Well, we haven't done much with the garden this week as I had hoped. It's been cold and very windy. And we decided to go to Oregon on Thursday for my niece's baptism! So the only thing I managed to get done was to move the pile of compost from my neighbor's yard over to my own and that with sunglasses on to keep dirt from flying into my eyes as I shoveled. So windy! But this week is supposed to be nice, so watch out, yard, here I come!
We're not sure what to do about the playground any more. My next door neighbors, the ones Kessa plays with the most, just got one very similar to the one we were looking at. Is it lame to have the same playset as the neighbors? Is it worth spending so much money on something that won't be as exciting for friends to play on because they have the same thing at home? Ugh. I just don't know what to do…
What new book am I reading? It's the Percy Jackson series. Speaking of which, now that I'm home again, I should probably start reading that again. It's a cute series, and after Wheel of Time, it's nice to have something far more light-hearted.
Most of my week can be summed up with our Oregon trip. We left Thursday afternoon and drove a little past Boise. We stayed at my great aunt Alta's house, which was surprisingly fun. I don't know her very well, so I was a little nervous staying there, but she was just so welcoming and friendly that I couldn't help feel like I was doing her a favor by staying there. And really, she's probably lonely, living there all by herself, so perhaps I was. Kessa loved her. When we went to bed that night she insisted on going back upstairs to show Aunt Alta her jammies and "to ask her I love her." Awwww. Then Friday morning we got up and drove the rest of the way to Jalin's.
We also did a Settlers of Catan party for my nephew, Cody. His 12th birthday was in March, but he wanted to save his party for when Grandma was there. They first half of the party was spent playing board games of various sorts, then the second half was playing a giant Settlers game Jalin built. The hexes were cut from carpet, the roads were Uno Jenga blocks. Settlements were blocks; cities were dowels with pictures colored on top. She found giant foam dice and we used a cup for the robber. It was awesome. We adults played the night before to figure out the flaws and turns out, it's really fun to be juvenile. :D I passed the dice to Jalin almost every turn by throwing them at her. It must have worked, too, because I won. haha. The cupcakes for Cody's party had colored frosting and she displayed them as if they were a Catan board.I'm telling you, she's awesome.
Kristen's baptism was Saturday night. Kessa gave her first talk there. (She was supposed to give this talk in Primary, but we ended up going out of town, so she gave it at the baptism instead and she'll give a different talk in Primary this Sunday.) It went something like this:
Joseph Smith didn't know how to get baptized, so he went to a grove of trees and prayed to Heavenly Father and asked him. Heavenly Father and Jesus came down and told Joseph not to join any of the churches, and taught him how to prepare to get baptized in God's church.
She's adorable, right? Right.
Kristen was practically glowing the whole time. She was so happy and you could tell she was feeling the Spirit. So, of course, Satan had to do his best to distract her. Sadly, half of that distraction came in the form of our own sweet Kessa. She was walking all over the place. She kept going up to the podium and playing with pencils sitting on top. She ran through the halls and screamed when I tried to get her to stop. [sigh]
The other half was humorous in hindsight. While we waited for Kristen to get dressed after the baptism, we watched a little show. If you can watch it, you should. I think you'd like it. They played it during the Young Women's broadcast. You can watch it here. It's 5:30 minutes (ish) and you basically watch as a girl gets ready to go do baptisms at the temple, but you also watch her progress from her blessing day, to looking forward to mission, marriage, and family. It's really well done. Anyway, we hooked my parents' computer up to a TV and speakers to watch it while we waited for Kristen to get dressed. Then they confirmed her. Unfortunately, they didn't think to close the computer after the movie was over. Halfway through the confirmation, my aunt Donna tried to Skype my parents, and it loudly alerted us through the speakers. Hahaha. I was so confused. I couldn't figure out what the noise was. It almost sounded like it should be followed with, "This is a test of the emergency broadcast system" or something. They had to stop mid-prayer, figure out what was wrong, shut things down, then continue the prayer. This is when we hope God has a sense of humor. :) It was good, though, because it gave the bishop the opportunity to talk to Kristen about how Satan often tries to distract us at key spiritual moments.
Kessa just struggled with a bad attitude, though. During the sacrament the next morning, she got distracted by a sticker that had gotten folded in half and was trying to unfold it and completely ignored me as I tried to get her to take a piece of bread. I tried a couple of times and finally passed it on. She saw it a few minutes later as it left our row and she had a melt down. That was fun. Sitting near the front in the middle as my really tall 3-year old screamed, "I want the bread!" while writhing in my arms as I tried to get her to calm down. And yes, I do mean screamed. The bishop had to try really hard to keep a straight face. So she missed the water, too, while Uncle Damian took her outside to calm down. During the water portion, Abby decided to throw a fit, too, so I had to take her out. My mom looked at me and whispered, "What are you doing to these children?!" Thanks mom. :D
Luckily, they both calmed down and did pretty well on the drive home, which is good because we drove straight through. 9 hours in a car, with only two stops: one for a meal and one rest stop. Thank goodness for the built-in DVD player. Abby even took two long naps and Kessa took one. That's rare for my kids to sleep in a car. Hooray!
The most eventful part of the trip home was at the rest stop. Kessa insisted on going in the stall by herself. She took off her dress (yes, completely off) and sat on the potty. Well, she's so small that the automatic flusher didn't recognize her still there. So while she was still on the potty, it flushed. And it was one that is loud and splashes a little.
Blood-curdling scream. Loud and long. BJ heard it out in the foyer area.
Luckily she didn't lock the door, so I was able to get in and help her get dressed and calm her down. And then I was careful to walk her through the automatic sinks and hand dryer.
It's one of those moments that you feel guilty for thinking it hilarious.
Abby is still adorable. She's very ticklish on her neck and has the cutest grin and laugh when we tickle her there. Or on her arms, legs or belly. Anywhere, really. She's still obsessed with socks. She loves bananas. It's the one sign she knows (though I think she thinks it just means food) and she eats at least one per day. She still won't drink milk, though we did get her to take a couple of swallows last week that she didn't even spit out like she usually does. But she wouldn't drink any more.
So now that I've, very lengthily, caught you up on my week, here's our cute Kessa-isms.
- In a sing-song voice, "Now that I have my fi-irst kiss, now give me a ki-i-iss."
- We watched Kung Fu Panda in the car. Kessa fell asleep during the end of it. When she woke up, she said that the movie was scary. It was so scary that it made her angry and sleepy, and so she fell asleep.
- We watched Tangled on our way to Oregon. That night in her prayers Kessa prayed, “Please help that I want something that I want.” (It's from the song that plays during the credits.)
- Kessa: Wanna play a game with me?
Me: I thought we were going to the store.
Kessa: We can play it at the store, too.
Me: What game is it?
Kessa: It's called Don't Trust People. - Kessa just asked me if she could try to drive the car.
And a guest appearance by BJ:
- On the way to Oregon BJ said, “Tianna, I have a problem. I have this great way to explain imaginary numbers, and no one to teach it to! By the time our kids are old enough, I'll have had to wait 10 years!” Don't worry, he found a willing, eager even, audience in my nephews.
And, some random pictures:
 |
| Just because they're cute. I just love how Abby is leaning into Kessa here. |
 |
| One thing southern Idaho does right: windmills. Lots of them. I love windmills. |
No comments:
Post a Comment