on a co-worker's ipod. She really dug the headphones but Jevan said it made her yell when she talked.

And finally, to top off the month, my good friend invited me and a bunch of our old high school friends up to her parent's timeshare in Midway for an overnighter. A bunch of girls, completely kid-free, talking and laughing until 3 in the morning. We ate a yummy dinner, had brownie sundaes, and then had swedish pancakes in the morning. My favorite phrase of the night was my friend describing her experience at a guy's house one night as a "vortex of nothingness." It was so much fun. The house we stayed in was BEAUTIFUL, straight out of a Pottery Barn catalog, and when I finally climbed into bed that night, I sunk into the most luxurious mattress and bedding - you know the kind that just swallow you up in blankets and pillows and you wonder if you will have to dig yourself out in the morning? Yeah, that kind. Good times. Thank you, Emily! (her name is Emily too - I'm not thanking myself for the good time! :))

So as I said before, I like March. It was a good month.

By request...

My sister Stephanie requested that I post a video of Jane hamming it up for her, so here 'tis.



She's a ham, but she makes me smile.

Today Was a Gem

Wow. Two year olds are curious creatures, aren't they? Today was one of those days I wish I could save and replay again and again. I think last night, aliens broke into my house and stole Jane. Then they replaced her with an UNevil twin. Why they would do that and go against every rule in Hollywood, I have no idea, but they did.

Today was a gem. Jane was amazing. There was not a single power struggle all day. She didn't fight me on anything, giving in easily when I had to tell her no. She asked nicely for things (something I have been working so hard on recently), and actually got in her car seat the first time I asked (usually I have to find all kind of tricks to keep her from instantly climbing into the driver seat and messing with buttons when I am putting Allie in her seat). She didn't have a single accident (in her big girl underpants) even though we were away from the house most of the day. That's a big deal because we have had at least one accident a day since we started the whole potty training ordeal over 4 weeks ago. When she asked nicely for something and I would give it to her, she would say "thanks Mom!" and then give me a big hug and say "I love you, Mom!" Crazy or what? I have been completely dumbfounded. AND, when I was doing her hair this morning, I put it into braids on the sides of her head. First she said, "I'm going to show Calvin (her cousin) my braids. He say they cute!" I agreed with her, finished putting the elastic in place and gave her a hug. She then looked at me and said, "Mom?" "Yeah?" I said. "You're amazing." I just looked at her in disbelief and said "Who are you???" She then looked all puzzled and hurt and said, "I'm Jane!" Still not sure if I believe it. I didn't even know she knew the word 'amazing'.

Today was also a gem because we went to my sister-in-law's house and dyed easter eggs (thanks, Becca!). Holidays are so much more fun now that I have a child that "gets it" for the most part. She sat on my lap and happily plopped eggs into the all the different colored liquids. She did have a tough time restraining herself from grabbing the eggs out with her hands or stirring them a little too violently, sending colored water flying. All in all, it was super fun. Jane also played really well with Calvin, her cousin her same age, which was another crazy feat. Usually we are continually putting out fires between them as they fight over toys. Today they happily played outside in the warm sunshine and there was not a single incident involving tears.
Just such a wonderful day.

I am very curious to find out who I will find in Jane's bed tomorrow morning. I'm kinda hoping for the unevil twin again, I must say. I know today was probably an anomaly, so I had to soak it in for all it was worth. Hence why I had to blog about it. Don't think this is at all a normal day around our house.

Oh, and Calvin never did notice Jane's braids...or say they were cute. :)
Jane, my love, welcome to life with boys.

Pure Trouble

Does anyone else dread 5pm as much as I do? It gives me anxiety. It's that crazy time when you have to figure out what to make for dinner with the random assortment of food in the refrigerator, the kids are tired, cranky, bored or all of the above, and you realize you are out of tricks to keep them out of the kitchen. If I don't come up with any alternative, Allison will ultimately pull out every piece of tupperware and make a little city in the middle of the kitchen floor, and Jane either tries to "help" or cries out for fruit snacks until you think she will die from a coronary. Dinner time is rough for me. Half the time, I stick them both in Jane's room with the door closed and listen for large falling objects or frantic crying - otherwise they are on their own for entertainment. Sometimes, though, they sneak out. And here, dear friends, is what happens when one child sneaks out and I have my back turned while I work at the stove and talk to my husband on the phone.


Here is Allison making her own dinner. You can't really see the mountain of oatmeal in the cupboard, nor can you see the dog's water spilled nearby that mixes nicely with the flour to make a lovely paste-like coating for the floor. She was in the midst of making snowballs out of the flour. I think she is probably doing a better job of figuring out what to do with her ingredients then I was of mine at the time. I mean who doesn't love bean and oatmeal.....cake with couscous filling and a light dusting of powdered sugar. Mmm, mmm, tasty. Hee hee. It made me giggle - especially because she is such a cute little bit of trouble.

So there you have one of the many daily struggles in the Woolley household. That's what I get for trying to make dinner.....

Happy Birthday Allison!

Yesterday was Allison's 1st birthday. It is so hard to believe an entire year has passed. It sounds so cliche' but it is really true that the older you get, the faster time goes by. What is that about?

It was not so long ago that she was a squishy, soft, fuzzy-headed newborn sleeping on my shoulder. Nowadays, there isn't much squish left - she is a super strong soon-to-be toddler with places to go, people to see, cats, dogs and sisters to torment. Her dad insists she is going to be a linebacker one day.

I'm not so sure I am a big fan of Allison getting older. I think it should work like this: your first child grows up normally so you can experience their childhood to adulthood. The second child should be the one you get to keep small for as long as you like, just so you always have a baby to cuddle without having to have another kid. Then, when you're ready, they go from 5 years old to 21 in about 3 minutes. Skip junior high all together I say. They'll thank you for it.

Anyway, Allison is quickly growing....into a cute, funny one year old. We had a raging party last night for her and invited my parents and Jevan's family. Since we call her our "little monkey" (because she is literally always moving, squirming, climbing and grabbing), I decided to go with a monkey theme for the night. I got her a big purple mylar monkey balloon and even made a cake! I am always so proud when I actually pull off something that involves any kind of domestic prowess. I made a 3 layer chocolate cake (after getting some tips and tricks from my sister-in-law, Andrea, who happens to be a cake decoratoring genius. Let's just say, if there were ninja masters in cake decorating, she would be one...or even the supreme chancellor of all the ninja masters...or someone all-powerful like that). It worked out really well and wasn't nearly as hard as I imagined. Andrea also tutored me on how to decorate it and this is how it turned out. Hooray!

We had hawaiian haystacks for dinner (lots of little finger foods for Allison), opened presents (well, actually Jane and the cousins opened them while Allie attempted to pry the wrapping paper loose with a spoon), and had cake. Jane spent the entire day asking if she could "blow off" the candles from Allie's cake, so while the notes from the final "Happy Birthday to you" were still resonating Jane leaped across the table and blew them off. As is common with one year-old birthday parties, the cake turned messy at the end, with Allie's face and stomach covered in chocolate. Not to be outdone, Jane joined the fun, coating her hands in chocolate frosting and then obeying her aunts when they told her to be a gorilla and pound her chest or play peek-a-boo. The festivities ended with a great ol' celebratory bath. It was a fun night.

So, in honor of my little monkey, here are some fun little stats about Allison at age one that I want to remember:

Favorite food: mandarin oranges (she can eat an entire can in one sitting)

Favorite book: anything with pictures of other babies in it

Favorite toys: toliet water, anything jane is playing with, tupperware, telephones, dog bowls

Favorite activities: taking off her shoes and chewing on her socks, copycat games, bathtime, bouncing up and down, throwing food off her highchair, chasing cats (she would follow them to the ends of the earth...and so is definitely not deterred by a scratch or two), pulling mom's earrings out of her ears, following Jane around, eating crayons....

Things she hates: people not bringing her food fast enough, being overcuddled, shoes (like her dad), having her diaper or clothes changed, being left in the highchair too long, being sat upon by Jane, and currently, being too far away from mom.

Favorite noises: monkey, evil laugh

Funny things: when I'm cleaning, she always goes over to the vacuum and turns it on and then cries hysterically. I turn it off and she calms down, and then goes back and does it again 3 minutes later, again, crying hysterically. Honestly, child, where is that short term memory?

She can: walk with help, clap on command, wave (sort of), do animal noises (monkey, lion and dog sometimes), crawl at mach 5, and woo you with her smile.

Happy Birthday Allers. You are a sweet, funny little character with a smile that melts me every time. We love you!

Another source of "mommy guilt"

I don't know about you, but it seems to me that with motherhood comes a certain amount of "mommy guilt" - things you do or moments you have when you know your parenting skills aren't at their best. Things like using the TV to occupy your kids, counting fruit snacks as a fruit for the day, putting them to bed too late, putting them to bed too early (you do this to Jane and she will take turns pretending she is either Mary Lou Retton, doing floor routines in her crib, OR Shirley Temple in her best musical debut), telling them that noisy toy is "broken" or "lost" when you really just chucked it in the garbage, giving too much attention to one child because the other one is being a serious stinker, skipping whole pages in nightime story books because you are too tired and hoping they don't notice, college savings fund consisting of the change fallen behind the dresser, oh...the list just goes on....

Anyway, so here is my latest source of mommy guilt.....scrapbooking. Or the lack thereof. Allison's first birthday is in a week. So far my scrapbooking of her first year consists of...nothing. Haven't done a thing. Jane has a scrapbook for her first year because when she was 14 months old, Jev and I took a vacation alone in the middle of winter up to a condo and I sat and scrapbooked for 3 days straight...literally (I was pregnant with Allison and couldn't do much anyway). Past that, I have nothing else for Jane. And I am not going to have another scrapbooking vacation anytime soon (mostly because it isn't what I would choose to spend vacation time on). Looking ahead, knowing that I now have 2 kids to keep up on, and maybe adding others in the future, I have no idea how I am supposed to keep up on this scrapbooking monster.

So, I ask you, what do you do? Does anyone have any good insight on this? How do you find time to scrapbook or have you found another alternative? I know this blog is a good journal, but I have so many pictures and I figure as my kids get older, they will want some sort of picture book that is just about them. I do family photoalbums that I try to keep current, but they are just the basic brown books with slots for pictures and a little caption.

I have been thinking about doing the online photobooks, where you just drag and drop pictures into premade backgrounds, like the ones you can find on Shutterfly. I can't decide if it seems to impersonal. Plus, what do you do with all the little papers and "scraps" you aquire over the years, like their baby footprints from the hospital, blessing certificates, etc.?

I dunno, in the whole scheme of things, it isn't one of those pressing matters, but it is one that has just been bugging me lately so I thought I would send it out there to the Universe and see what comes back.

Bedtime Battles

So Jane has started to have nightmares. Well, I'm sure she's had nightmares before, but now she is able to tell us about them, and let me tell you, they sure freak me out. The past couple of weeks we have been awakened many times by Jane screaming hysterically in her bedroom. Each time, she tells us about the Scary Blue Monkey that comes in her room. The freakiest Blue Monkey encounter was the time she said it came in and started eating her back. "It go like this.." and then she takes her hands and begins to frantically shovel handfuls of imaginary Jane flesh into her mouth, while making wolfing noises. Freaky huh? I googled Scary Blue Monkey and this is what I found. I would wake up screaming too, poor girl.

We have other bedtime battles as well. Jane has suddenly decided that she wants me and ONLY me to put her to bed at night. We're talking all out tantrums. Tonight, I told Jevan he had to put her to bed even if she put up a fight because I didn't want to give into her behavior. She yelled and cried through almost all of the bedtime routine - over 45 minutes. Yikes! What do we do? Anyone else run into this? Is this a phase and I just put her to bed for a while or do we stick to our guns? It's an every night battle and we want to pull our hair out! Crazy kid. I can tell it hurts Jevan's feelings too.

So, around here, we are doing battle with either a Blue Monkey or Child Screaming Until She is Blue in the Face. Given the choice, I pick.... Greenland.

Just Journaling...

So every now and then, I am going to add posts that just tell about what's gone on lately - nothing very exciting, clever or ponderous (not that I write that way anyway) but just so I get things written down. I think I'm kinda like my faithful little camera, sometimes needing to just download everything in my head onto the computer..store it away in cyberspace and know that it is there whenever I want to see it again. Okay, so maybe not EVERYTHING..that could get pretty scary...my head ain't the sanest of places. That said, for all of my 2 faithful readers, feel free to tune out until next time.

February has been a pretty fun month so far. It started with a get together/playgroup with some of my friends from high school. I think I was very lucky in high school to have had a large, yet close-knit group of friends that I adore to this day. Even though we are all over the country now, whenever we are able to get together, it seems like time has never passed. One of those friends has been with me since kindergarten. Did I mention I'm lucky? I feel truly blessed to have them in my life. I am blessed for all the friends I have gained since then as well. I would be so lost, lonely and completely uninteresting without them. My friends are cool. Thanks guys.....

So for this playgroup, we went to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. Most of the kids were too little to truly grasp the idea that the huge things towering above them were skeletons of dinosaurs...at least Jane didn't. To her, T-Rex was but a humble "tower of blyocks." When I told her they were bones, and explained bones were under the skin, she assumed the dinosaur had an "owie" and asked if we should get him a bandaid. Yup, Jane, that will definitely help Mr. T-Rex - maybe if we kiss it too, then he will feel better and start playing again with his Mesozoic buddies. There was a room that recreated the world of the dinosaurs complete with a stream for the kids to play in and that, of course, was a big hit. As was the room full of sand you could dig for dinosaur bones, where there was as much sand throwing as there was digging. It was good times. It was mostly fun for me to catch up with my old friends.


We also went tubing up at Soldier Hollow with my family. If you have never done it, I highly recommend it. It is a giant tubing hill with at least five groomed sledding runs and a rope tow so you don't have to climb it each time. I was amazed at how fast you go, and even more amazed that it didn't completely freak Jane out. She went down 3 times before wanting to go in. Allison even got in on the action. She liked just hanging out in the tube and being pulled in circles.

On Valentines Day, we ventured down to Provo to decorate Valentines cookies with my friend (my wonderful and enduring friend from kindergarten) and her little girl and boy. Jane and Eliza look like they could be sisters - and Jane drove her crazy like a little sister. So here is a "Good Idea, Bad Idea" moment. Good idea: decorating valentine cookies. Bad idea: decorating valentine cookies with anyone under 4 (or probably 18 for that matter) when lots and lots of sprinkles, frosting, crushed candy canes..and did I mention bottles of sprinkles? were involved. My dear friend was the model of patience as we made a complete mess of her house. We lost many bottles of sprinkles over the side of the table and Allison had an especially good time eating everything that came her way and then crawling in it. It was a lot of fun though, and the girls fell into a blissful sleep on the way home, faces still covered in pink frosting.

That night we went to a movie (in a real theater! we never seem to go to movies anymore) with some friends in our ward. Bucket List was pretty funny and made me think of what I would put on my list to do before I die. I would like to meet Richard Simmons, just to see if he and his hair are really as obnoxious in person. Jevan was darling and sent me not one but TWO sets of flowers on Valentines and the day before. All I had for him was a freaky looking stuffed bug that had a box of candy hearts for a bum. Jane picked it out. All in all, a memorable day.

We have had many visitors this month too. My brother's kids came one weekend to stay with us, and Jevan's little brother, Thomas, came the next weekend. Jane was in heaven having other kids around 24/7 to play with. On a rare, warm sunday, she popped bubbles with her cousin, Mia, on the deck outside. Allison loved having Thomas around because he would let her pull all the hair out of his head.

Mia and Jane

Thomas and Allison

Finally, our friends from Canada came down with their 3 kids for the week and we were able to spend some time with them as well. We braved Discovery Gateway on a Friday and only lost a couple kids a few times. My friend was amazed that we didn't have more places like Discovery Gateway when there are so many kids in Utah. She said that in Canada they have lots of indoor playgrounds (with real playground equipment, not just big blowup bouncy stuff) and I realized there is a real market for that here. Anyone need a new business idea? 'Cause let's face it, our only other real options in the winter are McDonalds Playplaces and we all know what those are like. You're lucky if you kid doesn't climb through pee in the tunnel or find a syringe in all the colored balls at the bottom of the slide.

As you can see, it was really hard to get these guys to sit anywhere for very long.

Here is Jane, Brayden and Damon.

Need any cute mats or pictures?

Sadly, my wonderful mother-in-law has a business that is going out of business. For the past many years, she has owned and operated Twin Peaks Distribution which sells LDS focused greeting cards, matted pictures, and all sorts of other products. Many of these were created by her - she has an amazingly creative mind. She has been able to find a buyer for most of her greeting cards but she still has a TON of mats and matted pictures that are really cute and need good homes. There are Christmas mats, really cute nursery room mats and some other darling pictures to go in kid rooms. She is selling them super cheap and if you would need them for a school or ward/stake project, she may even talk about donating them for a tax write-off. She is having an open house this Friday and Saturday (Feb. 8-9) and if you can't make it, you can call her and talk about purchasing stuff at a different time. I have set up a blog with all relevant information and pictures of some of the things she is selling:
www.twinpeakscloseout.blogspot.com

She also has a awesome line of greeting cards that she is just starting up and they are HILARIOUS! You can purchase these online. Take a look. You have to see them.
http://www.anyhorribleoccasion.com

That's all. Just a plug.

Toliet Training and Tutus

Who knew that toliet training and tutus could go together? They can in our world. I FINALLY got up the courage last week to start training Jane and I have to admit, I wish kids were just a bit like cats. With cats, you show them where their litter is, take their paw and scratch around in the litter for a while with it, and then, you're done. From then on, they use the litter (as well as some of your houseplants). So why can't we do that with kids? Show them the toilet, let them flush it a few times (definitely not going to take their hand and swish it in the toilet water for a while) and then be done with it all? Sure would be nice. (Although, I wouldn't want to catch them going in the fica tree in the front room).

So far, it actually hasn't been that bad. I have had her in underpants around the house, and in pull-ups when we go out, and so far, today has been her only real accident (where she conveniently told me she needed to go AFTER she already went). It takes so much diligence, holy cow. Asking every 20 minutes, and then the process itself takes another 10 min...but it makes it all worth it to see how proud she is of herself. We have made such a big deal of it that she thinks she has won the Olympics every time and goes running and screaming through the house in a victory lap.

My favorite part is giving her the "treat" she gets when she goes. It consists of a couple of chocolate Whoppers...weak sauce huh? A lot of people I have talked to give out toys or prizes or all manner of such of things, but I take advantage of the fact that candy is still a novelty to her. I know, all those sugar conscious mothers out there are shaking their heads, but it is so easy and cheap and she thinks they are the bomb. Anyway, the best part is what she says when you ask her what she gets for going potty. She answers "SCHOCK-LATE!" in a deep, throaty voice that I can only describe as a maniacal pirate who has just found some serious booty. Or maybe a vampire that hasn't eaten in a while and finds a tasty neck - I have no idea how to describe it but it makes us laugh like crazy when she says it.

Enter in the tutu. The second day of training, I put her in underpants for the first time and she paraded around the house in them for a while. She then decided she wanted to dance in them, but who can dance without her tutu? (Her cute Aunt Stephy gave her one for Christmas). Out it comes from the closet and I try to convince her that you wear them around your tummy and not your chest, but with no luck. It was very entertaining.

Oh, potty training...I will get through this, right?