Disneyland!!!

Here we are in Southern California. Beautiful, 75 degree, play outside all day California! We haven't blogged about it yet, so I'm assuming some of you don't know. Dan's grandma is having her 90th birthday party today, so we got to leave the cold & ridiculous snow of Washington for this beautiful place! Seriously, I see why the price of housing is so high here. Supply and demand. If it was affordable, I sure would be hoping to move here where we can play outside in the dead of winter!

So we took the obligatory trip to Disneyland on Thursday. So fun! I took most of my pictures with my real camera, so for now we'll have to make do with the 3 I happened to take with my cell phone. And this is going to be a very detailed account, feel free to skim over it. It's just the closest thing I get to writing in a journal.

Here we are waiting for Daddy to buy the tickets. Katy doesn't yet know how excited she should be, but the boys are very excited! And so was their mommy!

So as soon as we got in we saw Goofy and stopped for a quick picture. Then straight to Tomorrowland, where most of our favorite rides are! Our first stop was Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, where you ride around and shoot laser tag guns are targets on the wall. By the end of the day I had ridden on it twice, Dan five (yes, 5!) times, and the kids a variety in between. It was Dan's go-to whenever I was occupied with one or some of the other children. So, when after we went through Astro Blasters the first time the boys were ready for Star Tours, Dan went immediately back through with Katy Goo!

After Star Tours we met Dan at the Jedi Training, where David was chosen to go on stage and train! So cool! He got to wear a Jedi robe and hold a light saber, and they taught him a little routine that he got to use on Darth Maul! We have lots and lots of pictures, maybe I'll get around to posting them in a couple days. He sure thought that was exciting! Ryan was disappointed that he wasn't chosen, but decided that he didn't want to come back and try again later.

Then Ryan wanted to try Space Mountain. He went on it last time (November 07), but apparently didn't remember how fast it was. Poor little guy was scared. I spent a lot of the ride saying "This is so fun!" to try and get him in that mindset, but it didn't work. The picture was taken near the very end, where I'm trying to make him feel better. Look at his scared little face! Oh, and meanwhile Dan went back on Astro Blasters with David & Katy!

Then it was lunch time, and we spent a ridiculous amount of money on a couple slices of pizza. Then we did our other two favorite Tomorrowland games - Autopia & Finding Nemo. I rode with David & Katy, and we bumped all over the place. Apparently Ryan did a great job, driving pretty smoothly with Daddy! And Finding Nemo was kinda fun for the boys, and WAY exciting for Katy! She really loved the fish, but I think her favorite thing was all the little air bubbles to make it look like we were going way down. Silly little Katy.

Then it was time for a diaper change for Katy, so guess where Dan took the boys - Astro Blasters! I finished before he did, so I decided we hadn't yet spent enough money and really needed Mickey ears hats. I think we got some cute pictures of the three of them with the real camera, but this is all I got with the phone:

Think she wanted her picture taken? Nope! She doesn't seem to realize that I have 4 more months before I have a two year old! She does like her hat a lot, though, and is actually toddling around with it right now!

At this point Katy was getting QUITE cranky, so we rode the train over the New Orleans square and went on Pirates of the Carribean. Last time we went on it the dark soothing boat ride put 3 year old Ryan to sleep. It worked again, and Katy was sleeping soundly by the end! So we got Dan settled with her on a nice comfy bench in the shade, and he and Katy napped for nearly an hour while the boys & I went through Tarzan's treehouse, then to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, the Teacups (haven't done that in a long time, won't be doing it again any time soon!), and Alice in Wonderland.

When Katy woke up Dan took her over the Winnie the Pooh, which had just broken down! :( So we treked back to Daddy for David & I to go on Indiana Jones (we had Fast Passes), which had ALSO just closed down! We had a quick change of plans, and David & I did Thunder Mountain. I was afraid he'd like it as little as Ryan had like Space Mountain, but not being in the dark was a big difference and he actually enjoyed it!

Then we kept walking to Fantasyland, and decided on Casey Jr. Poor choice. The line wasn't very long, but very slow moving. It took us about 20-30 minutes, which is the longest we waited all day. The boys spent the entire time in line trying to fight with each other. We'd stand between then, and they'd keep trying. Finally David needed a break, so I made him go over the fence and sit down. He threw an absolute FIT about it, and there was much staring and embarassment. Then it was time for us to go. I really probably should have made David & me sit out, but I just couldn't do it. He had somewhat calmed down by then, so I told him that that was why he was allowed back in line.

A big portion of the naughtiness was because of hunger, so we went right across to the Village Haus. Another big mistake. It took way to long to get our food, and it wasn't that great. Oh, and the kids meals especially were RIDICULOUSLY overpriced. I know, I know, that's just what happens at places like that. But $5.99 for a juice box, a couple chicken nuggets, and a little bag of apple slices? I shared my fries to round out their meals, but was very disgusted by this dining experience.

After eating we all felt better, and ready for more. So we went to the Carousel, which I'm pretty sure was Katy's favorite. The boys loved it too! Then we hiked all the way back to Winnie the Pooh, which was open again. We waited in the short line, and were directed to the rows to wait for the next car. THEN it broke down again! This was very disappointing, especially for Katy, who kept whining "Pooh, pooh, pooh." Who decided to name a children's character "pooh" anyways?

So we went back to Indiana Jones, with more success. David & I did that one (Ryan wasn't tall enough), while Dan took the other two to the Tiki Room (another big hit with Katy Goo!). I forgot how scary it was, and David spent a lot of the ride with his hand over his eyes. Ooops.

Well, the day was coming to an end, so we decided to go do the Carousel & Astro Blasters one last time. That was a nice ending! But we didn't time it well, and ended up leaving at the same time as everybody else, meaning a longer wait to get to the car. We tried to wait it out in the restaurant by where the trams come, but it was too pricey for a snack. I wandered through the GIANT Disney store with Katy, but couldn't bring myself to spend $12 for a basic little stuffed animal. There's a Disney outlet store in Auburn, I think I'll check it out next week.

The kids were exhausted, and I'm pretty sure all three were asleep by the time we hit the freeway. Oh, and more impressive - they immediately went back to sleep after coming inside, changing into jammies, and going potty! If only that had made them sleep in the next day, the experience would've been perfect...

It was time to lose the mullet

So Katy got her first haircut! I loved her long curly silky blonde hair. It was so nice to run my fingers through. But the back was getting so nice and long, and the top was failing to keep up. She was starting to look little a little tiny hillbilly. So in the midst of trying to get my family ready to fly to California tomorrow, I took Katy to Supercuts!

I took pictures of her while she was getting it cut, but I did it with my dad's camera. I mistakenly assumed my batteries were dead (they die every couple of days). So I only have before and after. You'll just have to believe me when I tell you she did SO GOOD! She was so serious while sitting in the chair, it was hillarious! We'd talk to her and ask her questions, and she just sat there with a solemn face. Once she got down she got all happy & bubbly again! Oh, and I even made her get back up to get a bit more off, and the same transformations happened again! I didn't have to worry about her wiggling or being wild AT ALL! Yay Katy!

Here are some before shots. In this one I swear she has a little ponytail on top, I didn't let the mullet get THAT bad!

And here's a couple days ago getting a horsey ride from Grandpa. I love doing fun things with her hair, but it was just getting a bit too long and weird.

I'm a little sad that her hair is so short, but I think it looks cute!

Here's the back - thank goodness a cut didn't make her curls go away!

After her shower the sides curled a bunch more than they have lately. So that'll be my consolation for not having such long silky baby hair to play with anymore!

you KNOW it isn't the apartment for you when...

...you Google the name of the complex to find details & pictures, and come up with this:

Two Portland men shot dead in Rockwood on New Year’s Eve

About halfway down the article it reads:

Detectives and crime scene investigators began interviewing friends and relatives of the victim and canvassed the neighborhood. During the investigation, police found a second body behind a building in The Pines apartment complex, just north of the Barberry Village apartments. The body was that of Willy Lewis Butler, 18, of Portland.

Police expanded the crime scene to include the second victim’s location and began interviewing residents of The Pines apartments.

So The Pines will probably not make a great home for our family. Good to know now, rather than when we move in and happen to find a dead body. Or become the dead body.

Being David is hard.

David has been on medication for his ADHD symptoms (again, not technically diagnosed as HAVING ADHD, just the symptoms, due to his age) since last summer. They've made a remarkable difference in his behavior. However, last year they cost $40 a month. The copay was going up to $60, which is part of the reason we decided to go for the cheaper insurance that saves us $127 a month but doesn't cover anything before a deductible. So, we decided to try a generic medication. Which is short acting, staying in his body 4-6 hours. So he takes one at breakfast time, one at lunch time, then by early evening gets totally out of control! Either he has gotten WAY worse since last summer, I've forgotten how bad he was, or the coming down from the medication makes it worse. I'm thinking it's the last possibility.

He started his new meds 19 days ago, and right around that day (I'm not sure exactly because I didn't pay attention) he started really having a hard time going to sleep. Not that bedtime troubles are new, but this is different. He stays up way, way later than Ryan, when before it was both of them keeping each other awake. And he's not jumping around all night, by 9:00 or so he's mostly laying quietly in his bed. And yet he doesn't fall asleep until after 10, frequently 10:30! At 9:48 tonight I went to check on him and found this:


I know it's hard to see, my cell phone doesn't take great pictures in the dark. If you can't tell, it's a big pile of books next to the end of David's bed. He's trying to quietly look at books in his room! It's taken me most of the past 2 weeks to get past being frustrated AT him and be frustrated FOR him. Poor guy can't fall asleep! I know how that feels, and it's miserable! I have a perscription for a controlled-release generic (not sure why they didn't try it first...), but none of the 8 pharmacies I tried have it in stock. So we ordered it and have to wait for Monday. I sure hope they work. Poor little guy!

trying to figure out housing!

Well, our poor family has lived apart for 3 months now. Our house still hasn't sold. We got a new agent this week & were feeling very positive about our new listing with better pictures and remarks (that only agents see). But unless our new agent is showing it without telling us (unlikely), it hasn't produced anything yet. We signed with this new guy until 2/15, then we're going to try and rent it out. We're hoping that is quicker & easier!

So our plan is to pack up all of our belongings on 2/14 (fun Valentine's day activity, huh?), then move them up to Vancouver, WA (houses are quite a bit cheaper in Vancouver than Portland, even though it's right across the Columbia river). If we can sell or rent it by then, we'll move into an apartment at that point (even if we sell, we'd like to get to know the area before committing to a house). If not, I guess it might go in storage. Unless we decide it's time to just time to start paying an extra cost so we can live together as a family. So we have a semi-plan, contingent on several things (some in our control, some not).

I've spent a LOT of time lately looking at apartments (my parents are probably really annoyed!). We need a 3 bedroom apartment that allows large dogs. It's pretty hard to find! And there are so many factors to weigh, it's hard to know what's important.

Since part of the reason to rent is to get to know the area we want to live, I'd like to live in an apartment complex near a good elementary school. I've been looking on schooldigger.com, which ranks the 1058 elementary schools in Washington (and other states, too, that's just what I've been looking at). There's one school that's #21 in the entire state! I'd like to live in that school's boundary! I found Heritage Green apartments that would go there, allows large dogs, and has 3 bed/2 bath 1446 sq ft apartments. When I was looking last week it was listed to rent $1015 a month. I just looked again to find out what hours they're open tomorrow, and it's gone up! It now says $1125-1200! Rude!

I'm kind of thinking we might just have to do that, though, because nothing else sounds very good. There are 4 other apartment complexes with mediocre schools (ranging from 441-584th in the state), but I think there's something wrong with all of them. I'm pretty sure one of them only has electric dryer hook-ups (the others actually have washers & dryers, so ours will have to go in storage I guess), and we have a gas dryer. One is only 1021 sq feet! Two of them have really poor ratings on apartmentratings.com, but that's so subjective I don't know if I should worry.

Then there are 6 other complexes that have 3 bedroom apartments that allow large dogs, but they have worse schools. One is 914 out of 1058! Yuck! But really, does it matter THAT much if the school is 584th or 780th? We can still get to know Vancouver without renting exactly where we want to buy. I don't really want to buy in the 584th school boundary anyways! Hopefully we'll only be renting for 6 months, so David would go to a little bit of kindergarten, that's it. When we buy, it'll be a much bigger deal.

So, the kids & I are driving down to Vancouver tomorrow to look at some apartments with Dan. I'm going to make some sort of map showing where acceptable apartments are so we can go check them out. Then hopefully we can make a decision!

Trying to be Obedient!

I told Katy to go put her water away. She put it on the couch. A few minutes later I told her to take off her necklaces & put them away (so she could go to bed...it's the only time she doesn't wear jewelry). She put them on the couch. Sweet little Goo. Nice try, Honey!

We didn't skip Christmas, just blogging about it

Well, if my goal was to be the last one to blog about Christmas, I think I made it! I do a pretty good job of blogging when I take pictures with my cell phone, but not when I take pictures with my camera. It seems like so much more work to connect it to the computer and upload the pictures than just to text it to my email address from my phone. Well, I finally did it a week or so ago, now here's the blog!

I love this picture of David diving into his stocking. If you look closely (or maybe you need a bigger picture) you can see his face so happy & excited! I love that he's smiling just because he's happy, not because he's smiling AT someone. And Ryan is holding his Nintendo DS Santa brought him (he requested a black one, so it's kinda hard to see), also very excited I bet, you just can't see his face.

Katy was a good girl this year, and Santa brought her a cool pink tricycle. Her legs still need to grow a bit for her to really enjoy it, but it sure is cute!

Sadly, I don't have any really good pictures of the kids opening their presents. I guess I spent more time in the moment enjoy it rather than taking pictures, which is good. So, here's David admiring a Lego set from Grandma & Grandpa Morrill, and Ryan getting ready to open a present. And Katy probably doing something naughty in the background. That girl was a present opening machine, would absolutely not wait her turn, and opened whatever presents she could get her hands on!

This was Ryan's big favorite! I had to open it & put it together because it came in just a plain brown box, and once he had that in his hands he wanted nothing to do with other presents! In hindsight, I should have just let him play with it, and saved the rest for later!

And here's the kids after church the following Sunday. Don't they look nice? I love dressing them up!

Ryan does his very own Photo Bomb!

I was going through our digital pictures recently to select ones for printing, and I came across a sequence of pictures where Ryan photo bombs David! For those of you that don't know, photo bombing is where someone does something to ruin someone else's picture. Here's a L.A. Times article describing it further. Here is Dan's favorite, and it always makes me laugh:

I tried to find more good examples, but soon discovered that many people photo bomb using their bottoms or other private body parts. So I stopped looking. Anyhow, I think the idea is to do it stealthily in the background so nobody notices until later, but this was pretty darn good for a 4 year old! Here's the picture taken immediately before Ryan struck:
It was Halloween, and David was getting ready to go to school. Ryan had just had lunch, and was just hanging out with us while eating an ice cream cone. Maybe he was jealous of David getting extra attention or something. Soooo...attack! Here he starts...
Ryan is AWESOME!

Opposition in ALL things!

Last night I went visiting teaching for the first (and maybe last) time in this ward! I have 2 sisters on my route (well, 3, but the other one is unreachable...disconnected phone number), and both of them were in this ward while I was growing up! I'm pretty sure they were both in Young Women's with me, although I was pretty self involved as a Laurel (isn't everyone?) and didn't really notice the younger girls. Anyhow, last night we were visiting with Laura Jenks, and I was talking about how hard this moving thing is hard, but worth it in the long run because I don't want to raise my kids in Utah. She said something about how it's important to have opposition in all things, and that's exactly what I mean! I don't think I ever thought of it exactly that way before, but that's a really good way of putting it.

I was thinking about that more today, this time about aromas. You know, a lot of life goes by without thinking about smells. Your nose is used to any aroma that's just always in your house, so a lot of the day it just doesn't notice much.

Then, out of nowhere...ewwwww! Molly!

This pup has some seriously nasty gas. Yesterday morning I took her for a jog, and she made a nice giant pile halfway through (so I got to carry a bag full of poo for almost a mile! yuck!), so when she started stinking a short while later I was pretty confident that it wasn't that she needed to go. She just has awful stinky toots! I googled it this morning, and the easist conclusion is that it's related to her dog food. I know she is way stinkier since coming here, and she changed to eating Sadie's food (initially just because she wanted to, then finally we gave in and just give both of them the same food). I don't know if it's worth trying to get a different kind for her since the dogs eat each other's anyways. Maybe I'll give it a try, for the same of everyone near that gassy dog! Oh, and a list of the top ten stinkiest dog breeds has mutt listed as #2 (she's a two breed mix, does that count?) and lab as #3. Lucky us. ]-P



Luckily, the "opposition in all things" rule makes having a nose not only bearable, but WONDERFUL! I decided that I have three all time favorite smells. Probably my top favorite in all the world is baby hair washed with Baby Magic. The Baby Magic by itself is pretty nice, but nowhere near as wonderful as baby hair that has been washed with it. It is so nice! I was thinking today that Katy's hair might be getting long enough to warrant a big girl shampoo, especially so I can condition it and not have tangles to deal with. But then it wouldn't smell so good!

I may have another baby just for that smell. Seriously.

My other two favorite smells? Well, sweet pea flowers have a heavenly smell...

And luckily Bath & Body Works has a Sweet Pea scent that captures it perfectly. I indulged in buying myself a Sweet Pea body wash a couple weeks ago, and now every day after my shower I catch wiffs of it for a while. It's absolutely lovely!

And last but not least, chocolate chip cookies. I think there are few people who would disagree with my statement that baking chocolate chip cookies smell super yummy!

Warning: don't google for chocolate chip cookie images unless you want to make them. I'm seriously thinking that needs to be my afternoon activity. Yum.

Looking at the Positive!

It occured to me last night after blogging that anyone that reads the blog is going to start thinking I am one cranky lady. It seems most of my blogs lately have focused on things that are frustrating me. I guess it's because that's the time I think "Gosh, I need to vent this somewhere...I know, my blog!" When I'm enjoying life and being happy, I'm busy enjoying it and not blogging about it!

This is one of my favorite times of day. David just started school at 1:00, and Katy went down for her nap shortly thereafter. Ryan usually watches a movie at some point during the afternoon, but right now he's behind me playing Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii. I'm constantly amazed by what my little ones can do on the Wii. I have a pretty hard time with that game, so I assume they won't be able to do much at all. Not so, he's having a great time doing a great job! It's fun to watch him, especially when he shakes the wii-mote to make Mario spin. His whole body gets into it, it's so cute!

So I don't want to spend too much of my time blogging, I just want to write about a few things that make me happy. Like Ryan playing the Wii. He's such a sweet little guy, and I'm really glad he has this special time when he's the only one around.

The thing that made me think to do this blog was just a few minutes ago when I was on my way to put Katy down for a nap. I was walking behind her while she ran to her room, and I just love watching her run! It's so super cute! Toddler running is the best. It makes me happy. Then we laid down next to each other on the full size bed in the room, cuddled up under her blanky, and read the book she picked out. She interacts a lot, pointing to lots of things and saying lots of cute things. It was really nice.

Today lunchtime went really smoothly. I made ramen soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, and it was a big hit. Everyone asked for more of one or the other, and ate both (and some yogurt) really well. Then David got ready for school quickly the first time I asked. It was so stress-free and nice! That sure made me happy!

And as hard & scary all these grown up moving decision are, I am excited to live with my husband again! I'm really glad to have a plan. So now I'm going to go research apartments to rent, and that's pretty exciting! Not as fun as house hunting, but still fun!

Why'd I want to be a grown-up so bad?

I like having one or two different things going on at any given time. Not different from each other, different from the usual. Like a craft project, a purchase to research - large (house, car, etc) or small (Christmas present, books, etc.), a trip to plan...just something to keep my life from getting too monotonous. I like having something to put some thought & energy into. One of the things I enjoyed about during my pregnancies is all the fun things that do that for me. It's even okay if it's a problem to solve, it's just nice to have something to keep me from noticing the monotony of my days.

However, if I get too many of those things, I freeze up and can't function. This evening I'm feeling like I'm in that place. Maybe expressing it here will help...

My boys are back to being super naughty at bedtime. It seems to happen for a couple weeks every couple months. I don't know why, or I'd change whatever the catalist is! Just about a week ago I think, they started staying up late being wild. They usually don't have a problem going to sleep in the same room at the same time, but lately it's been being hard. So I'm finding that if I let David stay up later (he's older, so I think it makes sense to always let him stay up later rather than fight over whose turn it is) until Ryan falls asleep, it goes better. The only problem is, that's getting really late. We had the missionaries over for FHE this evening (they're supposed to practice teaching lessons to members when they don't have other people scheduled I guess), and they didn't leave until shortly after 8. So, after all was said & done, David didn't go to bed until 9:45. Not cool.

David recently changed ADHD meds (maybe part of the bedtime problem?), opting for a $5 a month generic instead of a $116 a month (our insurance just got cheaper & crappier) name brand. I think that while they're working, they work great. But his old meds were extended release, and one little pill at 8 am would work wonders all day long. These new ones work for 4-6 hours, so he gets one around 8, one around 12:30. So he's great in the morning, and hopefully great at school. Then in the evening he gets wild & crazy. And I have mixed feelings about how to handle that. The meds pamphlet said it was typically taken 2-3 times a day. So maybe we can add another dose at 4:00ish. But shouldn't he need to learn how to control himself? Are we just taking the easy way out and medicating away his need to learn? Or is he actually physically incapable, and he needs the meds the same way someone with high cholesterol needs meds. I make that comparison rather than strep throat or an ear infection, because it's also something that is somewhat controlable, but to different degrees with everyone. I don't know what to do. I just placed holds on 7 different books in the King County Library System, hopefully one of them will have the magic cure. I really want to do what's best for my entire family. When David's meds run out, he is really obnoxious to be around, constantly making random loud noises & jumping around. So I need to balance our need for him to be more calm & controlled with his need to learn to control himself.

Not only is David being wild and needing some sort of intervention (more meds, different meds, or maybe some sort of exercise & diet modification), both boys have been more naughty than usual lately. Or maybe I'm just noticing it more with my frayed nerves from David's extra wildness & my lack of evening relaxing time. I know there are different thing they're doing lately that are so naughty. They keep just making rude noises (hard to explain...like loud whining) when asked to do something or stop doing something they are doing. They're really struggling with being respectful. I think it's time for me to be quicker and harsher in punishing them. David actually bit Ryan at dinner time tonight! I don't think I did anything beyond lecture him - I need to find a good way to make them want to not break the rules. They been losing DS/Nintendo 64/Wii time lately when they abuse those privileges, maybe I need to take it away for other things as well. But then they'd never get those things...

Oh, and Molly is pretty naughty, too. Once she's done healing from her surgery, I really ought to spend more time training her. That's something I'd spend time focusing on, learning how to and that kind of stuff...if I didn't have so much else in my head.

We've finally made a plan for moving out. Our 6 month contract with our agent ended yesterday! So the current plan is to list with my friend Gayelinn's agent for about a month, then put it on KSL to find renters instead. We'll head down over President's day weekend to load up a truck and empty everything out. Hopefully we can meet with prospective tenants while there and get a lease signed! Then we'll rent an apartment near Dan's work while we save up money for a new down payment and/or wait to sell the house when prices pick back up. And it'll be good to get to know the area before committing to a house, anyways. I hope to be back in a house by summer of 2010.

Oh, and we need to figure out how exactly to transport all our stuff the 800 miles from Utah to Oregon/Washington. We're considering doing ABF, that will drop off the back of the truck for a few days, we load, then they drive it for us. That sure sounds nice to not have to deal with driving a giant truck that whole way! But...it's about a thousand dollars more than doing U-Haul. A THOUSAND dollars. If we're hopeing to save money for a new house, losing that thousand dollars isn't a good way to start. But is it safe for my husband to drive a giant truck? What if there's weather issues? I guess we could wait longer to avoid the possibility of snow, but I miss living with my husband! I don't know whether to try and convince him to tough it out for the sake of our wallets, or to just sign up for the truckers to haul it for us to save A LOT of stress!

I really can't wait to be settled in a new place (even if it's just an apartment), with my computer and my craft stuff and all the rest of our clothes, and my own space. But, then I have to go back to running the household. Right now, I try to help. I try to keep the kids' mess in the back room and not spread all over the entire house. Of course, I still do our family's laundry. I try to pick up the clutter in the living room to make it look nice. I even volunteer to cook occasionally. But I generally don't do the chores I don't want to. I rarely do dishes. I haven't cleaned a toilet since coming (although I do sometimes remember to use a clorox wipe around the rim...boys are gross...). And I don't go grocery shopping very often, and never with the kids. If I'm feeling overwhelmed right now, how am I going to feel when I get to do everything again?

Perspective, perspective, I probably just need some perspective. None of this is all that big of a deal. I'm just feeling overwhelmed at the moment. I'm a little jealous of my 14 year old sister who gets to spend so much time doing fun things (she's on a ballroom dance team!), not worrying about ADHD meds & moving costs. I remember being her age & wanting to grow up SO badly. I take it back! All the privileges of being a grown up sure come with a lot of responsibility. And it doesn't always feel worth it. :P

Stop It!

Katy, age 19 months, is getting to be a really good talker. It's nice that I had boys first, then a girl, so I can be all amazed at her talking. If it had been the other way around, I'd probably be really worried, because I'm pretty sure the boys were hardly saying anything at this age. So, I'm constantly hearing her say new words, and it's super cute & exciting. She's really good at repeating things, and, depending on her mood (who says the terrible twos can't start at 1.5?), she's really good at saying whatever you ask her to say. It's even more fun when she just randomly says something on her own. This morning, for example, she picked up a stuffed kangaroo (it's a dog toy, so I don't remember ever telling her what it was before), and said "kay-a-oooooooo!" And this morning when I asked her what she wanted to wear she told me "diapie." Which is good, because she often doesn't want to wear a diaper, she enjoys her nudity. I'm sure nobody in the entire world is quite as interested in & excited by her blooming vocabulary, but it's one of my favorite things these days!

The standard Katy words that she says every day are: yes, Mommy (or Mama), Daddy (or Dada), Bapa (Grandpa), Nana (Hannah), Da-id (David), Sadie (& yesterday started Molly as well when we picked her up from the vet), baby, puppy, kitty, candy (learning to talk during Halloween-Christmas time has clearly helped this one!), bye-bye, and da done (all done). Sadly, she doesn't really say anything for GrandMA (used to say Tata but stopped), and her word for Ryan is really just gibberish, and she only says it when I ask her. She's also good at calling people for "pi ta" (prayer time). And last night said "chuck e cheese!" over and over again as we drove up to it.

Missing from this list is one that probably every other toddler in the world says - "No!" I just considered asking her if she could say it, then thought better of it. I could live without the no-to-everything phase! However, if she can't say no, she has to have SOME way to communicating when she doesn't like something...

A couple days ago Katy was using the vacuum hose to clean up some rice she had spilled. Grandma tried to help her, and, loud and clear, Katy said "Stop it!" It was hillarious! She has said it many, many times in the time since then. Sometimes I even hear her practicing (just saying "stop it stop it stop it" over and over)! Sometimes it's really funny, sometimes not so much. Like last night when I tried to make her turn off the light to go to bed instead of stalling by pointing at things on the wall and she told me to stop it. Or this morning when I was trying to do her hair (notice in the video that it's just parted, no cute ponytails?). But I really am impressed by how quickly she is growing up and becoming her own person. My little baby can say "stop it!"

Poor Puppy Molly

I finally remembered to make an appointment to have Molly spayed, and today was her big day. We got up and went to the vet at 7:30. She was so hyper & wild & excited! She thought she was going for a great adventure, and enjoyed all the different smells in the waiting room! Little did she know what was in store for her...

I got a call around 10:40 saying she was done & I could come get her after noon. So Ryan & Katy & I went to pick her up after driving David to the bus stop at 12:40. They brought her out, and the poor thing was so tired & groggy! Ryan & Katy both kept giving her hugs, and she just laid there. She didn't even try to kiss their faces!

I had to pick her up to put her in the car, and she didn't move from where I put her (usually she's in my seat by the time I get there and I have to push her out). Then when we got home she didn't hop out my door after me, and she didn't even hop out her door when I opened it. She laid there for me to take her picture, then I had to pick her up to get her out. We went right inside, assuming she'd stop to go potty if she needed to. She did need to, and didn't stop, so I had to take her back out. She let me know she needed to go by just sitting by the back door - usually she jumps up on the door really high, sometimes even touching the top of it! Then she tried to jump up over the rock wall like usual, and didn't make it, so I guided her to a better place. When we cam back inside she tried to hide in a corner, so I called her to her bed in my room, and she's been there ever since. She usually hates to be alone, always insisting on being wherever I am. So I'm going to finish this post, then go read a book on my bed. Poor puppy Molly would probably like that.

Oh, and I offered her a piece of grilled chicken breast from my lunch, and she didn't want it! Poor little girl doesn't feel well. I know in the long run this was a good thing to do, but I sure feel bad about it right now!

I blog because my brain doesn't work.

I was just organizing the things on my desktop on the computer (my parents have separate for everybody, which is really nice!), and I found a folder in my pictures folder called "blog." It has a "done" folder inside it, and many (maybe even all, but who knows?) of the pictures I've put on here lately are inside it. The blog folder also contained 3 pictures which have not been blogged yet, from 12/12 (so 3 weeks & 1 day ago). So at some point (probably 22 days ago, maybe even less) I looked at these pictures, and thought them worthy of a blog post. I'm sure they have a story around them. It clearly involves a mini Katy tantrum, because this is the order the pictures were taken in:




I have a vague recolection that I wasn't just going to blog about Katy throwing a tantrum - she's 1.5, it's not rare - that she was doing or saying something cute. But my old lady brain can't quite grasp at what it was. I also remember noticing her great fuzzy morning hair, but it isn't so amazing that it alone would be worth a blog. I'm sure it wasn't anything all that fantastic, but I wish I had blogged about it 3 weeks ago so that I would still remember what was going on!

I should blog more of my kids' stories. Not for you, for me to have a record of them. Because clearly keeping them in my brain doesn't work!

My New Years Goals

Every year New Years sneaks up on me, and I forget to plan my resolutions beforehand. Which then bothers me because I can't say I've done thing every day of the year. But I'm trying to be calmer about that. And I'm adopting the term "goal" instead of "resolution." In my mind a resolution is something you swear to do or not to do, then eventually break it and give up. A goal is more of a general attempt towards something, and isn't so all or nothing.

At some point, I think in our Eagle Mountain ward, and I want to say ward conference or something, we learned about the 4 parts of ourselves that we need to work on & develop. They are Social, Educational, Physical, and Spiritual. At least, I think that's what they were. Now that I've written them here, I'm unsure. Well, they sound good. So, over the last couple days I've been reading lots of other peoples' New Years blogs, and I've been taking what sounds good for me (Heidi, I really liked a lot of yours! Sorry for copying!). And after a little while of working on them, I noticed that they can roughly be broken down into the 4 categories. The educational category is a stretch (where else would financial go?), and social is modified for a mommy. But I think it works.

Spiritual
· Read the Scriptures or Ensign every day.
· Prepare for & hold weekly FHE.

Physical
· Exercise for at least 20 minutes, 6 days a week (alternate aerobics & jogging).
· Eat at least 1 fruit & 1 vegetable each day (pathetic, I know, but it’s a start!)

Educational
· Read a book every month.
· Make a reasonable budget and stick to it. Save money by not spending it rather than by getting good deals!

Social
· Be more active about parenting my children for the long run. Really pay attention to them!
· Go on a real date with my husband at least once a month.