Another week down, Six more to go!

So, in case you can't tell, I've already started the figurative paper chain here. This was my first week back "on my own." And as much as I'm trying to keep a positive outlook, I've resigned myself to the idea that I won't be getting any sleep until August.

So, let's have a brief recap of the last month or so. Since the great zoo outing, we've not really attempted anything major. Mostly because for the last 3 weeks I've been dealing with sick children. First up was Ethan who had a high fever, sore throat and cough for exactly one week. It started on a Sunday and by Saturday he was starting to feel better, so of course as soon as he was done it was Grace's turn. She had all the same plus a little throwing up thrown in the mix. She was done after a little more than a week, when wouldn't you know, this last Saturday Sophie started getting goopy eyes and a little cough. Luckily she hasn't had the fever or anything else, but you can tell she just doesn't feel great. So that sucks. I'm hoping it will run true to Ethan and Grace's course and she'll be better before the weekend is out. Because she's an even worse sleeper when she's sick.

In the midst of all the sickness, we enjoyed a visit from my mom and baby brother Jacob, who drove on up from New Orleans to pay us a visit. We had a blast and they came just as Ethan was getting better so they were able to get him out of the house while Grace was sick. Ethan was in heaven because they went to the Children's Museum 3 or 4 times, and Wendy's a few more times than that.

Here is a "photo shoot" the kids participated in. A friend of ours in the ward here is starting up his own photography studio and asked if he could take pictures of the kids to use for his portfolio, etc. and that we'd get a complimentary 8X10 in exchange. Here are a couple that Scott took with our camera. Of course, his camera was WAY nicer than ours, so I'm excited to see how the real pictures come out.



While my family was still here, we decided to celebrate Ethan's birthday a little bit early with them by going to Chuck E. Cheese. It was a hit. It made EVERYONE happy.





For Ethan's actual birthday on this Monday, I made the mistake of asking him what kind of cake he wanted. I meant what FLAVOR he wanted. Ethan took it to mean what kind of CHARACTER he wanted me to make. I guess I started a bad precedent with Grace's Elmo cake back in November. For his birthday, Ethan decided he wanted an alligator cake. A what? I have no idea what made him think that's what he wanted. Its not like he's really into alligators or anything, but feeling guilty because he doesn't really know any kids around here, and he didn't have a friends birthday party like Grace did, I figured I had to give it a try. Two cake mixes, a lot of green food coloring, and 3/4 of a day later, here is the final product:


It was a borderline nightmare trying to finish it up with Ethan "helping" me and Sophie and Grace waking up halfway through, not to mention Ethan and Grace starting a peanut M&M throwing war, but it made it ALMOST worth it when I was done and Ethan kept saying "I LOVE my alligator cake, mom."

Somebody needs to give that child a bath.

To make this long day even longer, I had scheduled my hair cut for that night at 8 o'clock thinking that for sure it wouldn't a problem to make it there on time. But of course, being directionally challenged, I made several wrong turns (both getting there and coming back) trying to find the salon that was on the other side of the city. Let's just say that on the way back I found myself in northern Kentucky for a little while before I was able to find my way back home. My hair cut is a little shorter than I would have liked, but its hair -- it grows back.

Here's one of Ethan's birthday presents that we picked up for CHEAP at Goodwill. He's anxiously awaiting tomorrow when we put on the training wheels for him.

So, to all those who care about my sleep woes, they were frustrated even further this last week. I had decided that it was finally time to try a little sleep training now that Sophie is over 4 months old. Starting with bedtime, we decided to let her cry herself back to sleep if she woke up after only an hour of being asleep. The idea was not to get her until around 10 when she would legitimately need to eat again. Well, apparently Sophie is even more persistent than Ethan was as a baby, and on Sunday after being asleep for less than an hour she woke back up and started crying/screaming and continued to do so for the next 2 hours straight. At this point we started hearing the neighbors banging on the bedroom wall every few minutes. I guess they don't like hearing her scream anymore than I do. I guess I didn't think it would be such a problem at 8:30 at night. I guess I was wrong. Sleep training is tentatively on hold until we get back to "our" house in August. Six more weeks. Six more weeks.

"The Potty-Training Treats"

I decided to complicate my life even further this week by potty-training Grace. Bribery usually works fairly well with my children, so I let Grace pick out her favorite candy (peanut M&Ms) and Ethan picked out his (Reese's peanut butter cups, which he calls "muffin treats"). Because even though Ethan has been potty-trained for a year, who doesn't need a little more incentive now and then to go to the bathroom? We didn't really start until yesterday, and let me just say that she was a million times easier than Ethan. She was basically potty-trained in a day.

How can I know that for sure you may ask? Well, picture this scene. Sophie was up pretty much all night long last night. 9:30 PM, 11 PM, Midnight, 3 AM, 4:20 AM and up for good at 5:30. I got out of bed with her around 6 and once the other kids woke up I got them their breakfast, locked the door when Scott left, and finally got Sophie down for a nap at 7. At this point I told the kids to be quiet and leave me alone so I could get a nap, too. I put in our latest Netflix pick -- Dennis the Menace -- and went back to bed. Imagine my surprise when they actually left me alone! I was able to sleep for a couple of hours before my slumber was disturbed by the sound of Grace intermittently screeching. It took me a few minutes to realize that I should probably get up and check on them. What I found was Grace going to the bathroom all by herself while Ethan was teasing or taunting her about something. I was in shock. She went all day without any accidents and was able to tell me each time she had to go!

We ended up having a really good day, and tonight we had even more fun. Grace and I had a girl's night out to the mall -- she's my new favorite shopping partner. And Ethan and Scott ordered pizza and had a game night at home. Grace is a shopper who knows her mind and in Gymboree she set her sight upon a red 4th of July dress that she thought looked just like Annie's (you know, from the musical). I ended up caving in and buying the dress and she was so happy that she wanted to put the dress on as soon as we bought it. We had a really fun time and so did the boys at home. I think I sense a tradition coming on!




And finally, due to the following, I realized today that the kids have probably watched Annie a few too many times in the last couple weeks:

1.) Ethan has started calling Grace his little pig droppings
2.) Grace burst out into song today at the lunch table singing "The Sun'll come out,Tomorrow" with Ethan immediately following it up with "Welcome to the Movies"
and 3.) Grace says that she is no longer Wish Bear, but Annie

Here's to hoping the next 6 weeks fly by!

Oh and yeah, how could I NOT buy her this ensemble when I saw it at the Gap?

The Zoo

It has come to my attention that certain family members of mine are a little concerned that all I blog about these days are my woes. So in an effort to reassure all that we are having SOME fun here, I present to you the adventure that was the Zoo today.



A few weeks ago I decided to go ahead and buy an annual zoo pass, the idea being that as long we go at least twice this summer it will have paid for itself. I went ahead and got the family "Gold" package to include free parking, free guest each time, unlimited rides on the train and the carousel, and a discount at the gift shop. The first time we went, it was a Saturday (and Memorial Day weekend) and we had Scott's sister Kristin and her daughter Hannah (who is Ethan's age) with us. We went at the worst possible time -- the middle of the day -- which meant that the kids were hungry and tired before too long but not wanting to leave. All in all, it was hot and not that fun for the grown-ups.

Since that was kind of trial run, I thought today would be a piece of cake. I packed the diaper bag with snacks so we wouldn't have to buy any of the ridiculously over-priced food at the zoo. I made sure the kids had their sippy cups and that I had water bottles for me and Amy. I double checked that I had our zoo pass and I mapquested the directions to get there.

Let me just state right here for the record that I am directionally challenged. I fought it for a long time, and I use to get really upset when my family would make fun of me for it, but you know what? I don't even care any more. I'm not good with directions. Partly because I usually don't pay attention to how we get places unless I'm the one driving. And partly, because without the mountains to guide me, I have no concept of where north, south, east or west is. And as you'll soon see, my efforts often involve a lot of wrong turns.

My first wrong turn was more of a missed turn. I was supposed to take a "slight right" onto this street according to mapquest, but the intersection was totally confusing because there were 2 streets that branched off to the right from this one major highway. So, I passed it up and as I was passing I realized the 2nd of the two streets was the one I wanted. And of course, the next exit was forever away and for some reason I though I could like catch up to where I was supposed to go and I followed this one road for probably a mile or 2 before figuring that I should turn around and backtrack to the right street. So I did, and the next wrong turn was due to construction. Followed by more and more wrong turns as I got more and more lost downtown until finally I pulled over into a gas station to call Scott and have him figure out where I was and how to get to the zoo (which we finally did). Meanwhile Sophie was freaking out in the backseat starving due to the fact that the 20 minute drive to the zoo had now taken us an HOUR.

At this point I was getting really frustrated especially thanks to Ethan in the backseat who kept asking how much longer and if we were lost. I was also wondering if I jinxed myself by setting out to do something fun today. By the time we got to the zoo, I was all ready to turn around and go home! Of course, that wasn't even an option, so I had Amy get the kids loaded into the duoglider while I sat in the backseat to feed Sophie and listened as Ethan and Grace had a screaming fight over who got to sit in the front seat of the stroller. Who knew this was such a coveted spot? Grace won, and then I listened as Ethan threw a full-on meltdown screaming fit while passers-by in the parking lot are watching the scene probably wondering if Amy was trying to kidnap them or something.

As you can see Ethan is still pouting in the backseat while Grace is triumphant in the front.

We finally got going with Amy holding Sophie in the Baby Bjorn and me pushing the kids in the stroller. My only goal for the trip was to get our permanent zoo pass and let the kids ride the train. Check and check. As an added bonus, the kids got their faces painted, I found the PERFECT haircut, and we gave in to the temptation of an Icee and cotton candy. And you know what? We had FUN! So here are the pictures to prove it:

Grace opted for "cheek butterflies"


Ethan, of course, opted for the "cheek butterflies" as well. He wanted to be like Grace, and I couldn't persuade him to choose something else, so oh well.

(Look how pleased he is)


The twinsies.

As we were waiting for the train, I saw the cutest pregnant lady with the cutest short haircut. Its exactly what I've been looking for, and since I'm new to the area and I don't know where to go and get my hair done, I went right up to her and asked who her hairstylist was. She was very nice and obliging and gave me the needed information, but I didn't want to really freak her out and ask to take her picture. So what did I do instead? Oh, I opted for the zoom-in shot from afar. 'Cause that surely wouldn't freak her out any if she knew. Haha. So here are the pilfered shots:

Cute, right?

After the train ride I dangled the bribe of cotton candy in front of the kids to convince them that we didn't need to ride again, and me and Amy got an Icee -- which was even more delicious than I remember them being. So there you have it! Our zoo trip. I'd like to say that the drive home was short, sweet and uneventful, but it wasn't. I'll just summarize by saying that I took a few more wrong turns, got lost a little more, but FINALLY (once again an hour later) I found our way home!

On the Sophie front, I took her to the doctor yet AGAIN this week, and got some new medicine for her. Although the cost of all these prescription was ASTRONOMICAL, I'm thinking it was well worth it, because for the first time since she's been born practically, her skin looks perfect! Or relatively so.

She's kind of getting to be a chunk!
At the doctor's office she was 13 lbs. 12 oz. and 24 1/2 inches long.

And finally, thanks to all of you for your sympathy and condolences on the part of our neighbor situation. As an update, Scott was able to get a hold of our manager, and she was actually really nice. She was very apologetic that she even had to send the letter and said that the neighbor who complained didn't even make that big a deal about it, but that she's required to write up a notice any time a complaint is expressed. So that's a relief! She just said to do the best we can. And I really think we've been fine this week. Amy has been awesome about taking them outside a lot, and we've definitely been getting out of the house a lot more.

Here's a picture Amy took of them while they were outside. Apparently she's turning them into tree-huggers.

And the kids would like to give a HUGE thank you to their friend Reagan for sending such a fun pool package and such encouraging words of advice! Thank you, thank you, thank you. Ethan has the lobster floatee in his room asleep with him as we speak.

Alright folks, thank YOU and goodnight!

Nanny 911

I apologize to all my MBASA friends who've already heard some of these woes, but for the rest of you, here we go:

So, while Sophie is definitely doing better than she was, she is still NOT a great sleeper. And it seems to be getting worse. For the last week or so, my nights have been a neverending blur of wakings, fussings, and feedings. I'm not exaggerating. LAST night for instance.

7 PM she goes down. 8 PM she's up again. I feed her thinking it will help her to finally stay asleep, but it doesn't. She goes back to sleep by 8:30, but is up again in an hour. Scott takes over holding her as I'm too tired to deal with her. He puts her back down a little after 10 and I try to go to bed as quickly after as that as possible. 12:30 to 2:30 is a blur to me of feeding her and trying to put her back down while she is fussing to be held. I think by 2 I just pulled her in bed with me thinking that would get her to sleep. Meanwhile Scott has been sleeping on our newly aquired hide-a-bed couch in the living room so that he can attempt to get a decent night's sleep. Around 3 or 4 she woke up again and I fed her again and finally managed to get her to stay asleep in the carseat -- which she's still sleeping in because she won't stay asleep in her bassinet. Up for the final time at 6, I fed her and she went right back to sleep in the carseat. Unfortunately, I couldn't even go back to sleep for very long because Scott left around 6:30 to walk to the bus stop (so yes that's how we've solved the getting to work problem) and Grace came traipsing into my room by 7 wanting breakfast. And so my day began.

I'm kind of at the breaking point. There's only so much patience you can have with 3 children under the age of 4 when you haven't slept in a week -- okay let's be honest, I haven't SLEPT in over 3 months.

Especially because of this added stress: (Dun-dun-dun)


I guess that was a bit of foreshadowing in the last post when I was worrying about the neighbor's hating us. Apparently they really do.

We got back from the zoo on Saturday to find this note tacked to our door (I think if you click on the picture it will magnify it and you can read what it says). I don't really know what else to do to keep the kids quiet. This is going to be a LONG summer.

Enter Amy 911. My youngest sister Amy is flying into town as we speak! With her here to help me out for the next month, I think I can do this. When the kids get too loud, I can send them outside with Amy to run off their energy. When the baby just needs to be held, Amy can take over while I sneak in a nap. When I need to go and pick up Scott at the bus stop in the evening, I can just leave the kids with Amy to avoid the whole hassle of loading up the whole gang. I'm beyond excited. Especially because Amy's one of the most entertaining people I know.

Alright, alright time for some pictures. I know I'm a little biased, but look how cute this little girl is. Her poor little skin. In the second picture you can see how we've had to resort to putting socks on her hands to keep her from scratching herself to pieces.



Anecdotal Notes:

Today at the library Ethan shooed a little girl about Grace's age away from him. Seriously, I'm laughing out loud as I type that because he literally said "shoo, shoo!" to her like she was some dog or cat that was making him nervous.

Over the past couple of weeks that we've been here and been introducing ourselves to new people, Grace has alternated between introducing herself as Peter Pan or Wish Bear (as in the Care Bear). She will get upset with ME even, when I call her Grace and not one of these names.

Grace also tried to eat a blue crayon at nap time the other day. I would have thought that she'd be over the phase of putting everything in her mouth by now.

Ethan popped his air mattress on Monday night with the flag he got at our ward Memorial Day picnic. All we had was scotch tape, which didn't exactly hold the air in. I thought packing tape would do a better job, so I bought some at Target yesterday, but I just went in to check on him and its already mostly deflated. That can't be comfortable. Especially since there are no sheets or blankets on it because they're still sitting in the washer waiting to be dried. Let's just say that we've had a recurring problem with wetting the bed and it took 3 weeks before I realized it would be easier on ME to just buy him some Pull-Ups for bedtime.

Alright, I'm out of stuff to write about. And I'm hungry. So, goodnight!

Sophie was the easy one???

Wow, where to begin? I guess I can start with the title. Yes, ladies and gentleman, Sophie our "fussy" one is fussy no more! On last Monday before we moved I took her to a dermatologist for her skin. I sooooooo wish I would have done this sooner. Her eczema was just so bad and the doctor said she was probably just dying itching. So, after being told that we COULD use a steroid cream on her for short term use, along with lots of moisturizing with Aquafor, and a switch to Aquanil for bath time, we have a VERY different little baby on our hands. The effect of the steroid cream was pretty much immediate. We saw a drastic improvement just in the first day or two of use. Now she's a happy baby who squeals and coos and smiles when she's awake and sees us. Talk about relief! I just wish I would have thought to take her in sooner.

So, with Sophie doing better and the help of our "supernannies" -- Laura and Sarah -- Scott and I were able to get stuff packed up and ready to go for our move.

Thursday was a beautiful day and Ethan and Grace were soooooo excited. However, nobody was expecting this trip to go off without a hitch, and we hit our very first one when we got to the airport. Before leaving, I bought a Duoglider (double stroller) from a friend to make it easier to transport Sophie (her carseat can just click right in) and Grace (who is our notorious run-away). Well, I had never used it yet and I couldn't figure out how to open it up. I knew there was a latch somewhere that needed to be released, but I couldn't find it. So, picture a scene where Sophie is crying in the car and Ethan and Grace are running all over the place and Scott is trying to get all our luggage checked in by the skycap outside and there you have me trying in vain to open up the stroller! It was at this point that I realized we might be embarking upon a nightmare.

(Here's a shot of that unopened stroller)

I finally found the latch, and got the kids loaded up in the midst of Ethan throwing a fit because he wanted to ride in the stroller and Scott running to get one of those cart things to load up all our car seats (because they don't check those on) and various carry-on bags that we needed to take with us because we had already checked our limit of luggage.

Getting through security wasn't too bad and we eventually got to our gate. However, we have this tradition where anytime we fly out of the Salt Lake airport we always buy a book from this one bookstore, and we hadn't done that yet. I'm insane or something because I decided that I HAD to go back to the bookstore to get something for the flight, which looking back on it I really don't know what I was thinking because its not like I was going to have any time on the flight to actually read it. I could tell Scott was kind of nervous about it because our flight was scheduled to leave in about 40 minutes and pushing the stroller with Ethan and Grace in it would take at least 7 or 8 minutes each way leaving not much time to browse around finding a book. So, fast forward about 25 minutes later, and the next scene you can envision is one of me running through the airport pushing a double stroller and inwardly freaking out that I'm holding up the whole plane. When I got to the gate Scott was literally one of the only people left there holding Sophie and with a look on his face that told me he was freaking out the same as I was.

(Here are the kids pre-bookstore jaunt)

(Also pre-bookstore jaunt)

So, we got on the plane and the nightmare continued when for some reason I totally was having these panic attacks all during take-off. Seriously, I don't know what was wrong with me. I don't usually get super nervous about flying, but I was freaking out. The funny thing was that Grace wanted to hold MY hand and the whole time I was clutching hers with a death grip!



And now for the next scene to picture. Sophie was a super champ and had fallen asleep in Scott's arms almost immediately (and slept the whole time!) and I was in the row behind with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Grace was going on day 2 without a nap and Ethan was so excited he was literally bouncing up and down in his seat. He kept saying over and over again "This is SO. MUCH. FUN!" I'm glad it was fun for him, because for the next 3 1/2 hours I had to deal with them fighting over the toys I had bought for the plane and listening to Grace whine and cry that she wanted to get up and sit with dad and still feeling slightly weakened from my sprint through the airport followed by my panic attacks at the beginning of the plane ride. The whole time I just kept telling myself that at least this was a shorter nightmare than driving would have been.

Getting the rental car when we got to Cincinnati was also an ordeal -- although we were able to fit all our luggage in the minivan thanks to the "stow -n-go" in the back. That was a minor miracle because we were expecting to have to get a cab in addition to the rental car in order to get all over our suitcases to the hotel that night. By the time we GOT to the hotel it was already almost 9 and the kids had had a long day. But of course, my children cannot sleep in hotel rooms when we're all together, and it was past midnight before they finally fell asleep.

On the way to the rental car

The next day we were able to move right in to our (unfurnished) apartment and the festivities continued to follow us. Starting with a trip to Wal-Mart. I'm sad to say that I became one of THOSE parents you see losing it with their children while shopping. None of us were going on much sleep here, and we were trying to get way too much stuff at once, but what else could we do? We attempted to furnish and stock the apartment as cheaply as possible, although cheap is a relative term considering -- t0 date -- we've made FOUR trips to Wal-Mart, 2 trips to Goodwill and have managed to fork out over 600 bucks on STUFF.

A shot of the city as we were driving over the bridge

We're all sleeping on air mattresses (which is KILLING my back, so as soon as possible I plan on finding a used queen sized mattress for us to buy). And the only "real" furniture we have is a kitchen table, a TV stand, a DVD player and a television (and an un-usable TiVo box which we dragged with us but which we will most likely not be able to use because of needing to spend even MORE money to get all the wires to make it work here).

I've already had a visit on Monday from our downstairs neighbor who wanted to know if we will be home all day every day. Apparently she works from home and my children are "extremely loud starting from very early in the morning." She looked visibly relieved when I told her we'd only be here for the summer. In her defense, the kids had been spiraling OUT OF CONTROL that whole morning due to sleep deprivation. The irony was that by the time she came up to talk to me it was nap time and all three kids had fallen asleep and it was actually blissfully quiet. I met our upstairs neighbor yesterday, and she negates the downstairs one because she is so nice and friendly. She also works from home, but in contrast to the downstairs one she has offered her help for whenever I might need it.

And now for the reason why I'm able to blog away during the middle of the day -- for the third day in a row, the kids are all asleep at nap time:




(I've finally given up on trying to get Sophie to sleep in the pack n' play -- she just doesn't stay asleep in it -- and we've reverted to having her sleep in her carseat. I'm just hoping she doesn't develop a flattened head and need to wear one of those helmet things to correct the shape.)


Despite all the headache of moving with 3 young kids, we actually really love the area we're in. Our ward on Sunday was awesome and we've already gone over to some new friends' house to play and been invited to go with a play group to the zoo. Our aparment complex has a pool -- which is AWESOME as a bribe/threat with Ethan -- and there is also a little playground which, while dinky, is something to do during the day. So, really I shouldn't complain.

Our only dilemma now is trying to figure out how to get Scott to work everyday. The nearest bus stop is a lot farther away than we were led to believe and in order to get there in the morning we'll most likely have to drive him since it takes about 25 minutes to walk to, and he's going to need to catch the 7:10 bus in order to get to work on time. While this might not seem like that big a deal because its not all THAT early, it is a big deal when I'm still not getting a full night's sleep because of a nursing baby. Today he just took the car, which is fine, but it costs money to park the car downtown and there will be days where I will not want to be stranded at home all day long. I'm hoping before long that the baby will be sleeping for longer stretches at night, and then it shouldn't be a big deal to take him to the bus stop every day.

Random side-notes:

I bought Peter Pan for the trip and Grace really likes it. However, when I asked her if she wanted to be Tinkerbell for Halloween she said "No! I want to be Peter Pan!" Ethan wants to be Daisy Duck.

Also, I'm currently addicted to Pop-Tarts. Frosted cherry ones to be exact. Grace is now officially addicted to Otter pops. We bought our first box of the season yesterday.

Grace has way too much attitude for a 2 year old. I feel like I'm dealing with a teenager already.

And I know this is really lame, but I don't know how I'm going to live without TiVo for the summer. How am I supposed to watch episodes of "So You Think You Can Dance" over and over again? Or any other show for that matter? iTunes only has so many shows for sale. *sigh*

Okay, that about sums everything up. I know this is long, but its been a long past week. I hear Grace waking up, so I guess my peace and quiet is over for the day.

Ta-ta for now!

A Baby and a Blessing

Two posts in one week! Well, here are the promised baby blessing pictures. We decided to do them before church -- since it starts at 11 -- and before the kids were a complete mess. Here is the result:






As you can see, Sophie had had enough by the end of our photo shoot. I don't think we'll have to worry about her wanting to be America's Next Top Model. In the end it was a good thing that we took pictures when we did, because once we got to church, I realized that she had been scratching at her legs, and blood had gotten on her dress. It wasn't tooooo bad, and luckily I had my Tide on-the-go pen in the diaper bag, so I think I was able to prevent a permanent stain!

The blessing was really sweet and it helped me to re-realize what a sweet little spirit Sophie has. If we can just get through one more month, I really think her colicky days will be over!

Well, I think I may have been overdoing things lately (you think?) and I think its getting me sick. When I woke up this morning I wasn't feeling great, but I figured once I was up and about I'd be fine. Right before church I was feeling a little achy, and by the time sacrament meeting rolled around I did NOT feel good at all. BUT, the kids were actually doing okay -- thanks to a little extra help from Sarah and Laura -- and I didn't want to be the reason we left church early this week! So, I sucked it up and made it through the meeting. I took some Ibuprofen once I got home and then crashed for about an hour and a half. I feel a LITTLE better now, but still not great, and I'm thinking it might be mastitis. So that would be REALLY great timing with our move this week.

Anyway, I won't bore you with anymore of the mundane details of my life, so I'll leave you with a few charming anecdotes about my children.

Ethan has phased out of calling people sickawucka. While this is nice, he wouldn't be my little Ethan if he didn't have a ready replacement. And so he's coined the term "supermuppet." What? What does that even mean? Seriously, I would love to know what goes on his head. Now, all day long I hear him calling Grace a supermuppet and then I hear Grace fussing and getting mad. (Although the really sad thing is that I actually find this word really catchy and I've called one -- or all -- of the kids a supermuppet at one time or another since he's made it up).

Overheard from Ethan the other day:

"Mom, when I'm a girl can I go to the baby shower with you?"

And finally, should I be a little concerned that my children are learning more from watching television than they are from me these days? When I was driving to pick up my sister a little while ago, I called her on my cell phone to let her know I was on my way, and I hear Ethan inform me in the back seat that Lou and Lou Safety Patrol says you're not supposed to talk on phones while you're driving. Oh, from the mouths of babes.

Okay, that's all folks. I'm feeling steadily worse here, and I need to go lay down. Next time I blog I will most likely be in our new apartment!

Five Years and Counting

Wow, what a week! There's so much to catch up on, that I'll probably just do a quick recap of my crazy life.

Here is a brief chronologue:

A couple of weekends ago -- Scott's macbook totally crashed and he lost everything on the hard drive right at the end of the semester when all kinds of papers and final projects were due. Scott managed to get everything done and keep his sanity all at the same time.

LAST Friday -- Emily and Jeremy come in town for a brief visit.

Saturday -- me, Emily, and Laura all went wedding dress shopping with Sarah to help her find the perfect one. I'm so mad because I brought my camera with me to take pictures, but when we got to the first shop I realized the batteries were dead! Emily had her camera, though, so you can check out her blog to see some of the pics.

Sunday -- Having 3 children ages 3 and under is proving to be very difficult to handle during church. Especially since we have sacrament meeting last and its right during Grace's naptime. Somebody forgot to pack snacks for the kids, and the end result was leaving church.

Monday -- Scott had to study for finals, but luckily Emily was still around to help keep me from going crazy at home with the kiddies. She was so great with all the kids. Especially Sophie, who is proving to be a VERY fussy baby. We're hoping she grows out of it soon.

Wednesday -- Emily had to go home and since Scott was done with finals (yay!) we decided to make a day out of bringing Emily to the airport, and we stayed in Salt Lake and took the kids around Temple Square which they LOVED. Pretty much as long as there's water anywhere, Ethan is in heaven.

(Scott was quite the photographer up there)

Grace insisted on wearing the back pack the whole time.

(Ethan enjoying the water)

The only bad part was the drive home from SLC due to Sophie screaming the whole entire time because she wanted to be held. Can I just say I'm glad we're flying out for Scott's internship and not driving?

After getting home, I had to scramble to get ready for the MBASA book club which I was hosting because I suggested the book (The Kite Runner).

Thursday -- Sarah graduated! Her future in-laws came in town for her graduation and since Scott's parents were out of town, and we had all this extra room, we offered to let them stay at our place along with my dad who came in town as well. In honor of Sarah, I decided to try and be the Barefoot Contessa and host a little graduation luncheon on Friday for her. So, Thursday was a mad dash to clean up the house as well as go grocery shopping to buy all the stuff for the lunch. While I was at Wal-Mart, I got a call from Scott telling me the following had happened:



Apparently Ethan and Grace were playing (?) and snapping around a blanket and Ethan whipped her with it and somehow it gave her a black eye. Yes, Grace is the poster child these days for parental neglect.

Friday -- I managed to get everything ready for the luncheon with a little help from Ethan. He actually loves to help cook. For those of you who are wondering, the food was fab and here is the menu:

Croissants with chicken salad (my great aunt louise's recipe)
Red grapes
Sarah salad (from the Lion House cookbook)
Frappe
Strawberry Shortcake
and a chocolate sheet cake



Saturday -- Shout out to my sister Amy and my old roommate Heidi for their birthday! As many of you know, neither Scott nor I are good at holding in surprises. So, even though it was 2 days before our actual anniversary, we ended up exchanging our presents anyway. Scott got me a brand new glider/rocking chair which is AWESOME due to the aforementioned fussiness of our little smoochy pie. I got Scott a new driver (golf club) because his has been broken for a while now thanks to my brother Freddie.

Sunday -- Andrew's parents were planning on leaving super early on Sunday morning, so you can imagine my surprise (as I'm still sleeping on the couch next to the swing) when I hear his dad coming down the stairs at 10 till 6 calling Scott's name. Well, they had taken Andrew's truck to our place on Saturday night and were planning on picking him up on the way to the airport so he could drop them off. HOWEVER, when they were loading stuff up that morning, they realized someone had smashed in the driver's side window with a baseball bat or something, and they needed to get to the airport or they were going to miss their flight. So, Scott let them take our car and he waited for the police to get there to fill out a report.



As a side note, this Sunday was no better than the last with church, and I ended up leaving early with the kids once again.

Here's a really funny shot of Sophie.

Monday -- Happy Anniversary to us! (Here's where the five years and counting comes from). We decided to make it a full day celebration. My 2 sisters were kind enough to babysit for us. We ate at Macaroni Grill for lunch:

And then ran a bunch of errands sans children which is always fabulous. And then that night we went to eat at Benihana, which is one of our favorite restaurants:

Here I am with my delicious mango colada

And here we are to Tuesday -- I'm tired. Its officially crunch time to get ready to leave for our internship. We fly out on the 10th, and I feel like there's a million things to get done before we leave. I've already made out my To Do lists, and we actually accomplished quite a few things today. Perhaps one of the most important was taking care of Grace's "haircut" from Ethan.

I took her to the mall tonight to get her fixed. She was VERY excited. Here she is outside the hair salon:

Before

During

And after

Ta da. Is it the best haircut ever? No, but this is about as good as its gonna get with a squirming 2 year old and not a lot of hair to work with thanks to Ethan's barbering. The idea of the cut is a very stacked A-line.

Well, thats all folks. We're blessing the baby on Sunday, so hopefully I'll be able to get some pictures then, and even more hopefully we'll actually make it through all of sacrament meeting this time. Ciao.