Home again, Home again

Jiggity Jig. Today was the first day back to reality after Spring Break and despite the fact that my house is still basically a mess, I've been eating WAY too much leftover Easter candy, and the kids' sleeping schedule is totally whacked after a weekend with the cousins -- it was totally worth it. We left on Thursday afternoon for Indiana and got back on Sunday night with lots of fun and games packed in between -- including, but not limited to, the minor casualty of a dangling back bumper threatening to break free almost the whole entire drive there (solidly remedied with a bit of duct tape and determination for the drive back), a girl's trip to Chicago, and some Easter festivities as well. When we vacation, we vacation.




Chicago was -- in a word -- awesome. And difficult. Probably in that order. As the American Girl website says -- it's not just a store, it's an experience. And man was it an experience. The drive to Chicago was fairly painless, the walk from the hotel to the American Girl Place was fairly LONG, and the meltdowns that ensued were fairly predictable. To put it shortly, it was a really warm day and the walk to the store took about 15-20 minutes longer than Grace was capable of handling -- especially after getting little sleep the night before and not having any water to drink on the way there. I wish I could have gotten a picture of Sophie running over with glee to grab a Felicity doll as soon as we walked in the store, but I was a bit distracted by Grace's antics and the fact that we were barely making it on time for our Tea Time check-in.

Top things that were awesome? The store. Amazing. The tea was adorable and the servers were SO helpful and accommodating with Sophie's food allergies. The girls LOVED being with their cousin Hannah for the trip, and I am truly fortunate in that I really do love my in-laws, so road-tripping with Kristin was like hanging out with the older sister that I never had. The weather, while a bit warm, was absolutely PERFECT on the day we got there and Chicago seems like a really cool city.

Top things that were difficult? Jane having 4 poopy diaper blow-outs in the course of 48 hours necessitating complete outfit changes from head-to-toe. Sophie's schizophrenic mood changes -- which in her defense I think were exacerbated by the fact that she was just recovering from a week with her stomach bug and very little sleep. And finally Jane waking up every 3 hours all night long and screaming and crying because she was so disoriented and thrown off her schedule (and trying to quiet her down and get her to go back to sleep while sharing one hotel room).

All-in-all, I'd do it again in a heart beat. Here are the pictures to tell the story:

Ready to go on Friday morning.

Outfit change #1.

The mecca.

Beginning of meltdown #1.

Pleased as punch with her new doll.

Not quite ready to smile.

And mollified by a Berry Fruit Smoothie.

The menu.

The goodies.

Sophie's spread.

And the triumphant exit from the store. (For the record I came in UNDER budget for what I allotted for this trip.)

Meltdown #27.

She's just so good.

And conked out in the stroller.

Cute cousins cozied up at bedtime.

Ready to go home.

This next section I'd like to entitle "Kindred Spirits." One of the really fun things about this trip was seeing Hannah become so comfortable around us. By the end of the trip she wasn't afraid to let her true colors come shining through. The result? She and Grace got along famously. And here are the pictures to prove it.






All I said was "smile" and on cue they both started mugging for the camera. Can you imagine how much fun they will have in college if they are both out at BYU together??

Unfortunately, Saturday dawned rainy and gray and nipped any hopes of sightseeing in the bud. In the end we drove around the city for a bit before deciding we should just head on back home.

View of Chicago's skyline from the front seat.

The rest of the weekend back in Indiana was beautiful and the kids were in HEAVEN. Easter was a hit and the kids were able to enjoy a visit from the Easter bunny, an impromptu Easter Egg Hunt, and a little (and I do mean little) General Conference to boot.

Schizo Sophie emerges again with a scowl one minute...

and an "I really love these!" squeal the next.




The money shot.






Cute little cousins.


These pajamas inspired the funniest line of the whole vacation -- when Hannah saw her wearing these at bedtime in Chicago, she told her she looked like "a hobo." Ahahahahahaha.


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And surprised (and spoiled) with an Easter package from Papi when we got home.


And the reason why I'm still eating Easter candy...

While Spring Break was really fun, I kind of like being back to our regular schedule and routine. On just today alone I managed to get quite a bit done. Passing my driving test? Check. Circumventing a long wait in the BMV line by grabbing my number BEFORE I took the test? Check. Juggling all 4 kids at the dentist while Grace and Ethan had their semi-annual cleaning? Check. Finally getting around to balancing the check book? Check. Getting a hot meal on the table for dinner? Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Hahahaha. Thank goodness for Tuesday night cereal night. I don't know how I'd manage without it.

Alright, I'm almost done here. Before I finish up, I want to send out a congrats to my little sister Sarah on finding out that another GIRL will be added to our family come August! She sent the kids a cute little Easter package a couple of weeks ago with an egg for each of them in it which when opened had candy in it and a slip of paper telling them what she was having. They were so excited! All these girlie bugs -- I guess we'll just have to plan another trip to Chicago in a few years...

Happy Spring!

my life as me

Updated
I managed to get one little video loaded of Jane, but Blogger is not letting me load anything else. In Grace's section, I put in a link for her ballet performance which apparently has been uploaded to Youtube.
First things first. Before we go any further I need to take care of a bit of business. My enormously talented sister Amy is entering a contest to get a chance to meet Ingrid Michaelson and perform with her on tour (? I think -- the details are a bit fuzzy to me). Anyway, she needs to get as many views as possible on Youtube for her cover of "Everybody." Click here to check it out! Every view counts and the top ten most viewed videos will get voted on March 29th. She's awesome and so is my other sister Laura who helped her put the music video together in just a couple of days.

Alright, let's do this. Here is a quick run-down of everything that's gone down over the last few weeks. First up? Sophie=a PILL. This little rat is giving me a run for my money. Over the course of the last 3 months things have been spiraling slowly but steadily out of control with regards to her sleep habits and mood. Strike 1? Moving out of the crib in her own room and into a bed in Grace's room. Strike 2? Pulling the plug on the pacifier. And Strike 3? That final nail in the coffin? Getting potty-trained. This unfortunate confluence of events has created a perfect storm of sleep resistance. Almost every single night she is the LAST child to fall asleep. Often times she is still wired awake and playing in her bedroom when Scott and I come upstairs to go to bed at like 10 or 11. Keep in mind that we put our kids to bed at 7. And forget about her sleeping in the next morning because apparently she doesn't know how to do that. She's up by 7 the next day when the other kids are getting up. I can still force her to take a nap during the day, but then she legitimately CAN'T fall asleep any earlier at night. It's a catch-22. She is just a melting-down mess of a child these days, and to top it all off she's been sick since Thursday. You can thank me for sparing you a picture of the contents of her stomach splattered all over the hall carpet, the bathroom door frame, the bathroom floor, the toilet, and her hair tonight at bedtime. What I'll give you instead is a peaceful picture from 9 o'clock this morning when I came down after putting Jane in bed for HER nap. I knew Sophie HAD to be pretty sick when she napped this morning for half an hour, and then for another 2 and 1/2 hours this afternoon and STILL went to bed without much fuss tonight at bedtime.

Oh wait a second, here's a self-portrait instead.

In other news, Ethan was thrilled to the core to participate in the maiden voyage of the Shark steam mop a few weeks ago. I let him do most of the kitchen before sending him up to bed that night. It was a particularly satisfying evening for him as he had just concluded his first stint as "Brother Friendly" for Family Home Evening as well. Simple pleasures, my friend simple pleasures.

Mopping -- I guess he can check THIS off in his Dream Book.

"Brother Friendly"

Lovely artwork at bedtime.

At the Ward Talent Show last weekend, Grace impressed us all with how seriously she took her ballet performance. And while I wouldn't say that she is currently showing a whole lot of promise as a future prima ballerina, it was really cute to see how hard she was trying to complete all the moves. All-in-all the performance was priceless. Of course, it was just our luck that after lugging the video camera all the way there we couldn't even use it because the battery was dead -- but luckily I had the still camera with us which managed to capture the moment well enough even if the image is a bit grainy. I think the batteries were going dead on that camera as well.

Before the show.

Backstage Jitters.

Posing with their teacher.

Okay, I tried to post the video of the performance but Blogger was not letting me! Apparently, though, you can check it out here. (Grace is the one in the back row on the far right at the beginning of the number).

And a little Preschool project for you.

She added the drawings that night during Book of Mormon stories time.

Our little Janie Boo has mastered the art of sitting unattended over the last month. And while she still manages the occasional face plant, she's steady enough that I no longer feel the need to put cushions all around her. With sitting under her belt she's beginning to move on to bigger and better things -- over the last few days, she has started to push her way up to crawling position and is almost able to rock on all fours. She has also entered the brave new world of solid foods with her introduction to Rice Cereal. I'm pretty sure she likes it.

She didn't quite know what to make of the camera.

Cute little Flower Girl.



(Sorry this one is sideways!)

And now for the cautionary tale of this post, I will turn the attention back to myself. Learn from my mistakes, people. Learn. At this very moment I share something in common with 15-year-olds all around the country -- I have my Learner's Permit! Mmmmmhmmm, that's right. Apparently if you fail to renew you driver's license before the expiration date, you not only have to take the WRITTEN test over again, but the DRIVING test as well. That's right. I went in a few days after my birthday to go and get my new license but was faced with those jewels of knowledge when I showed up at the BMV. I was really mad because I had gone to the trouble of actually SHOWERING for the day and getting dressed in real clothes to boot all so I would look somewhat awesome in my new driver's license photo. Alas, that photo shoot was not to be. I spent the majority of my time that day cramming for the written test and luckily passed on the first try (which was nice considering I failed the first time around when getting my license in Oregon almost 7 years ago).

Unfortunately the line was so long to get my permit that I had to leave early to collect the kids from the baby-sitter's and get Grace off to preschool on time. My efforts to take care of business bright and early the next morning back-fired after dragging the girls with me to the BMV only to find that I would have to go all the way back home because I didn't have my checkbook, proof of address, OR passport with me. I doubled back and was FINALLY able to strike a pose for my temporary I.D. The funniest part of the whole ordeal was when the sweet old lady who was helping me hesitated upon handing the card over because as she said: "Now, you know you're not supposed to drive without a licensed adult in the car." I thought she was just joking at first, but I quickly stopped myself from laughing when I realized she was serious and managed to assure her that I would take care of the driving portion right away so that I could get my real license ASAP.

Well, that was almost a month ago, so I guess I'm technically breaking the law. Although if we're going to get nit-picky, I've actually been breaking the law for the last 6 years or so seeing as to how I've kept my Oregon license all this time despite having lived in 2 different states since our brief stint in the Pacific Northwest! I do have my driving test scheduled for Tuesday, April 6th, so unless there is parallel parking involved I should be able to pass uneventfully.

Alright that's about all folks. Scott says there's nothing entertaining or exciting going on for him these days so I guess he doesn't consider his yearly enjoyment of March Madness to be all that newsworthy. Perhaps if BYU would have made it past the second round there'd be a little something more to talk about. Such as which name is odder -- "Jimmer" or "Fredette." The jury's still out on this one for me. Hahahaha.

Next week is Spring Break for the kiddies and even though Ethan made the unfortunate discovery today that grown-ups don't get spring breaks from their jobs, TOO, we will nonetheless make the most of our week and hopefully be able to enjoy some Spring-y weather. The highlight of the week for all of us will be next weekend when we head over to the cousin's house in Indiana to drop off OUR boys with theirs and go on a Girls' Trip to Chicago with my sister-in-law Kristin and her daughter Hannah. Why this particular destination you ask? Only because it is the home of an American Girl Doll Store, of course. We already have reservations set for Tea Time next Friday and I don't know who is more excited for the trip -- me or my girls. And in case you're wondering Scott laughed at me as he heard me asking the reservationist (?) on the phone if drinks other than tea would be available. He also shook his head in disbelief? Amusement? Exasperation? when I declared to him earlier this evening that I think I just might buy MYSELF a doll while I'm at the store. Only time will tell. Hahahahaha.

Look out Chicago, Here We Come!

And finally, before I sign off I want to give a shout-out to my little sis, Emily and congratulations on the birth of her very own little girlie bug, Pearce Elizabeth! Don't you just love her name? We can't wait to see this little sweetie-pie in person.

Until next time -- au revoir!