tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64491371892634577282024-02-21T16:37:28.384-07:00BJ and TiannaTiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.comBlogger498125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6449137189263457728.post-37714735862887831592015-12-13T22:04:00.003-07:002015-12-13T22:04:54.013-07:00A post mostly about Abby.Dear Resa ~<br />
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Let's start with kiddisms, shall we?<br />
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Abby: This is a girl, not a baby.<br />
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Abby: Kessa, when I die, I will come back alive in one week to see you. Ok, sister?<br />
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Abby won't drink out of the princess cup with a crown on it because she is not purple Elsa! She has a Fever dress, not a coronation dress!<br />
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Abby in the dinner prayer: Thank you for Jesus and that we played with Him all day.<br />
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Abby: I don't need to go potty; I need to go in an airplane!<br />
Kessa: I don't need to go in an airplane; an airplane needs to go in me!<br />
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Me: Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving?<br />
Abby: Because celebrate means we go to Thanksgiving after dinner.<br />
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Abby: For Jesus!<br />
Me, half paying attention: Oh, for Jesus?<br />
Abby: My mouth is heaven for Jesus!<br />
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Me: What game?<br />
BJ: Dominion<br />
Abby: The yellow minion?<br />
BJ and Me: [laugh]<br />
Abby: The purple minion?<br />
Me: No. DO-minion.<br />
Abby: The blue minion? Which minion?! What color?<br />
BJ: Brown.<br />
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Peter's high chair is pushed up to the table. Apparently he was hungry, because he climbed onto a chair, onto the table, laid on his belly with his feet pointing to the high chair, then scooted himself backwards until his feet were in the high chair. He didn’t quite make it to sitting in there, though.<br />
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Wow. That was a lot of Abby. Apparently kids are funniest around 3-4 years old.<br />
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Well, let's do some more Abby, shall we?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghiswtkQYO0F-smv3I5Sf78lelc62wYCZUUwfHV6gp2mwzqPQydi0d3sVCCrftV742zoDgYUpLT4l3x4TQbZAG3aYWVIdNVFpHVkY-gWy48ly23O6Vq3uPWakSdGYyjF5zmOAcblLWsJU/s1600/thumb_IMG_8185_1024.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghiswtkQYO0F-smv3I5Sf78lelc62wYCZUUwfHV6gp2mwzqPQydi0d3sVCCrftV742zoDgYUpLT4l3x4TQbZAG3aYWVIdNVFpHVkY-gWy48ly23O6Vq3uPWakSdGYyjF5zmOAcblLWsJU/s320/thumb_IMG_8185_1024.jpg" width="240" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidzgVsGEQOK5bTi_ClBQf_kRQYVaX13BXAicq55L-WtCutLeluA0M-wkC0p-zM0rhvi0CqP5qPvi1vrCaSlogFvsNx21wqvw_AA6Wi1zAaEiNULuKJO7hDxBwj86u8px07HrFAgE_D4Pw/s1600/thumb_IMG_8182_1024.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidzgVsGEQOK5bTi_ClBQf_kRQYVaX13BXAicq55L-WtCutLeluA0M-wkC0p-zM0rhvi0CqP5qPvi1vrCaSlogFvsNx21wqvw_AA6Wi1zAaEiNULuKJO7hDxBwj86u8px07HrFAgE_D4Pw/s320/thumb_IMG_8182_1024.jpg" width="240" /></a><br />
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This Frozen Fever dress is her favorite. She wears it every time I will let her get away with it. (So, not to church, gymnastics, or anywhere where a bunch of other kids running around might step on her train. Oh, and not to bed. It needs a break sometimes.) She asks every person she sees if they like her dress. She has shown several people the movie for their first time, insisting throughout the whole show that it is actually her in the movie. "Oh see? I sneezed out snowmen. How silly."<br />
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And that really awkward picture? She is becoming fond of falling off the couch into really awkward positions, then staying there and laughing. This was her showing off for my visiting teachers.<br />
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I don't feel like I have much more to say this week. Just focused on getting ready for Christmas break. Less than a week left!<br />
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[hugs]<br />
~ Tianna and co.Tiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6449137189263457728.post-34770716102977952632015-11-15T20:39:00.000-07:002015-11-15T20:39:07.636-07:00In which Peter grins at himself, and other kid things.Resa ~<br />
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Well, probably the most exciting news is that Peter took several steps several times this week. Yay Peter! He's so proud of himself, too. The biggest grin you can imagine.<br />
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Of course, he gave himself that same grin at dinner tonight when he caught his reflection in the sliding glass door...<br />
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Speaking of Peter and his accomplishments this week, BJ took the kids to the park on Saturday. Peter climbed up to the medium slide, which is a circular slide, and slid down by himself. He climbed up to the tallest circular slide, too, but the girls distracted him and he forgot to slide down. I might be ok with that.<br />
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A local radio station started playing Christmas music before Halloween. I started listening to it while driving this week. One day I confessed to BJ that there might be Christmas music playing when he got in his car to go to work. That same day he started playing Christmas music on the piano. I think we were both spurred into the season by waking up to snow a couple of mornings this week. I will admit to having felt less justified at listening to it once the snow melted.<br />
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Have we told you about Clusters at Kessa's school? It's one of the reasons we decided to switch schools. For 6 weeks before Christmas and 8 weeks (or is it 10? I can't remember) after, the kids get to do Clusters. Basically, it is 1.5 hour long lessons once a week, that are non-common core. The teachers all teach them, and parents are invited to teach if they want. (This time only 3 aren't teachers. Hopefully more do it next time.) As to topics, the sky is the limit. (Speaking of the sky... BJ decided to teach about the moon. :D Surprise!) They've done mummification, soap creations (that's the one Kessa is in right now), 3D art, a cappella, jewelry making, dance, etc. But the key portion that scares me as a potential teacher... the classes are student-led. Meaning, the teacher isn't supposed to make a lesson plan. They're supposed to let the kids decide what to do and how to do it. And at the end of the session, they are supposed to have a good, service, or performance to give to an authentic audience (meaning: not parents. We support them no matter what. They want an audience that actually cares about the topic.) Anyway, it's been fun for BJ. You should ask him about it.<br />
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We hung up our Thankful tree a few weeks ago. But recently Kessa decided we should all write, "like 10 each." So we just filled up all the leaves I had cut. It was starting to fill up the tree (and we wanted to cut more later), so we decided to let the wind blow some leaves off. We do live in Lehi, after all.</div>
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In an attempt to get rid of some of the toys in this house, I asked the girls to give some toys away before we got new toys for Christmas. We put them in a big Rubbermaid tub and I set them on the couch temporarily, then left. When I cam back, both girls were sitting inside the tub, playing with all the toys that they don't like, or they don't play with anymore. lol.<br />
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<b>Kiddisms</b><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Avenir, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Abby just asked me to turn up the volume on the iPad. “It's just so nervous.”</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Avenir, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Me: I can help you go potty, but then you won't get a sticker. </span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Avenir, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Avenir, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Abby: I don't want a sticker; I had too much food. </span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Avenir, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Avenir, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Me: [blink] I have no idea what that means. </span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Avenir, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Avenir, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Abby, angrily: It means </span><em style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Avenir, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">nuffing!</em><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "avenir" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Avenir, sans-serif;">Tonight we were acting out the story of Peter healing the lame man in Acts 3 (Kessa requested a story about jumping. The lame man leaps when he is healed.)</span><br style="font-family: Avenir, sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Avenir, sans-serif;">Kessa was the lame man, leaving Abby to be Peter. Except she didn't want to be </span><em style="border: 0px; font-family: Avenir, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Peter!</em><span style="font-family: Avenir, sans-serif;">Hazards of having a sibling named after a bible character. (Someday we should act out the Abigail story, as that's who she was named after.)</span><br style="font-family: Avenir, sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Avenir, sans-serif;">So we called her Simon for the duration of the play. :D Thanks, Peter, for having two names!</span>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "avenir" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Hugs!</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "avenir" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><3 Tianna and Co.</span>Tiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6449137189263457728.post-86798771916703970692015-11-03T22:20:00.000-07:002015-11-03T22:20:32.523-07:00This is Halloween; this is Halloween.<span style="background-color: white; color: #212121; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Hermana Homer ~</span><br />
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See! I promised I would write tonight! Didn't I promise? </div>
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I've been reading <a href="http://alovelycup.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">my old blog</a>. The one I started when I was single (with BJ's help, actually. Go figure) when I went to Jerusalem. The other night BJ and I were reminiscing about our courtship and he mentioned something about how he first started to like-like me when reading my blog. Specifically how I took touristy things and made them spiritual and applicable to bettering myself. I knew this, but it hit me right then that I should go back and read it and see what about my blog that intrigued him so much. I don't remember being all spiritually awesome.</div>
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Teresa, it has been the best experience ever. I have been impressed with my own spiritual impressions. I have forgotten a lot of them. There were several times I would say things like, "I know why I'm here now. I needed to learn X, Y, and Z so I could go home and implement them in my life." The thing is, Resa, I still haven't mastered those things. They were all things I needed to hear again. And likely I will need to hear them again multiple times through my life. It made me want to make little signs out of them and hang them throughout my house as little reminders. And so many things I completely forgot about. It was like learning them afresh.</div>
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I've spent a fair amount of time the last few days wondering why I was on such a spiritual high then, when I don't feel like I am now. I have concluded it is due to my high level of spiritual immersion. Day in and day out I was in class learning about the Bible. I was going to holy places and learning the stories around them, then singing hymns (we sang <i>soooo many hymns </i>there. It was fantastic). I looked out over Old Jerusalem during almost every sacrament meeting. My even my relaxing Sabbath day activities included things like going to the Garden of Gethsemane, quietly read scriptures and write in my journal for an hour, sing hymns in harmony with 4-6 other students, then go back home. Because of my major, I already knew a lot of the things we were learning, so I became a mentor to many people. That combined with my love of story telling made me quite popular around test time. :) But that also meant that I was constantly telling and retelling scripture stories and discussing their pertinence to us today. With my whole life immersed in scripture, how could I <i>not</i> spew forth spiritual insights with every blog post?</div>
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I tell you this not to pat myself on the back, but more as a bit of advice to you. You are currently spiritually immersed. You spend all day reading, thinking, and talking about Christ and the gospel. You are service-minded. Because of that, you are going to have a lot of spiritual insight. You are going to get a lot of inspiration about things you need you change and do better at, both on the mission and when you come home. You will learn and grow <i>so much! </i>Please, do yourself a favor. Write in your journal often. Write in detail. Someday, you will be back to focusing on yourself, and won't be quite so in tune with the Spirit. Let your mission self teach your future self again sometime.</div>
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Ok, off my preaching platform here. :D </div>
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Halloween! It was a busy week. Tuesday Kessa got to wear her costume (a fairy) to ballet. Wednesday Abby got to wear hers (a white kitty, patterned after Creampuff) to music class. That morning she christened her kitty self Lily and wouldn't answer to anything else. Thursday Abby got to wear her costume to Joy School, where they did a Halloween parade and sang us songs. It was super cute. Unfortunately, that's also when she started showing signs of being sick. By that afternoon she was asleep on the couch, miserable, and with a fever of around 102º. She spent the rest of the day wanting nothing more than to cuddle with me.</div>
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Honestly, of all illnesses my kids could have, a fever with no other symptoms is probably my favorite. Because they just want to cuddle, and I don't feel any guilt dropping everything else and just laying around with them all day.</div>
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Unfortunately, it meant she didn't get to go to Trunk or Treat on Friday. But, though her fever was gone, she was still rather miserable all day Friday, so she didn't really miss it, I think. She fell asleep on the bean bag chair while Kessa and I were gone.</div>
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Backing up a bit, Friday Kessa got to wear her costume to school, had early out, got to wear it to the dentist (she had a cavity filled) and got a piece of candy for it (ironic, that). Then after dinner she and I went to Trunk or Treat.</div>
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Saturday we went to Cornbelly's for the afternoon, then came back and trick or treated. (Peter finally dressed up this time and went around. He was a pumpkin. I figured he's a boy, thus he must want to do something gruesome like be a cannibal, right? ;) haha) They got So Much Candy. Thankfully, they happily agreed to do the Switch Witch again. So now they each have 5 pieces of candy and the Switch Witch has a gallon sized bag stuffed full of candy. Awesome.</div>
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<b>Kiddisms:</b></div>
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Kessa, trying to convince us to let her stay up extra late tonight: But I'm speeding nice!</div>
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<i>Editor's note: We're wondering if this is similar to being storming night. haha.</i></div>
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Kessa, singing: I'm going to stone, stone, stone my sillies out.</div>
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Abby, telling me that there were monsters where I was: It's OK. They are bad, but they won't hurt nice.</div>
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Alright, I'll get this sent now. Good luck heading back to the states! Get lots of sleep. Have too much silly fun. And draw a maze for Kessa. Did you ever get the card she sent you, btw?</div>
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<3 Tianna and Co.</div>
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Tiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6449137189263457728.post-87101944004599559792015-10-27T00:11:00.002-06:002015-10-27T00:11:39.812-06:00Of murder and giant carrotsDear Resa ~<br />
<br />
Probably the highlight of my week was hosting a Murder Mystery party. We did the same one (Way out West) that we did with your family, but this time BJ and I were the bartenders. I put way too much time and effort into decorating, but I surprisingly didn't stress about it at all. Plus, I think the atmosphere was pretty dang awesome because of it. I invented a logo for the Silver Dollar saloon, then put it on a sign for the door, on aprons for BJ and I, and even made stationery for people to take notes on if they wanted. I divvied out the food to everyone else (making my life way easier), and one gal brought cans of soda, wrapped in paper with our logo on it. We also took down most of our pictures/paintings and replaced them with black and white photos and tin types (all framed in old barn wood). And I borrowed a couple of old cameras as decoration as well.<br />
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Our guests were fantastic with their costumes, and really got into their parts. It was hilarious being on the bartender end of things. We had our entire main floor open, but everyone stuck to the kitchen and family room area (even though we had 18 people in there!), which made it far easier for us to walk around, listening to what people were saying, laughing at how people chose to make friends/enemies, and perform our bartender duties. I definitely want to do more of these. So. Much. Fun.<br />
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I think this next picture is my favorite, though. BJ did a panorama of the group. I just love how everyone is crowded in the kitchen, but Dan and Lucy are having a private moment in the family room.<br />
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And... let's throw things up a little and put <b>kiddisms</b> in the middle today.<br />
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Me: What do wolves say?<br />
Abby: They don't say anything! They talk!<br />
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Kessa's dinner prayer: Help our food to be blessed. Help our family to be strong. Help our family to be safe while we eat. And while we sleep for lots of days.<br />
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Abby: My teeth don't know they're surprised.<br />
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BJ: Let's face it, Bellatrix was no Hufflepuff.<br />
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Abby, telling me that there were monsters where I was: It's OK. They are bad, but they won't hurt nice.<br />
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Sunday I was out in the garden and Kessa asked when we could pick carrots in a certain bed. I told her she could pick one right then. (She likes to pick them and eat them. I'm not going to complain.) She tried to, but it didn't take long before she told me she couldn't, because all the leaves were hooked to one spot. Now, there were a *lot* of leaves in that box, so I was rather skeptical. I went over anyway and soon found out that she was very right. (BJ points out that he has told me before that there was only one giant carrot in that box, but I have so completely ignored my garden this year that I apparently forgot.)<br />
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Resa. This carrot is gigantic. Ridiculously gigantic. After we cut off the leaves we weighed it. It was <i>4.2 pounds!</i> BJ wants to put it on our front porch with our pumpkins. But the girls keep breaking off legs and snacking on them, so we'll see if it ever makes it out there. :)<br />
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Peter learned how to walk while pushing a little toy car on Sunday. He's been walking while holding fingers for awhile now, so this shouldn't be surprising. Honestly, I hadn't even considered trying him on it. Neither of our girls ever wanted to walk with it, so I've just dismissed it as a walking toy. But a neighbor's boy just learned to walk while pushing theirs, so I decided to try it, and man, he's taken to it like a duck to water. He can zoom around the house with it.<br />
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Also about Peter, I think his first word is officially “banana”.<br />
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We had parent teacher conference with Kessa's teacher this week. As expected, she's doing great. What I wasn't expecting was one of the schoolwork papers that was given back to us. Resa! What am I supposed to do with this?! Kessa is not boy crazy!<br />
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She is also getting a lot better at roller skating.<br />
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And... apparently I didn't get any pictures of Abby this week. But I suppose she dominates the kiddism section, so oh well? I did get a video of her telling a story tonight. If I have time, I'll transcribe it and send it to you separately. She's hysterical.</div>
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Love and hugs,<br />
~ Tianna and Co.Tiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6449137189263457728.post-89934593338677082372015-10-19T14:06:00.004-06:002015-10-19T14:09:52.609-06:00A double dose of kiddismsDear Resa ~<br />
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I'm sorry for all the confusion with last week's letters. I had my days mixed up and thought you wrote on Monday. It was just a mess. And, just now, I just realized that my last post never actually posted. It had kiddisms and pictures! [sigh] Lesson learned, though! Never blog kiddisms and pictures from the tire store on my phone.<br />
<br />
Forgive me?<br />
<br />
Let's start with kiddisms. In good news, you get a double dose.<br />
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Abby: Am I going to Liam's house?<br />
Me: Yup!<br />
Abby: But I don't like boys!<br />
Me: Remember Brother Anderson?<br />
Abby: I like him!<br />
Me: He's a boy.<br />
Abby: I like that boy but not other beautiful boys.<br />
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Me: Can you tell me the story?<br />
Abby: Mmmmm… no. I don't know how to learn it. Because I'm not a mommy.<br />
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Pizza night at the Homers = Zoombini quote night. “There's something on here I don't like!” “The perfect pizza!”<br />
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Abby: Mommy, we forgot to watch a show!<br />
Me: You did watch a show. You just fell asleep while you were watching.<br />
Abby: I noticed.<br />
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Abby: G-O-L-M-O spells go.<br />
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Kessa: Mommy! Time for breakfast!<br />
Me: Is it ready?<br />
Abby: Yes, because I can fly.<br />
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Abby threw up tonight. We just got her resettled on our bedroom floor.<br />
Abby: It's still hurting.<br />
Me: If you need to throw up again, try to get it in that bucket beside you.<br />
Abby, writhing slightly: I'm trying to push it out.<br />
Me: Does it feel like it's going to come out your mouth or your bum?<br />
Abby, relaxing visibly: It came out my toes.<br />
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Abby: If you go to Farm Country, I will give you a candy. Promise?<br />
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Abby, whispering: Mommy, if you let me go to Grandma Lovell's, will you give me a candy?<br />
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BJ: Eight plus the tree plus the two is 13.<br />
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BJ: With our hands combined, we are… holding hands!<br />
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Talking about a favorite neighborhood kitten that died last year:<br />
Abby: She ran to heaven.<br />
Kessa: She didn't run to heaven. She didn't fly to heaven. She <i>died</i> to heaven.<br />
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Abby is scared to sleep by herself tonight. She's in bed yelling, “Daddy, I'm scary!”<br />
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Abby: Cooper! Watch this sound!<br />
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I know you want us to write via real letters. You have one in the real mail from Kessa. And you should have gotten some printed at the MTC by the time you read this from Kessa and Abby. But I'm going to keep writing this one, too, as it doubles as my blog. So there. :P<br />
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I told you my mom took my kids for almost a week, right? It was marvelous. When I thought of something I needed at a store, I could just go get it. Right then. By myself. Or when some friends who decided to move to Boston had a dinner/game night and invited us, we went, even though it was late at night. I got so many little things done. Not many things that sound impressive on their own, but it was the conglomeration of all of them that made it so lovely.<br />
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I have a friend who does a podcast called The Protagonist Podcast. Every week they talk about a different fictional protagonist. A few weeks ago he asked me if I would join them as a guest for the Harry Potter podcast. Um. Yes! Yes, I would. So I did! Thursday night I went down to Orem and spent a couple of hours talking all about Harry. It was lovely. (It'll be edited down to an hour.) I'm excited for it to come out and see what it ended up being like!<br />
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Abby has been showing a great interest in cooking lately. That is actually an understatement. Every time I start cooking anything, she comes running into the kitchen, grabs her kitchen chair with her booster on the seat, pushes it over to wherever I happen to be working while yelling, "I want to help!" It's adorable and very inconvenient all at the same time. I think that might actually be a good description of kids in general. :D Anyway, so when my friend, Melanie, hosted a Kids in the Kitchen Pampered Chef party, I had to go. It was a little chaotic (it had a good turnout), but super fun. Abby and Kessa both had a grand time. And then, as is the point of the party, I spent way too much money on Pampered Chef items. But in good news, many of them I got so that I could cook with my kids more! So... hopefully that happens.<br />
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Last night Kessa walked into the ditch and completely out of the blue said, "I want to be more like a grown up.” I asked her if she knew what that meant and she said, “Yes. It means I have more chores and things.” She then proceeded to help me finish cooking dinner and setting the table! She's so proud of herself. (And I am too!) This morning, when she was having a hard time being responsible with her morning chores and getting ready for school, I asked her if she had meant that she just wanted to be more like a grown up last night, or just for a couple of days. "No, I meant it for forever!" And then she got up and (admittedly very slowly and with prodding), finished getting ready for school. I love that girl.<br />
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Peter has stood up by himself for about 5 seconds multiple times now. At my parents' house he took a couple of steps by himself, but I don't think he's done it since then. He's getting there, though! He can also climb really well. Up and down stairs. Up the stool in the bathroom so that he can turn on the water. And even more fun, he's also learned how to stopper the drain and fill up the sink! Woo! What a lucky mommy am I! ;)<br />
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And now, pictures.<br />
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Some pictures from Grandma and Grandpa Lovell's<br />
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Hopefully all is great in Mexico. That you can walk again. And that you understand and speak a little more Spanish. Hugs!<br />
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<3 Tianna and Co.Tiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6449137189263457728.post-42273867042802283002015-10-12T13:49:00.001-06:002015-10-12T13:49:11.730-06:00Letters and apologies<div>Dear Resa ~</div><div><br></div><div>This past week I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Have you ever read that? If not, you should. It's delightful. It always makes me want to write better letters. Why? Because the entire story is written in charming letters. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes tear-wrenching. It's written shortly after World War 2, mostly about the occupation in Guernsey, an island in the Channel Islands. Perhaps it's because I listened to it as an audiobook, so I got all the voices in various European accents. How can one not fall in love with that? I've decided I can write much better letters so long as I can read it in Juliette's delightful British accent. I must also use words like "charming" and "delightful." So try to read it in the same British accent I have in my head, k? ;)</div><div><br></div><div>Each letter is filled most with one or two stories, some questions, some answers to previous questions. And that's all. Perhaps that has been my problem—I write too much detail about ok many things. That perhaps is better for a journal. But not a letter. </div><div><br></div><div>I know last week I promised you two letters, but life has charged on by and here I am, Monday morning again, and no letter written yet. So I will get you the one. I did promise you some stories, though. </div><div><br></div><div>You worried you wouldn't be missed. Let me assure you that is not the case. Last week the girls were sleeping out on the couch in the loft (we have Silly Sleeping Fridays) when I heard Kessa crying. I went in, assuming Abby had invaded her space or something, only to hear her sob, "Resa! I miss Resa!"</div><div><br></div><div>It came completely out of the blue. We hadn't been talking about you that evening or anything. I don't know what made her think about you being gone, but something did. And, oh Resa. It was heartbreaking. </div><div><br></div><div>I assured her you would be back and explained again that you were teaching people about Jesus. But we could still write you letters and call you every once in awhile. That worked for a second, but then she was sobbing again. So I reminded her that Jessa had gone on a mission, and she had come back! "But Jessa doesn't babysit me anymore!"</div><div><br></div><div>Isn't that adorable? She's afraid that when you come home she won't have the same relationship with you. I was justified in missing your babysitting! ;) But in the end she calmed down when I promised her that I would show her the map you made her to color in. We've since laminated it and they each have colored in a heart. </div><div><br></div><div>This week the kids are all up at my parents' house for Fall Break so I can get stuff actually done. We've hung up a bunch of pictures and moved sprinklers, and then it was Sunday. I've been busy with babysitting co-op and primary this morning, so hopefully by next week I will have a long list of things done. </div><div><br></div><div>And now you will be writing any moment. And I want to have something to send you, so I will post this. So much for an awesome letter. Forgive me? If you haven't written before I get home (I'm out for lunch), I'll send pictures. </div><div><br></div><div>Love, Tianna</div>Tiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6449137189263457728.post-12772238425269716012015-09-28T22:08:00.000-06:002015-09-28T22:08:58.873-06:00We're gonna miss you while you're goneHey folks! I'm blogging again! Remember how awhile ago I used to blog every week because BJ's sister Jessa was on an LDS mission, and my blog was my letter to her? Well lucky for you, his youngest sister, Teresa (hereby known as Resa) just left to go on a mission to Houston, Texas. She's currently in Mexico City learning Spanish and learning how to be a missionary. So for the next year and a half, most of my blogs will be addressed to her. I'm hoping to find a new groove, though, so you can actually enjoy reading my blogs instead of being buried in every detail of my week. Hopefully that'll happen... feedback is welcome. :)<br />
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Dear Resa ~<br />
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You're in Mexico! And don't worry, we're missing you while you're gone. :D How is your Spanish? Do you feel like you already have a good handle on it? Or are you totally overwhelmed by how much you don't yet know? I think it's awesome that you're learning Spanish. Though I feel like my future is going to be filled even more with you and BJ talking so I can't understand you. Maybe I should switch from learning Norwegian to learning Spanish... But then how will I learn awesome phrases like, "The wolf is eating me" or "It's raining men"? Maybe they would teach awesome things like that in Spanish, too... But then how could I justify a cruise to Norway if I don't learn Norwegian like I promised my grandma? So Many Hard Choices!!! ;)<br />
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Let's see... what things from this week would you care about...<br />
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Kessa put on a concert for us the other night. She sang 3 or 4 songs from Frozen while reading the lyrics in BJ's piano book. I wish you could watch videos... I'd upload one for you. Maybe I should make a video compilation for when you get home of all the videos you miss. That would be awfully nice of me. (Uhhh... we'll see if <i>that</i> actually happens. Don't hold your breath.)<br />
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There was a lunar eclipse of a super moon (which means it's 14% bigger than a normal full moon)! Did you get to see it? We let the girls stay up and they loved it! (Well, I think they mostly loved playing with the friends that came over to look through the telescope.)<br />
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Kessa continues to learn to rollerskate. Her newest learning technique? Pushing the stroller! (Don't be deceived, this picture makes her look like she's going <i>waaay</i> faster than she really is.)<br />
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And because you deserve a cat picture, we have a new pianist at our house! Meow!<br />
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And just because I got this adorable picture of Abby when we went to the Gardens at Thanksgiving Point for a nature walk for Joy School...<br />
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And now the part I know you actually care about. Kiddisms!!!! (And since this is the first time in a looooooooong time I've blogged these, I'll go back in time awhile. So you may have heard some of these before.)<br />
<ul>
<li>Me: Kitty. Kitty. Kittykittykittykitty.<br />
Abby: Mommy don't say that. That is not a word. <br />
Me: Kitty isn't a word?<br />
Abby: No it is not. <br />
Me: Kitty is too a word<br />
Abby: No, it is not a word!<br />
Me: Kitty is a word. I think you're tricking me. <br />
Abby: I'm not tricking. I'm teaching you to not say funny things.</li>
<li>Abby is playing by herself, singing <i>Let it G</i>o, when partway through she stops and says, “Don't sing that song.” So she stopped, started talking to herself for a couple of minutes, then sang the last line of the song. And is now back to talking to herself. </li>
<li>Abby: Hey baby, I know you have short hair and long hair, but I don't have any batteries. (Just in case you needed any awesome pick up lines for when you get home.)</li>
<li>Things I never expected to say to my children include: “Write 5 words, and then you may go die.”</li>
<li>Abby: When I am a kitty, I'm going to buy whiskers, a tail, and fur.</li>
<li>Abby: Do you want Aurora or not Aurora.<br />
Me: Not Aurora.<br />
Abby: Well, then you will die to Jesus.</li>
<li>Abby: My pretty fingernails really want to not fall off.</li>
<li>Text from BJ: "Milestone: Peter can now carry a yarn “snowball” while pulling himself up onto an open toilet, and then throw the snowball into the toilet. And then reach into the toilet and splash around trying to reach for it."</li>
<li>Kessa: Do you like Christmas more or Halloween more? I kind of like Halloween because of the candy, but I like Christmas more because I think of God more. And God is way better than candy.</li>
<li>Me: Then why did you need my help?<br />
Abby: Because I wanted to do it by myself.</li>
<li>Abby: Mommy, this rice is hot. That's because you're hot, Mommy!</li>
<li>Kessa: I would never lie because I'm a princess. Princesses do <i>not</i> tell lies!</li>
<li>In prayers:<br />
Abby: Thank you I died. [pause] Because I didn't.<br />
Kessa: Thank you that we got to Grandma's before the sun went down. <br />
Tamra: Help us to be nice to Grandma and Grandpa Lovell. And to be polite. And to not be rude to anyone. (<i>Note: this is way back from July when we had my sister's kids here.)</i></li>
<li>Abby has gymnastics today. “Oh! I'll have to put on my leilatard! Just like when I'm at Leila's house!”</li>
<li>I just asked Kessa to be quick to obey like Nephi.<br />
Abby: I want a fruit snack like Laman and Lemuel!</li>
<li>Very common conversation lately.<br />
Me: Abby, did you have a good nap? Did you have good dreams?<br />
Abby: Yeah, I did. <br />
Me: What were your dreams about?<br />
Abby: Aurora.<br />
Though, sometimes the princess will change. Today it was Cinderella.</li>
<li>Kessa: Those are falling awake machines, goldfish [crackers] are!</li>
<li>Kessa: If you spell goats G-O-A-T-S and then take off the G, and crumble it up and throw it away, you spell oats!</li>
<li>Abby: Mommy, I'm scared.<br />
Me: What are you scared of?<br />
Abby, screeching: I'm not scared <i>of! (Editor's note: This is VERY stereotypical of Abby's completely illogical tantrums.)</i></li>
<li>Abby, wearing wings, “Mommy, I'm too old to fly.”</li>
<li>Abby: I smell thunder!<br />
Later: I don't see any more thunder. </li>
<li>Abby just flushed her panties down the potty. Now she's distraught because her panties won't come back.</li>
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Ok, that's probably enough. Hope you got at least a good smile, if not a chuckle out of those. :)<br />
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Oh! And Kessa wrote you a card. We're putting it in the mail tomorrow (cross your fingers) so hopefully you'll get it while you're there! Tell us when you do, so we know how long it takes to mail you things.<br />
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Hugs! Can't wait to hear all about your first week!<br />
<3 Tianna and Co.</div>
Tiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6449137189263457728.post-64067207974677543512015-03-26T22:38:00.000-06:002015-03-26T23:15:34.395-06:00Mmmm... Chocolate...Abby turned three years old 3 months ago today. Perhaps I should blog about her party? Because it was awesome.<br />
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Ever since we bought Frozen soon after it came out, both of my girls have been obsessed. They sing the songs. They act out scenes. (The favorite being at the beginning with Anna waking up Elsa. They have entitled it, "Wake up, wake up, wake up!" and request playing it often. It's sometimes fun to be Elsa because I get to push my kids off the couch and tell them to go play by themselves... and they laugh!) So when my cousin's daughters, Aubree and Brinnan, posted their Halloween costumes of Elsa and Anna (homemade costumes, I might add!) and said they do parties... well, the party practically planned itself.<br />
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I saw this snowflake cupcake cake on Pinterest and decided it would be fun and easy. Once Abby saw it, she was in love. She <i>still</i> asks me to show her "her cake" on my phone.<br />
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We colored Frozen pictures while we waited for everyone to come. Once everyone showed up, we headed down to the basement to play Pin the Nose on Olaf and Freeze Dancing.<br />
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But then, to everyone's surprise (at least the under-6 crowd), Anna showed up in our basement! My girls were rather confused about it.<br />
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She explained that Elsa had been captured by the snow monster. They had to go help save her! So they all trooped upstairs, found a pile of "snowballs" (fuzzy yarn wrapped around wiffle balls), and threw them at the snow monster until they defeated him and saved Elsa.<br />
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Then we posed for pictures, ate candy/cupcakes, and just played with Elsa and Anna. Not bad for a 3-year old birthday party!<br />
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It was super fun having double Elsa and Anna's. Abby still talks about "2 Elsa's and 2 Anna's at our house!"<br />
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Peter was here, too. He was just too busy learning from Papa Lovell that he loves water to pay attention to anything. (Hah! Water. Appropriate for a Frozen party...)</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">All photo credit goes to <a href="http://travislovell.com/" target="_blank">Travis Lovell Photography</a>.</span></div>
<br />Tiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6449137189263457728.post-13703162328530282472015-03-03T23:48:00.001-07:002015-03-03T23:48:58.543-07:00Input requestedBJ had me play with Day One (the journaling app he works for) tonight. I ended up writing a stream-of-conscious bug report as a journal entry. It was late and I seemed to have lost any filters. It was really fun. BJ thought it entertaining as well. <div><br></div><div>Afterwards BJ mentioned, "Sometimes I forget that I first got to know you through your writing." It made me realize how much I miss writing. And blogging. And how I seem to have lost some of my zest for life when I stopped writing. </div><div><br></div><div>So, if anyone still reads this, what would you like to hear about? Kids? Life? Kiddisms? Old stories? Ramblings? Stream of consciousness on random topics? Opinions? Help a girl out!</div>Tiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6449137189263457728.post-11091932618916780062014-12-07T09:05:00.002-07:002014-12-07T09:05:30.092-07:00Fasting when you can't fastToday being Fast Sunday (In the LDS church, we set aside the first Sunday of every month to fast for whatever needs we stand in need of), I've been thinking of fasting as I got ready for church. I realized that in the last six and a half years I have been married, I haven't been able to fast for over four and a half of them. That's over 2/3 of my marriage I've been unable to fast!<br />
<br />
As we've been teaching Kessa why Daddy doesn't eat these mornings, we've simplified it to this: When you need something from Heavenly Father, you pray and ask for it. But sometimes you <i>really </i>need something. You need or want it so much that you're willing to do even more than a simple prayer to show Heavenly Father how much it means to you. That's what fasting does.<br />
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This powerful tool I have largely not utilized over the past 6 and a half years due to pregnancy and nursing. But several months ago, while explaining to Kessa why we fast, I realized that was silly. Heavenly Father made my body. He understands that during pregnancy and nursing, my body needs extra nutrients and cannot go as long without eating. He made me that way! I cannot believe that he would expect me to forego the blessings that come from fasting simply because I am also nourishing a child.<br />
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It got me thinking. If fasting is a way of sacrificing something in order to show God my greater desire for blessings, why couldn't I sacrifice something else?<br />
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So I have. For the last several months I start my fast with something different. I usually start by thinking, "What is it I really want right now that I could live without, but would be a sacrifice?" Sometimes it's a particular book I'm reading (especially if I'm at a climax). Sometimes it's sugar. Sometimes it's anything other than simple, mostly-bland-but-still-nutritious food. This approach is completely customizable to the person.<br />
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Now, the scriptures specifically talk about fasting from food and drink, so I am not suggesting that everyone deviate from that. When I am able to properly fast, I do. But I think too often I've thought of pregnancy and nursing or being sick as a "Get out of Fast Sunday Free" pass. I have rarely stopped to think of the blessings I am joyfully missing out of. So now during the times that I am not capable of a participating in a full fast, I believe that Heavenly Father accepts what I can do. I am satisfied with this work-around.Tiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6449137189263457728.post-41769942424019592322014-11-23T23:09:00.002-07:002014-11-23T23:09:16.401-07:00Something newSo, as most of you have realized, for the last year and a half, I've been writing my blog as a letter to BJ's sister, Jessa. She has been serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Cambodia. Not wanting to miss a single detail, I sent her all the details. But as much as I love the details, I fear I may have lost much of my readership. Most people don't want to know the nitty gritty details of my life. Plus, I've just felt like it's time for my blog to take a different direction for awhile. So as soon as Jessa was done, I stopped blogging. Unsure what to write, I just stopped writing. For a month and a half.<br />
<br />
So today starts something new. I'm not sure what it is yet, but I guess we'll find out together as it unfolds.<br />
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For today, I'll catch you up on all the missed kiddisms (with a few adult guest appearances)...<br />
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<ul>
<li>Kessa: do you know why I love Papa [Lovell] so much and why he loves me so much? Because he has that little thing [flashlight] that when you put it on my finger, it turns my finger red. </li>
<li>Me: It would take me more than my whole life to travel to the sun. <br />
Kessa: But not the firemen. Because they are superfast!</li>
<li>Abby: I'm two and Kessa's five, so I'm old.</li>
<li>Kessa: When can I get my ears punished? (She meant pierced.)</li>
<li>Abby (age 2.5) spent a few minutes examining her mouth in the mirror. Then she told me, “This tooth! It fell out. I need to get my tooth pillow.” I laughed and asked, “Your tooth fell out and you need to put it in your tooth pillow?” She very seriously looked straight in my eyes and said, “I need money.”</li>
<li>Kessa: If we all like green like you do, then we'd all have magic in our eyes!</li>
<li>Kessa wearing her Elsa dress walks into my bedroom, alone, and starts saying very earnestly to herself, “Don't. Feel. Don't <i>feel! Don't</i> feel.”</li>
<li>Kessa: Abby, you have to sleep. <br />
Abby: I can't; my hands are full. </li>
<li>Resa: So, I was thinking about this the other day. I'm going to be the one to go to all of my siblings' funerals. If we all live to be the age of… old. I'm going to go to all of them! BJ, you're not going to go to anyone's except maybe Nick's. But let's be honest. We're all going to go to Nick's.</li>
<li>Abby: Oh! Look! My shadow is happy!</li>
<li>Me: How do we earn points?<br />
Kessa: Wellllllll… that's a very good answer. </li>
<li>BJ: I wouldn't get to wear my Transformer's dress.</li>
<li>Me: What do you want for lunch?<br />
Abby: peanut butter<br />
Me: Do you want it on toast?<br />
Abby: No<br />
Me: On bread?<br />
Abby: No<br />
Me: What do you want it on? <br />
Abby: I want peanut butter. <br />
Me: Ok. But what do you want to eat your peanut butter on?<br />
Abby: Because I don't like it. <br />
Me: You don't like peanut butter?<br />
Abby: No<br />
[30-second pause]<br />
Abby: I want peanut butter. <br />
Me: Do you just want to just eat it with a spoon?<br />
Abby: No. </li>
<li>Abby, speaking to her stuffed monkey: Monkey Pearl Homer. Stop. Stop! STOP! Oh, Monkey… sorry. Do you want to cuddle? You need to stop yelling. Ohhhh. Do you need to change your diaper? Oh, is it owie? Sorry.</li>
<li>BJ, telling to story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf: Sheep just aren't all the interesting. They don't play games or tell jokes or make you pizza.</li>
<li>Abby: Let's go get oatmeal!<br />
BJ: Just a second, I'm kissing mommy. <br />
Abby: And hug! And tickle!<br />
[BJ tickles me.]<br />
Meanwhile, Abby: Sorry. Sorry, Mommy. Sorry. Sorry about that. </li>
<li>Kessa found a camera and is going around taking pictures. She was taking one of Peter and I. "Don't smile so big, mom—your eyes are shutting." Hah!</li>
<li>BJ: Now that you’re getting your big teeth, you need to take care of them because you’ll never lose them.<br />
Kessa: Yes I will! I met a lady that was really, really old… (then she got distracted, but I think we can all see where this was going…)</li>
<li>Kessa's homework today [Nov 17] is to write numbers as high as she can. Try to get to at least 20. <br />
She did that easily. <br />
I asked if she could get higher. <br />
She said she could get to 100. I challenged her to do it. <br />
So she hid the paper from me and wrote by 10s up to 100. 😂</li>
<li>Kessa was coming up with words that start with N for homework. Without really thinking I told her to think of letters, colors, or animals. She asked what letter I was thinking of. And then I realized I had meant to say number. So I said, “Oh, that was silly. Letters aren't really words. I guess we could say N, but that's not a word.” She retorted, “But N starts with 'e'. Eh-n.”<br />
Touché.</li>
<li>We’re trying to keep the kids off screen time during the morning. This morning Abby had been asking to watch a show and I kept telling her, “In the afternoon.” At one point I was out on my computer and BJ was in the bedroom getting ready when Abby came out and told me to go talk to Daddy. When she wants something, she’s very insistent about it, so I decided to placate her and went in to talk to him. Next thing I know, she’s shutting my bedroom door—with her on the outside. Now, I can add two and two better than my two-year old, and just laughed, telling BJ what I suspected.<br />
<br />
I gave her a few minutes, then went back out to find her hiding behind the blue hand chair (not very effectively), on the iPad. I put my hands on my hips and said, “Abby, what are you doing?” She looked up, wide-eyed, and said, “Mommy, go talk to Daddy!” When I didn’t move, she grabbed the iPad, pulled it behind the chair and exclaimed, “Mommy! Go!” <br />
<br />
I admit, I left and let her watch. It was too hard to not laugh in front of her.</li>
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And since he can't talk, I'll just remind you all that this dude is awesome:</div>
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Tiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6449137189263457728.post-82156493762366431222014-10-05T23:01:00.001-06:002014-10-05T23:01:52.476-06:00The basement!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Jessa ~</div>
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This blog feels weird. It's the last letter of your mission. That alone is weird. But... I still have two more Sundays before I see you. So it's not really the last letter. I feel kind of like I'm in limbo here. Which, I'm sure, is nothing compared to what you're dealing with. So for your sake, let's just forget we even talked about this and just go on as if it's just another normal week, shall we?<br />
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So, Mondays are pretty rough. BJ has a meeting at the office on Mondays, which means I can't take advantage of the normal work-from-home perks, like leaving sleeping kids while I take Kessa to and from school. On a normal day, that would mean I take Kessa to school at 12:30, come home and put Abby down for a nap, then wake her up around 3:15 to pick up Kessa from school. That's not horrible. Though she often sleeps till 4 or 5, so waking her up does make me cringe. Especially as she's a royal grump when she doesn't get enough sleep. But Mondays are early out, which means I'd have to wake her up at 2:15, giving Abby only an hour and a half nap. I have dreaded this many times, but have always managed to work around it somehow. This Monday I didn't have a way around it.<br />
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Then realized that because I am brilliant, I scheduled Visiting Teaching during nap time on Monday. Brilliant, I say. [sigh] I normally schedule during nap time so I don't have to drag all my kids to the visits and keep them happy and quiet for an hour and a half or so. Normally it works great. Not when BJ isn't home, though. I frantically thought through all of my neighbors, trying to figure out who could come to my house during all of nap time. The one person I thought of already had plans. And then it hit me. Chelsea! She wasn't a neighbor, but she's often told me that she's willing to help however I need her. So I asked her, and she agreed! Not only did I get to VT without kids, but I also got to pick up Kessa without waking up Abby. Awesome.<br />
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To top it off, we decided to make this a regular thing. She'll come watch the kids every Monday so I can pick up Kessa and maybe run some errands, and then I'll teach her how to cook some of my recipes. Win-win! Plus, then I'll get time to get to know Chelsea better, which makes this a win-win-win. Mondays suddenly just went from awful to awesome.<br />
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At stake council recently I suggested we make a Stake Facebook group. On Sunday our stake president asked me to come in on Tuesday "to counsel [them] on a Facebook group." The whole time I was getting ready, putting on a dress, makeup, doing my hair, etc., I just kept laughing to myself that I was getting all dressed up ... to talk about Facebook.<br />
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So I told you that BJ's been tutoring Resa on math, right? Well on Wednesday one of my counselors brought her 9th grade son over and BJ spent almost 2 hours tutoring him on math. (He's going to start tutoring him weekly, even!) Then that evening Resa brought her roommate over for dinner, and then BJ tutored them on their math. He seriously spent well over 3 hours teaching math that day. When I asked him how he felt about it that night he said something like, "Honestly, it doesn't feel like a big deal at all. Just another day." I'm telling you. If we ever do end up homeschooling (which I doubt we will), he would make a much better homeschooling parent than I would. :)<br />
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Wednesday night Damian and family showed up. Late Thursday morning Kim left for a girls weekend with her sisters and mom, so we had the kids all weekend while Damian worked hard. (Except when he watched the BYU game. But that led to him staying up late to mourn their loss (both the game and the quarterback broke his leg) so he got lots more done that night. It may have evened out, time-wise.) He worked hard while I tried to balance 7 kids. The thing is, overall, the kids were all really good. Sure, there were times that I had to remind them to clean up their messes or tell them to stop fighting, but overall, they were great. But just having so many kids needing me was exhausting. My days often went something like this: Feed Peter. Walk out of his room to Kessa yelling, "Mommy! Help!" Help Kessa. Hear fighting. Go break up the fight. See Abby waddling and saying, "I made a mess." Clean up her potty accident. Realize I only had 45 mins to get Kessa ready for school and make lunch. Make lunch. Do Kessa's hair while she eats lunch. Tell her to go get her shoes on while I scarf down my lunch. Tell Lexi to put Kolter to bed. Go with Kessa to find her shoes. Calm Abby down because she's crying that she wants to come to. Rush both girls to the car. Drop Kessa off at school. Come home and put Abby to bed. Ask Lexi, Parker and Taegen to clean up the toys. Take a 10 minute break. Field questions about dinner. Etc. etc. Each thing on its own is easy enough. But just one right after another is... exhausting.<br />
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But it was all worth it! Because the basement is 99% finished! Damian is having ankle surgery next week and will be out for a few months, so he had to get as much done as possible this week. All that's left is the built-in shelving, so he's going to build those at home and bring them down another time and install them. For now, I'm not too worried about it. I just won't decorate those or bring down BJ's nerdy books just yet.<br />
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Walk-in game closet!!!</div>
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General Conference was this weekend. Normally I refuse to do any projects on Conference Saturday. I want to focus on Conference and figure I can sacrifice two Saturdays a year to building up my spirituality. But... the ox was in the proverbial mire this year with the basement. I was already stressing about focusing with 7 kids, when the apples I wanted to can came on and Travis declared Friday and Saturday his best days to can them. So we turned on conference and BJ and the kids went upstairs to watch it.<br />
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Cute story: We made bowls with candy in them and labeled them with common General Conference topics. As the kids hear those words, they get to eat a piece of candy. It helps them want to listen.<br />
Before the first talk was over, the "Jesus" bowl was empty.<br />
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Just in case anyone doubted that we are Christian.<br />
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Meanwhile Travis, Brenda, and I canned and Damian worked on the basement. Thank goodness for live streaming and smartphones so we could all watch/listen. I definitely missed much of it though. Sunday afternoon was the only session I got fully, and that only because we went up to your parents' (Kessa got beads instead of candy there and made a conference necklace). So I'm making a goal to watch/listen/read all of them very soon. Hold me to that, k?<br />
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But we did can 47 pints of applesauce and 26 quarts of apple pie filling! Mmmm.<br />
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As an update, Kessa is doing better about fire. Still not great, but better. Damian promised her he'd install the smoke alarm while she was at school if she would promise to stay calm about them. She's done pretty well. Having her cousins distracting her all the time was a *huge* blessing. Of course, their last night here the smoke detector in her room ran low on batteries and started chirping in the middle of the night. rackafrackamurmurmurmur. But... hopefully we're on the downhill stretch.<br />
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And totally random, did you ever do the Pizza Hut Book It! program? Make a reading goal, if you make it, get a coupon for a free personal pan pizza every month. Well, apparently they just opened it up for <a href="http://bookitprogram.com/bookitalumni/" target="_blank">adult alumni</a>! AWESOME! But BJ says he didn't do it, so maybe you didn't either?<br />
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Kiddisms:<br />
<ul>
<li>BJ: Abby, if there is a fire, where should you go?<br />Abby: Ummm… to the moon.</li>
<li>Kessa, as I played games on my phone: Mommy! You shouldn't play screen time in the morning!<br /><br />Touché.</li>
<li>Kessa: Taegen, let's play Duck, Duck, Goose. You touch my head until you say frog or goose.</li>
<li>BJ read Kessa a book tonight that included a grandpa fixing a kite.<br />BJ: Some grandpas are good at fixing kites. What are your grandpas good at?<br />Kessa: Well, I have two grandpas. Grandpa Homer is like a farmer because he knows how to ride horses and stuff. Grandpa Lovell, well, he doesn’t really have a job. He just likes to sit around and eat apples.”</li>
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Building domino "temples" was high on the list of Fun Things this weekend.<br />
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As was the Saturday between-sessions picnic at the park.<br />
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Peter has <i>almost</i> figured out rolling over. But he still gets his arm stuck underneath him. So he just sucks on his fingers when he gets to that point. </div>
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Also, Peter is definitely our first thumb sucker.<br />
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One cold day, Kessa requested hot chocolate and toast for lunch. It was so reminiscent of my childhood that I couldn't say no. So I had some, too. They were just so cute and having fun together.<br />
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<3 Tianna and Co.</div>
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Tiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6449137189263457728.post-66747657110765868302014-09-28T21:48:00.000-06:002014-09-28T21:48:30.986-06:00Alice the camel has... two thumbs.Jessa ~<br />
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So, two weeks. Can I do it? Yes. Because I'm going to go into less detail or skip entirely the things you probably don't care about at all.<br />
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Kessa's school carnival! It was largely giant bounce houses/slides. At first Kessa was nervous, but excited, but after her first ride down a giant inflatable slide, she was hooked. Abby wasn't far behind. But, while fun for them, it was kind of lame for the adults. I mean, cute watching kids go down slides and having the time of their lives, but I can see it being really boring when they get older and just do everything themselves. At least the money went to support the school. I assume. I hope.<br />
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Did I tell you about Mini Mozarts? A friend of ours in the neighborhood is doing a 45-minute, once a week class for kids 3-6 (Abby technically doesn't make the deadline because it's 3 in December and she's 3 in January, but we decided to give it a shot and so far, so good). It's just a fun music/dance kind of class in her home. Way low key, but super fun. Like, a couple of weeks ago they made ice cream by putting the ingredients inside baggies inside a giant bag of ice, and dancing around to music to shake it into ice cream. Awesome? I think so. Abby keeps talking about going to her music class where she gets to run around! It's her first ever extracurricular activity! And... she doesn't even have any curricular activities!<br />
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We went to Hale last Saturday. Season tickets were definitely one of our better monetary decisions. I've already budgeted in a monthly amount to set aside to pay for them every year. This time was She Loves Me, which was kind of like the stage production of You've Got Mail. But instead of them working at a separate bookstores, they both worked at the same perfumery. Still adorable. And funny. Teresa babysat for us. It's a lot harder with a nursing baby, so we had to run home from the play, feed him, then go out to dinner. Thankfully she worked with us.<br />
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Speaking of Resa, she's been coming over a time or two a week for BJ to give her some math tutoring. She's figuring out her math better and BJ is loving relearning all of it. He says crazy insane things like, "Tianna! I'm so excited! I learned something new tonight! I now understand why they put dividing polynomials in the curriculum where they do! It makes total sense to me now!" And I just kind of stare at him and blink a few times. Hahaha.<br />
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The girls had their dentist appts this week. Kessa has another tiny cavity (she is our daughter, for sure). And everyone was shocked and amazed that Abby happily let them take x-rays of her teeth. Apparently that's not common at all for 2-year olds. But she wants to do what Kessa does, so she was super excited about it.<br />
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Because I'm a little insane and don't have enough on my plate (did I tell you I got 4 new primary presidencies on the same day and had to train them right about the same time that I also put on our annual training dinner for all the presidencies? Which was right before baptisms? Yeah. So glad that's over. I still feel a little overwhelmed by it, though.) I volunteered to be Kessa's room mother. Which so far sounds like I get to organize parties and convince all the parents to help out. Woo!<br />
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A neighbor texted me last week and told me the following story:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
[My kids] were all sitting at the table nicely eating cereal, I went to my room for maybe 5-7 minutes to dry my hair. When I came out the kitchen floor was covered in the remainder of the bag of cereal, every last banana from the large Costco bunch I bought yesterday was open and partially eaten and all of my pots and pans were out on the back lawn having been thrown from the balcony!</blockquote>
Soon after she declared that she needed a girls' night. So she and I and one other friend got together one night after kids went to bed and had a girls' night! It was kind of awesome. There's a new thrift store called Tags in American Fork that has a bakery in it. So we went, bought dessert, and sat in a thrift store for like 2 hours, just talking and eating sugar. Then we went home. And it was really great.<br />
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Really, I'm just super glad I have friends here that I can do girls' nights with. I remember one time when we lived in Orem, BJ and I went out to dinner on a date. We sat next to a table of women, clearly on a girls' night. And I remember thinking, "I don't have anyone I could do that with. All of my girl friends have moved out of state. And I don't know anyone well enough in Orem to just set something like that up with." And I was really, really sad about it. Apparently I just take a long time to really bond with people or something? I don't know. But now I know several people I would eagerly jump on a chance to girls' night with. And now I appreciate it a lot more.<br />
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Kessa has lost her 3rd and 4th teeth! The 4th was today and I got to pull it! It has been <i>reaaaally</i> loose for awhile now, but she really wants to lose it at school (because they get this tooth treasure chest necklace thing to put it in), so she's been really careful about what she eats and not to touch it and stuff. But today after church she was snacking on goldfish and suddenly she started crying and pointing to her mouth, so I looked inside and saw the tooth was still there, but there was blood gushing all around it. I told her we'd have to pull it, so she climbed up on the bathroom counter while I got a washcloth all wet and cold, then I reached in and pulled it out. Not that there was much pulling to do. At all. It was like it was just being held in by the teeth on either side or something and I just slid it out. She was really brave and cool about the whole thing. She isn't even super upset about not loosing it at school, because she still has 16 more teeth to lose. Plenty of opportunity.<br />
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I'm not sure what the state of the basement was last I updated you, but we now have carpet! And a sink! And a shower! And a toilet! And outlet/lightswitch plates! And vent covers! And he passed the final inspection (by the skin of his teeth, I might add, because he hadn't finished a few things quite yet, but we assured the inspector that we trusted him). Basically all that's left is a shower door, caulking, hanging doors, stair handrail, shelves, shingles on the playroom, and paint touchups. At least, that's all I can think of offhand. He's coming down this week, though, to finish as much as he can, and then either way we're going to move in because he's getting ankle surgery and will be out for a few months. And I don't want to sit with an almost-finished basement and not move in because there are still a few paint touchups left. We can deal. BJ has already moved his office in and will probably start working there this week.<br />
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Kessa is doing great on the piano. She learns songs quickly, but even better, BJ taught her how to sound out songs. So she has taught herself how to play "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" and "I am a Child of God" and "Happy Birthday." I am super impressed. She's also loving school. We've had a minor setback in her confidence, though. When Damian was putting in smoke detectors, for various reasons they went off several times. The first several sent her booking it outside with a blanket over her head, sobbing because she just knew there was a fire and it terrified her. It's been almost two weeks and we're just barely getting to the point where she doesn't jump and cover her ears every time she hears a beep. Like the microwave timer. Or the alarm when the fridge door is left open. (She's actually pretty good about that now, actually.) But she's also really clingy to BJ and I. We'll be outside playing and I'll go in and give her the option to stay out and play, but she'll quickly follow after me saying, "I just want to be wherever you are." She won't do things by herself. Even going to the bathroom. She's slowly improving there as we give her more love and quality time, and assure her that we're still here for her and that we're still really close. It's not perfect, but we're definitely seeing progress. Poor thing.<br />
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Abby continues to be adorable. I had an older couple tell me at church today that they love sitting behind us because she just loves to stand backwards on the pew and smile at them (and everyone else). And you'll learn soon enough that her smile is utterly heart-melting. I've started disallowing screen time until after her nap, which usually isn't somewhere between 3 and 5 pm. Which means she doesn't get screen time for most of the day. And often when she wakes up it's then dinner time and playing with Daddy time and then bedtime and she doesn't get any all day! Which as translated to fewer pterodactyl tantrums. There are still a few, but much fewer and further between. Which makes her far more endearing to me. :D She's also taken to building temples all over the place. I think it started when our friends, Nick and Brad, came to visit and they stacked some blocks in a pyramid shape and she declared it to be a temple. Now she throws pillows, blankets, and stuffed animals into a pile and declares it a temple. It's adorable to hear things like, "I slept in a temple!"<br />
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Peter is still the best baby ever, even though the last few nights he's started waking up again. I'm chalking it up to a growth spurt and am praying that he gets over it quickly. He's almost figured out rolling over. Today he started on his back and got all the way to his stomach except he couldn't get his one arm out from under him, so it made it look like he was hugging himself. And after a few minutes there, he just flopped himself back onto his back. The girls adore him, and he's often surrounded by blankets, toys, pillows, etc. Kessa was on the top of the world today in church when I let her hold him. And he is just incredibly handsome. Love.<br />
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Kiddisms:<br />
<ul>
<li>Me: Where were you when you had your accident?<br />
Abby: I was doing something to have an accident.</li>
<li>Abby, about her water bottle, “That’s my pink oooooooone… for my own hand!” (referencing <i>Brave, </i>complete with Scottish accent)</li>
<li>Abby, singing: Alice the camel has two thumbs.</li>
<li>Kessa: This is a great season for apple pie because this is the season that pump…kins…<br />
[I picked up my phone to write that down]<br />
Kessa: Are you going to joke that?</li>
<li>Me: What are you going to choose?<br />
Kessa: Juice?!<br />
Me: Choose. Juice and choose kind of sound alike, don't they?<br />
Kessa: But that's what you said. <br />
Me: I asked what are you going to choose?<br />
Kessa: That's what you do in your mouth. Chews!</li>
</ul>
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And... I think we're done for the night. G'night!</div>
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~ Tianna and Co.</div>
Tiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6449137189263457728.post-8844051952247534102014-09-21T22:16:00.000-06:002014-09-21T23:00:08.822-06:00Just kiddismsJessa ~<br />
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Ok, I lied. I don't have the catch up post ready yet. Tonight we did a 3rd Sunday dinner since it was birthday week and General Conference is the week after 4th Sunday, so we thought we'd spread out the family dinners. And we didn't get home until almost 9:30, then had to bedtime and now you're probably online and... I just don't have time to gather pictures and stories and such. Instead, I'm gonna give you all the kiddisms (with one adult appearance) I've collected over the last several weeks. It's everyone's favorite part of the blog anyway, let's be honest. :)<br />
<ul>
<li>Kessa: "Mommy, we’re playing a new game. We’re playing house. And this is my new wand."<br />Then she wandered off muttering, “Now where is that power button…”</li>
<li>Me: You're a silly goose. Are you a silly goose?<br />Abby: No! I not a silly goose!<br />Me: Are you a goof ball?<br />Abby: Noooooo!!!<br />Me: Then what are you?<br />Abby: I a duhgoo!<br />Me: You're a … duck goose?<br />Abby: Nooo—Yes!!!</li>
<li>Kessa, whispering: Mommy, when I grow up, I want to be God.<br />Me: You want to be God?<br />Kessa, aloud: Yes. Because then I could fly!</li>
<li>Abby likes to ask, “Green or white?” all the time. I think because our ice cream options were, for a time, mint and vanilla so I'd ask her which she wanted by color. </li>
<li>Me: I see the temple; I win!<br />Kessa: I see the Draper temple; I win.<br /><br />Touché.</li>
<li>Me: Were you looking at the fan?<br />Kessa: No I was not! I was looking at the fan aaaaaaaaand the singling [ceiling]. Aaaaaaaaand the lightbulb.</li>
<li>Abby says helicopter as “hello-copter”</li>
<li>BJ: What notes is it if I do duh, duh, duuuuh. duh, duh, duuuuh. duh, duh, duuuuh.<br />Kessa: Two quarter notes and a half note.<br /><br />So smart!!!</li>
<li>Kessa: I had so much fun there. You have to go there. If I keep bugging you, that means you have to go there, right?</li>
<li>Me: And then we can say Audrey and Kessa snapped these beans.<br />Kessa: Yeah! We can say “Me and me striped these kings!”</li>
<li>Damian: I tried not to talk to him just so I wouldn't be mean.</li>
<li>We were driving through North Salt Lake when we passed through that area smells strongly of sulpher when Abby pipes up and says, "Mommy! I smell poop?"</li>
<li>Kessa has been figuring out how to play I Am a Child of God on the piano by herself. I'm impressed!</li>
<li>Abby telling us about <i>Brave</i>: Mewida fell down. She fell off her black horse. She fell off her black horse and was sad. She wanted her mommy and daddy. Her mommy was sad. Mewida wanted her daddy. She wanted boys.</li>
</ul>
You're welcome. :D<br />
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~ Tianna</div>
Tiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6449137189263457728.post-58271868900330127602014-09-14T22:56:00.003-06:002014-09-15T20:23:44.646-06:00Labor DayJessa ~<br />
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So, Labor Day is gonna get its own post. You've probably already heard most of this, but now you get to hear it all again a few weeks later. Deal. ;)<br />
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So, instead of the traditional camping, we did a stay-cation and camped at your parents house. Of course, BJ and the girls were the only ones who camped, but the girls <i>loved</i> it. We pitched a tent and put them in sleeping bags and everything. They even got rained on once. Peter and I, however, slept inside. And since he has been sleeping all night long for at least a month now (we're talking 10-12 hours), I ended up getting great sleep while we were there. Awesome.<br />
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We went up Friday night, got the tent set up and just had some casual fun. Saturday morning we got up and went up to Deer Creek reservoir to go boating. Bad timing. It was windy and rainy. But it was still good for fly boarding, which was, as you'd expect, the center of attention. I apparently didn't get any pictures there, though. Probably because I was busy holding a baby and girls all while cuddled under a blanket. :D<br />
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We left early because BJ had a work party in Herriman at his boss' house. Kessa has been counting down to it for at least a month. Literally. We've had a countdown chain hanging up in our kitchen that she faithfully cut every morning. No way we could miss it. It had a bounce house! (That's actually what she was counting down to. This house was super nice. Really large. Beautifully landscaped backyard. Trampoline. Swing set. And a rented bounce house. Abby didn't get much of a nap all day, so she was pretty cranky, but overall did decently well. Kessa was in heaven. She's all about making new friends and being a social butterfly lately. It was also fun meeting all of BJ's coworkers, finally. I've only ever met one before. (Well, and one more that didn't work there at the time, and as of the party still hadn't started working there, but had been hired to start the next week or so.)<br />
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This is most of BJ's coworkers and their families. I did get the memo about the matching shirts, but we got locked out of your parents' house and they were still up at the lake, so my shirt sat in our bedroom. BJ has his Day One shirt on, but he chose to wear his black one, which not many did.<br />
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Sunday was a busy church day. The girls stayed up with your family while BJ and I came down to our ward. He had to do tithing and I needed to deliver some stuff to 9 different primaries. Turns out, that takes most of my day to do, especially when I have to factor in feeding Peter. My church attendance ended up being a half hour of sacrament. But at least now I know I can do it!<br />
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Monday morning ended up being our most event-filled day. Which was appropriate as was the actual holiday. We had these really yummy waffles filled with crystalized sugar, but they had to take time to rise before they could cook, so we pulled out the nerf guns and had a war. We divided up into teams and went to town. Would you believe it's only my first ever nerf gun war at your house? It was actually really fun. (Surprise, Tianna! Something everyone else loves is actually fun!) And I did a lot better than I thought I would do, considering my past experiences with Laser Tag. After 3-4 team battles we opened it up as a free for all. I did far worse on that. Hah!<br />
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Have you heard about the ALS ice bucket challenge? Basically, to raise awareness and funds for ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease), this challenge went viral. Someone challenges you and you have to either donate $100 or dump a bucket of ice water on your head and donate $10. Then you get to challenge 3 more people. It's seriously all over Facebook. I know a lot of people are really sick of it and/or think it's stupid, but I think it's a brilliant marketing ploy. Utilize the power of social media peer pressure. Yeah, it's been made into something fun, but doesn't fundraising often do that? Anyway, I got challenged a few weeks ago, but I'll blog that in another post. The next day, the neighbor girl challenged Kessa. And then her cousin challenged her, too. So we talked a lot about it, and she decided to do it. I think she mostly wanted to challenge other people. Hah! But she also decided to donate $1 of her own money! [proud momma] It was really cute! She challenged Nick, Chelsea, and Grandma Homer. I challenged Teresa, so she did her challenge that day, too. Videos when you get home.<br />
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Then during nap time I stayed home with the kids while everyone else went on a massive zip line and checked out Nick's tree house.<br />
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But, of course, the epic part of the day, as you've surely heard, was the First Annual Indoor International Mini Golf Tournament. While everything was getting set up, I was packing to go home. I actually hadn't planned on staying for it, but Kessa had helped Resa and Steven set their course up and wanted to play it. So we ended up staying and becoming The Press. We've got a bunch of videos that we hope to edit into a movie. It was pretty epic.<br />
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There were three courses: The first was up in your parents' bedroom/bathroom. You started up the stairs of the bathtub, hit it through an obstacle course of balloons taped to the ground and papers set up in a zig zag fashion, then up a cardboard box into the hole. The next was Shawn's. It started on the landing, then went down rain gutters on the stairs, shooting into the living room. Hole in One if you got it into the planter box that big fake tree is in. Otherwise you had to hit it through a few obstacles into a hole. The last hole was Nick and Chelsea's in the family room. You started by standing on the arm of the sofa and hitting it off the shelf that pulls down on that cabinet thing. It went down a piece of cardboard onto the coffee table, which had a perimeter of books set up around it, then down another board, around a corner, then up to the hole, which was cut out of a paper plate.<br />
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But that's not enough, oh no. Everyone dressed up and came up with names from whatever country they were from. It was hilarious. But I think my favorite part was when we were all gathered 'round Shawn's course on the stairs, when Aunt Cher and Grandma Goddard unexpectedly showed up. Next thing you know, Cher is dressed up and carrying Jax around as part of her costume and participating in the tournament. Awesome.<br />
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At the very end, Kessa won the entire tournament by popular vote and got an old trophy of one of the boys'. Some little league basketball trophy or something. She adores it. She carries it around and begged to take it to the cabin (I didn't let her because I'm a mean mother). She's even started to build her own mini golf course a time or two, but it always got cut short by other activities. Like dinner and such. </div>
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Other random photos:<br />
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BJ and Abby hanging out on screens.<br />
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Teresa and Kessa having way more fun on screens.<br />
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Peter has started to smile! But it's really hard to get a good picture of it when he's on your lap.<br />
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One time I was looking for Kessa and found her out front wrapped up in the blanket, playing house. She was "sleeping."<br />
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And because Peter is just as awesome as his Daddy, he gets this outfit. Which is actually one of my favorites right now.<br />
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<span style="text-align: start;">Overall, we think Labor Day Stay-cation is the winner. It was nice to still be able to do things at home when needed. It was nice to be able to sleep in the house with a newborn. And we still were able to do incredibly fun things and have yummy food and play lots of games. Win!</span></div>
Tiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6449137189263457728.post-19372507768941661572014-09-14T21:55:00.002-06:002014-09-14T22:20:53.524-06:00Island ParkJessa ~<br />
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Wow. Lots to catch up. I'm gonna work backwards and blog by events, so you may get multiple posts tonight... if I have the time and energy. Or maybe multiple next week. We'll see.<br />
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So last week was Island Park! Several months ago we decided not to do Lake Powell again, a) because Abby is still not cautious enough and b) it was (we thought) during Kessa's first week of school. (Turns out, Kindergarten starts a week later than the rest of the school, so we would have been fine.) Where she's a creature of routine, we thought missing out on the first week where routine is set would be a bad thing. Of course, your parents decided not to go, either, so it worked out anyway. But we still wanted to have a family vacation this summer, so when the chance to go to the cabin opened up, we jumped on it. It would mean pulling Kessa out of her third week of school, but I was ok with that. It's only kindergarten. And their sight words this week were "a" and "go". Which she's known for months. No regrets here.<br />
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So, let's do a photo dump with some commentary, and then I'll fill in more commentary as I think of it at the end.<br />
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We (my family, plus Mitchell and Audrey) left Friday night after work, listened to kids scream for half the drive, arrived at my parents' house, and promptly put all the kids to bed. Whew! Never driving that again at bedtime if I can help it. There my nephew, Parker, hung three different "swings" on my parents' willow tree (the red dinosaur, Abby's favorite, was intended to be one of those toys at a park that's mounted in cement and you can rock back and forth. There was also a tire. But the tire horse was actually intended to be a swing). They were, clearly, a hit.<br />
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<span style="text-align: left;">The kids also helped with canning. We picked and snapped and canned beans, and also made spaghetti sauce (with tomatoes and peppers from my own garden!)</span></div>
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They also helped eat the produce. The giant carrots were a win all around.<br />
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But who doesn't love some raw corn on the cob, right?<br />
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Then Sunday night we went up to the cabin! (Melanie and the boys, Reid and Redick, came up on Monday afternoon.) These pictures are all out of order, but I don't wanna take the time to fix it. So here we go.<br />
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Fishing (or rather, throwing an unhooked line from a kids' fishing pole), the canoe, and the river were all big hits.<br />
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Abbe always wanted to go in the river. Despite how incredibly cold it was.<br />
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Or just to reach down into it. Or... try at least.<br />
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At Big Springs. This smile is going to win Abby all sorts of beauty pageant awards, I'm sure of it. Oh my gosh. I'm in such big trouble. Also, Kessa's hair looked like homeless hair for most of the week. It was a vacation! Give us a break! Though, despite that, she still looks adorable here.<br />
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One day we went over to Harriman State Park for a hike one morning. We were a little concerned over what to do with Peter, because it wasn't a stroller-friendly hike and I didn't think to bring a wrap. In the end, we used a bed sheet to make a Peruvian-style wrap (but I wore it on my front instead of my back, because I didn't trust it at all. Plus I flipped my hair out and it was poking him in the face when he was on my back). This hike earned me my Rugged Momma merit badge. On top of making a wrap out of a bed sheet, I also managed to nurse him <i>while hiking</i>. That's right. I win at life.<br />
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The ladder was, unsurprisingly, a favorite. Last year the three littles (Abby and the twin boys) couldn't climb it and only started to even try on the last day. This year it drew all 5 kids (not Peter, obviously) like a magnet. Abby would get 2/3 up and then get scared and wouldn't go up or down without someone actually touching her. She did it a few times, but only when she was well rested and well fed. And surprisingly, no one fell off and died. (I had my doubts that streak would last, but we managed to make it through.)<br />
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The last day the men folk took all the kids (except Peter) to Mesa Falls while Melanie and I did all the cleaning. So much easier without kids underfoot. Again we have an example of Abby's winning smile.<br />
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There were several canoe rides. They all loved it.</div>
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We did a craft during one canoe ride when the littles were out and Kessa and Audrey were inside. We took a canvas, wrote their names with painters tape, put blobs of paint all over it, then let them have at it with a paint brush. It sounds all great and Pinterest-worthy, right? It... pretty much came out as several shades of brown. So we let it dry and one of these days I'll let Kessa finish. By putting blobs of one color of paint on, letting her paint with that. Then after it dries, doing another color. Live and learn, right?<br />
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Despite missing out on most of the activities, Peter was still there! He read a book with Daddy on the couch.<br />
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But mostly he slept or laid in his gym. Sometimes with more attention than he really wanted. Hah! But seriously, he is the best baby ever. <i>Ever</i>. I can't tell you how many times we (all the adults) just forgot he was there. And he'd have been laying in his gym at our feet for an hour. He's just so quiet and happy. And then he would nap a lot, too. He would sleep through us going in and out of the bedroom. He would sleep through the washer and dryer going. And holy cow, that washer can shake that entire room on its spin cycle. We turned it on one night just before we went to bed (Audrey got sick and threw up, so we had to wash the sheets) and I thought it was gonna shake me right out of my bed. But he slept through at least a half dozen loads.<br />
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And lest you think Abby is pure cuteness, she's also got a silly streak inside her, too. Her new discovery is that she can make her eyes look incredibly creepy. But she doesn't understand creepy yet. She just thinks it's funny. And it is. (Don't mind BJ's model-pose in the background. Bahahaha.)<br />
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Other non-picture events of the week:<br />
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We played several games. Not as many as the littles didn't take a morning and afternoon nap like they did last year. But we still got several. The Harris' rented 4 games from Board Game Revolution, so we played those. There was Mice and Mystics, which is an adventure game. So you're characters in a story and you basically act out all the challenges and read a story in between each one. The first two nights we played that at bedtime. We did one chapter each night, but they were long. While fun, we realized it could easily eat up our entire vacation, so we stopped after that. The craziest part was that we were playing humans that got turned into mice, then at the very end of the second night, when Audrey started to throw up, Mitchell found a mouse in the kitchen. Yipes! (A few nights later we saw it (we prayed it wasn't a different one) in our bedroom. The boys caught it and threw it in the river, though.) And if that night wasn't crazy enough, Kessa woke up at 6 am with a bloody nose that got all over her, two blankets, and the carpet in the loft. Yipes! And on Friday, both Kessa and Abby got low-grade fevers that made them very cuddly and unenergetic. But by evening they were both just fine and happy again.<br />
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Another rented game was Word on the Street, which is a simple word game that is fun. I wouldn't mind having it. And Scotland Yard, which is easy to learn, but very strategic. The strategy reminds me of chess, where you have to think 4+ turns ahead. It hurt my brain. But everyone else really liked it. And the fourth one was a kids game. It was along the lines of Sudoku, but with shapes and colors. And it gave you hints as to where they all went, each puzzle getting harder and harder. Kessa did surprisingly well at it. It's also on my wish list now.<br />
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And of course, we played a bunch of others like Dominion, Kingdom Builder, Small World, Stone Age, Rummikub, etc.<br />
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We made and froze several dinners before we went up. That was awesome. It meant we could just pull out dinner a day or two beforehand, then throw it in the oven. I also made 3 loaves of crusty bread and a chocolate zucchini cake that I froze and took up. Win! Several other meals we just took up bags of what we'd need. (Like one morning we had German Pancakes. I just measured out the flour and salt into baggies before we left, then it was just add milk and eggs.) It was awesome, because then we didn't have to take up bags of flour, rice, or spice jars. Just grab the baggie with the pre-measured stuff, dump, and throw away! It made packing food to come home way easier.<br />
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There's a new fire pit there. It was pretty cold most of the week, but Friday we went out and made s'mores. Unfortunately, that's when the girls were sick, so they weren't as into it. But still enjoyed it, I think.<br />
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They loved the player piano. It's really a shame it's broken, because we heard far more "THUD THUD THUDs" as they pumped the pedals than actual music, but it gave them a good workout and we got some music out of it.<br />
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Because Kessa missed school I insisted we still had school time. 2-3 times we did spelling lessons. One day BJ did piano lessons. Another day she did that shape/color game and I counted it as math. I've once again decided I have little interest in home schooling. She's great and loves to learn, and informal lessons she does great at. But formal lessons are hard because she just doesn't focus well, so a 15 minute lesson turns into an hour because I'm constantly having to draw her attention back. I don't have the patience for that. But I do have the patience to do informal lessons and less-frequent formal lessons.<br />
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We put all three toddlers in the cold room. We took one of the twin beds off the frame and risers and just put the box springs and mattress on the floor, then all three of them slept on it together. They did surprisingly well. Several times we went in to find Abby using one of the boys as a pillow, or totally cuddled up with one. Hah! Too bad a flash would likely have woken them up. I really wanted a picture. Alas.<br />
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Overall, it was a <i>fantastic </i>week. It was very low-key, the kids were great, friends were great. Lots of games, lots of sugar, and lots of good food. We couldn't ask for more. But it has gotten us thinking, what happens in 10-15 years when Nana and her siblings are all gone. Will the cabin last through subdividing one more generation? Will one family buy out the others? What happens if we don't have a cabin anymore?<br />
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The cabin is my kind of vacation. Turns out, I really prefer a vacation where I can just relax and spend time with my family. I don't need big outings, fun toys, etc. I'm happy with people, food, games, and a good view of nature. (I'm sure this doesn't surprise you at all.) Being right next to the river is great because it offers some low-key adventures (the canoe) that I don't have to participate in, but makes others happy. And there are lots of opportunities for hikes, which I actually enjoy.<br />
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All that together got BJ and I thinking about our future. We think someday we'd like to build/buy a cabin somewhere. Probably somewhere closer than Island Park so that we can go more than 1 or 2 weeks a year. Or maybe we'd have to go in on it with other people so it gets used more often. Or something. BJ even got online and started looking at listings up Heber Valley. Mostly just to get an idea of cost. We've talked about different locations we'd like. Though, realistically, it couldn't happen for another 10-15 years, probably. But I think we're really wanting to do it, if it's feasible. How fun! Look at us being all grown up... (weird!)<br />
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Anyway, that was our week at the cabin. Can't wait to go up there again!Tiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6449137189263457728.post-25925854857029593242014-08-24T21:59:00.002-06:002014-08-24T21:59:53.326-06:00Please help us... to be awesome!Dear Jessa ~<br />
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Most exciting news: our basement is painted! The end is so close I can almost taste it! (But maybe that's just because of the new paint smell...) We did the same tan color from the rest of our house in the office and bathroom last time they were down here. This week Damain was doing a carpet cleaning trip in Oregon and Kim decided that if he was gonna be gone, so was she. So she brought all 4 kids down and finished painting the basement. We did a light sage for the rest of the basement, which I really like. It's still fairly neutral, but is still color. Plus I really like sage. The pillars are now done and look awesome. And the playhouse is painted! It just needs shingles and it'll be done. Hooray!!! The girls love it. Obviously.<br />
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While they were here I made Chore Monster accounts for the rest of them. In order to help Kessa out in the reward department, we didn't make any rewards for outings. Instead I just told them that I was gonna take them on an outing because I'm nice. So one day during nap time we (the older kids and I) went to the Dinosaur Museum. Because I haven't taken them there yet.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHoQC9MZuobiBSY3s7whZNpcQKsbajdN6WOjOuroBEzxcyKbehx8EUhfq8cUX7Z_c1dHUAtIJgAQymZil6eslZQCdynaiogdjMXsNrXcvrkwHeKdJ9Z2Os9AjoRxHjcW993OmMddjWiZ8/s1600/Dino+Museum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHoQC9MZuobiBSY3s7whZNpcQKsbajdN6WOjOuroBEzxcyKbehx8EUhfq8cUX7Z_c1dHUAtIJgAQymZil6eslZQCdynaiogdjMXsNrXcvrkwHeKdJ9Z2Os9AjoRxHjcW993OmMddjWiZ8/s1600/Dino+Museum.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a><br />
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Then we got home and they put on a Frozen party. I've told you about tea parties Lexi likes to do whenever she's here, right? Well, this one takes the cake. They decorated with snowflakes that they took hours to cut out. Even hung them from the ceiling. Then they dressed up as characters from Frozen and sang the song, "In Summer" for us. It was adorable. Then they fed us goldfish, pretzels, half a banana and tic tacs. lol.<br />
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This month marks one year of doing freezer meals! I can't believe it's been that long. So we met early, swapped meals, then went out to Olive Garden to eat. It was super yummy and the company was great. There are some really awesome people in my neighborhood. I love it here.<br />
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And some random pics:<br />
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Daddy/daughter/Nephite? bonding time. :)</div>
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Basketball hoop made out of cardstock and yarn. I'm impressed!</div>
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Cutting out snowflakes</div>
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The final Frozen decorations (but not costumes; sorry)</div>
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Sven (a reindeer on Frozen who loves eating carrots) helped me make dinner.</div>
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Indoctrinating Peter young. </div>
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Now he just needs to get big enough to wear his Apple onesie.</div>
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Facebook:<br />
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Despite being raised on a farm with beef cattle, hay, and grain, I am still an Idaho farm girl. With that comes certain responsibilities. Tonight I am shirking them.<br />
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I'm making instant mashed potatoes.<br />
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I believe there are 3* parts to #Ferguson that need to be considered:<br />
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1 - The actual shooting of Michael Brown.<br />
2 - The reaction of officials.<br />
3 - The reaction of citizens.<br />
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No matter what your opinion of one part, you still have to consider the other parts separately. No matter if you feel Darren Wilson was justified or not in shooting Michael Brown, you still have to decide if the way the police reacted to the protests was justified and right. And you still have to decide if the reaction of everyday people is right and justified.<br />
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This isn't just about one particular incident. This is about the power our government officials have. This is about the racism that still exists in our country. This is about the love and support that exists in our country. This is about right, and this is about wrong. But no matter where your opinions lie, you can't deny that there needs to be change. There needs to be productive discussion (not arguing/fighting). There needs to be activism.<br />
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Things need to change.<br />
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*You could argue there is a 4th part: The reaction and rights of the media.<br />
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Well, I'm off to a good start with this whole school thing. Back to School night was yesterday. I forgot. Life was chaos and I just forgot. Until this morning.<br />
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Kessa has no idea, but I'm still really kind of sad about this.<br />
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Also, because she's my first in school, I have no idea how any of this works. And I was really looking forward to it so I could learn.<br />
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<i>{Editor's note: I've since emailed her teacher and we're going in to meet her and see her classroom tomorrow during nap time.}</i><br />
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The events in #Ferguson, Missouri are truly troubling to me. I've been glued to Twitter, watching the updates since Wednesday night. I feel like I'm reading about a war in a fictional novel, and then I realize that no, this is real. This is happening Right Now. In America. I am horrified.<br />
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I've decided that it is a conflict between two parties (largely, but not entirely) split by race. Both sides have good people who just want justice and peace. But both sides have stupid racists who hate the other side and keep using violence to prove their point. It's gut wrenching and terrifying. I pray that I can raise my kids to treat everyone with respect and kindness, regardless of their race.<br />
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Please, pray for peace. Pray for love. Pray for justice. Pray for mercy.<br />
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If you want to read about what has happened and is happening, I've found this website to be a pretty good account from the very start, and is frequently updated.<br />
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<b>Kiddisms</b><br />
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<ul>
<li>Abby: Knock knock. Who's there? Banana who?</li>
<li>One of the first things out of Abby's mouth every day: I want oatmeal!</li>
<li>Kessa: Your dad is Papa Lovell! He always teases me.<br />Hah! She nailed him perfectly. </li>
<li>Kessa: But Mommy, I don't want to be with you. I want to be with Resa!</li>
<li>Kessa: “Daddy, sometimes my brain just doesn’t work right. It keeps telling me I have to finish this game, but really I don’t!”</li>
<li>“Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the astronauts, and for outer space, and please help us… to be awesome!” —Kessa helping Abby pray, after Daddy left the room.</li>
</ul>
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And for a quick update about Ferguson: everything has been far more peaceful this week. They're doing 3 autopsies on the body to try to figure out what happened. The cop's family has come out saying that the boy had turned around and was charging back towards him when he shot. His parents have asked that the people not protest on the day of the funeral. And there's a project going on called Heal St. Louis, promoting peace and unity and love. They're also focusing on registering people to vote and educating them on the voting process. Because equal representation needs to happen. So I think, in general, things are going well. There are still some bad things, too, but it's been a much better week there this week than last.</div>
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Hope you're having an excellent week!</div>
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<3 Tianna and Co.</div>
Tiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6449137189263457728.post-14181190435696950112014-08-17T22:34:00.001-06:002014-08-17T22:34:20.545-06:00Forgive any errors; I'm focused on Ferguson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Jessa ~</div>
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I'll admit, I'm having a hard time focusing on writing this. There is huge riot going down in Ferguson, Missouri right now. It is insane. I seriously can't believe this is happening in <i>America</i>. These are stories I'd expect to hear from somewhere in the Middle East. It's like the 1960s Civil Rights riots all over again. I'm not even sure I could condense it for you, but I'll try. (BJ: Do you think you can do it in 2 paragraphs?)<br />
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Two black boys walk down a residential street. White cop tells them to get on the sidewalk because they're blocking traffic. Something we're not sure of happens. Somewhere between one boy (Michael Brown) mouthing off or maybe assaulting the cop. Either way, he ends up running away from the cop who then shoots him. Michael puts his hands up in the air to surrender, and the cop then shoots him dead. Autopsy just came back with 6 bullet wounds, two in the head. Residents start protesting against police brutality. The police respond by sending riot police in with sniper rifles and tanks. After a few days of tense standoff between protestors and police, some idiot throws a Molotov cocktail at a cop, the cops say, "This is no longer a peaceful protest" and immediately start tear gassing and shooting rubber and wooden bullets into the crowd. That was Wednesday night. Thursday those police pull back and the Highway Patrol take over and do a much better job, going in peacefully, walking in the protests with the people, talking to them. They also <i>finally</i> released the name of the officer, but haven't done anything against him other than put him on paid leave and let him skip out of town.<br />
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Friday night gets tense again, people start looting shops. Residents take it upon themselves to stop the looters and ask the police not to get involved, because they know if they do, violence will break out. Saturday the police guard the shops to prevent looting and enforce a curfew. Most go home at midnight (the curfew), but a small crowd stays... and they're armed. More tear gas and rubber bullets and 7 arrests resulted. Today has been tense. Another curfew was enforced. 3 hours before curfew, some punk sets off fireworks, police think it's gun shots and immediately start tear gassing again. Did you know tear gas is banned in international warfare? But apparently ok domestically. [shakes head] They tear gassed an 8-year old boy. That's what's happening right now.<br />
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(Dear BJ: Yes.) So basically, I'm having a hard time focusing on writing this blog post because I'm glued to Twitter, watching the live updates. I can't get this through my head. Clearly I have White Privilege to not really know that tensions like this really and truly still exist in my America.<br />
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Ok. I'll try. Here we go.<br />
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Kessa had her Kindergarten pre-assessment. The teacher was rightfully impressed at her reading and math skills. [beams] And then on Friday class lists are posted. She's in afternoon Kindergarten with Miss Griffey. So now you know almost as much as I do. lol. She'll start school next Tuesday.<br />
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I think I told you that Abby has been dying to ride horses? Well, Grandpa Homer and Resa made that happen last week, up at the Draper fairgrounds. The girls loved it. At least once every day or two Abby will ask, "Go see Papa Resa?" She would be happy to ride those horses every single day. Multiple times a day.<br />
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Peter had his 2 month checkup. His stats:<br />
Weight: 12.7 lb — 52.86%<br />
Length: 24 in — 82.44%<br />
Head Circumference: 15.5 in — 49.65%<br />
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So, he's tall, but otherwise average. He also sleeps All The Time. I won't put in writing how much he slept last night because last time I did that he stopped sleeping so well for several days. No more jinxing myself here! But at 2.5 months, he does still wake up to eat, then go back to sleep. Once or twice a day I'll bring him downstairs to lay in his gym with the girls fawning all over him for an hour or so, but mostly he's either nursing or sleeping in his bed. It's still a miracle.<br />
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Damian came down this past week with two of his boys, Parker and Kolter. He was able to finish all the trim! Hooray! It's now all ready to paint.<br />
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Last Sunday I discovered an app called ChoreMonster. It's been brilliant. Kessa has been begging for chores all week. It's great. I set up an account for Parker, too, so he cheerfully did chores all week to earn a trip to Thanksgiving Point and to stay up late one night to play a board game.<br />
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The other day she came down and told me I needed to buy her a new bed. I told her her bed was just fine. She insisted. I told her beds cost a lot of money. She said she'd earn it. So I searched for "girls twin bed" on Amazon and let her scroll through and pick one. Then BJ and I decided that we'd be willing to pay her 1 quarter for every real job (which I give her 5 points for). So we put the bed on her rewards chart for 6900 points. She has spent the last several days dedicatedly not spending any of her points on any other rewards because she is saving up for this bed. She is begging for chores to save up for this bed. I can't really blame her. The bed has a <i>slide</i>. That's right. My daughter is kind of awesome. It's a bunk bed of sorts. The bed is up top, with a slide to get down, and the bottom bunk area doesn't have a bed, but instead it has a curtain around it for privacy. So it's like a hide out and a bed and a <i>slide</i>. All in one.<br />
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Kim and all the kids are coming down tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I will be required to give Lexi and Taegen accounts too. And they'll be spending their rewards. I'm interested to see how Kessa will handle it. Will she spend her points because of peer pressure? Or will she hold strong to her goal? My heart is already breaking a little for her right now at the decision. Part of me wants to just let her do the things the others do without charging her points, but the responsible part of me knows that this is an excellent learning opportunity, and I need to let it happen.<br />
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Parenting is <i>hard</i>.<br />
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We had Nick and Chelsea over for dinner tonight. I made Cafe Rio salads and they were delicious. Seriously. Definitely keeping these recipes on hand. They made us Homers Hookies which were also delicious. And then we played Ticket to Ride. Which was awesome.<br />
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Also, my sister had her baby a little over a week ago! Her name is Megan. Both are doing great, which is awesome, especially considering all the bed rest and such. I'm so happy for them. :D<br />
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Kessa has two loose teeth! And this time, she even let me touch them. That's new. Her last two she's been way too afraid of. Tonight we ate corn on the cob, which she has been begging for because her cousin, Parker, lost a tooth eating corn on the cob, so maybe she would too! She didn't, if you were wondering.<br />
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<b>Kiddisms</b><br />
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<ul>
<li>Kessa: Abby, do you want to be blown into your service? Do you want your dreams to come true?!</li>
<li>Kessa: When olives are whole and not cut up, I like to put them on my fingers and they’re like Minnie Mouse fingernails!</li>
<li>Kessa: I am oranges, Abby is apples, and Peter is pumpkin.</li>
<li>Kessa: Mommy, you won't be evil to listen to me. And I won't be evil to listen to you! Both of us won't be evil to listen, because we'll have these headphones in!<br />
Me: … do you mean “able?”<br />
Kessa: Um, yes.</li>
<li>I think Abby thinks “I know” means “no”. Which is often really confusing.<br />
Me: Abby, do you need to go potty?<br />
Abby: I know. I'm just coming upstairs.<br />
<br />
Me: When I'm done eating it'll be time to take a nap. <br />
Abby, whining: “I know, mommy!”</li>
<li>Kessa: What are we having for dessert?<br />
Me: Who says we're having dessert?<br />
Kessa: Me! Everyone else is having dessert. Look! Doggy is eating milk… chocolate milk! And unicorn is napping while eating ice cream. [continue listing animals and what dessert they are eating for another minute or two] So, see! We need to have dessert!</li>
<li>Kessa: Maybe Peter could be an astronaut!<br />
Me: Maybe you could be an astronaut!<br />
Kessa: How?! I'm going to be a cowboy!</li>
<li>Kessa: If we get this done before Daddy comes down, he'll be so suppressed!</li>
<li>Kessa's new favorite phrase: Oh you think so!<br />
For example. We were playing TTR and Nick placed some trains, moving his point marker past Kessa's.<br />
Nick: Oh, I just beat you!<br />
Kessa: Oh, you think so?!</li>
</ul>
And for sake of time, I'm just gonna put all the pictures here and write commentary.<br />
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Reward trip to Farm Country. I love the one with them holding hands. Parker really was such a great cousin to Kessa this trip. I love that they can still be friends, even with a 4 year age gap.<br />
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Just stating facts here. ;)<br />
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I forgot to mention, Abby wanted so badly to go ride horses that she just couldn't wait until the set day. So we went to Farm Country so she could ride ponies. But how was I to take all three kids? I had to walk with Abby on the pony and couldn't just leave Peter alone. So Kessa suggested we take turns. Abby could ride the pony first and she'd watch Peter, then Abby and I would watch Peter while Kessa rode the pony. How smart! And how kind to let Abby go first!<br />
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Riding horses!!!<br />
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You won't get this reference, as it's from <i>Frozen</i>, but just pretend she's a snowman here.<br />
"Hi! I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs!"<br />
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Getting ice cream after a shopping trip. Mmmm.<br />
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Abby dumped saw dust from the garage all over her hair. That is not why she's crying. She's crying because I wouldn't show her the picture... before I took it.<br />
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Daddy decided to use the vacuum to clean her up. Hah!<br />
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Just chillin' with Peter.<br />
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Kolter and Abby looking out over the neighborhood.<br />
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One of Parker's prizes: staying up after bedtime to play Kingdom Builder. He did really surprisingly well.<br />
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Hmm... I apparently forgot to put these in the collage above. Oops! Feeding baby goats at Farm Country! The one in the top picture is a new baby. He and his brother kept jumping up on the crate in their pen and butting heads, trying to knock each other off. It was hilarious. I got a video. But I don't have the energy to post a video tonight. Sorry.<br />
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Abby got new sunglasses. How is she so stinkin' adorable, even with the sunglasses on her head?!<br />
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And... I think that's all for tonight. Back to watching in horror what I've decided is a conflict between two parties both comprised of people who want peace, and racists who hate the other and make really dumb decisions, ruining the potential peace for everyone else.</div>
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~ Tianna and Co.</div>
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Tiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6449137189263457728.post-13477014316650518212014-08-03T22:56:00.001-06:002014-08-03T22:56:14.702-06:002-week recapJessa ~<br />
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Let's see... where to start... Two weeks of stuff happening. This probably won't go in any sort of order. Hang with me.<br />
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Well, Abby randomly became obsessed with horses. One day she just looked at me and said, "Ride horses, k?" I just kind of laughed and suggested she go ride her rocking horse. But no, she was not deterred. Over and over again she would ask. Finally I asked her where we were going to go ride horses. Taking that as a yes, she lit up, ran to the door to the garage and said, "Ok! Go to Mama Papa's house! Ride horses!" Uhhh... apparently she's made that connection, then. So last Sunday when we went up for Resa's birthday, we talked to Papa and scheduled a horse riding trip for next week.<br />
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Of course that didn't satisfy Abby. So the next day we had some spare time and I was in a good mood, so we went to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point to ride ponies. One nice thing about having an annual pass is that I don't feel like we need to rush through and do everything. So we went to the ponies and took turns riding them. BJ was working so he couldn't come. But when Abby rides the pony, I have walk next to her. But what do I do with Peter? When I presented this problem to Kessa she came up with the solution. "Abby can ride first and I'll watch Peter. Then when she's done, I'll get to ride the ponies!" Nice solution! So Abby rode then Kessa did. Then Abby took another turn, then Kessa took another turn. It wasn't very busy, so they didn't have to wait in line, which was nice. Of course, when Kessa watched Peter, she mostly just took off her sunglasses and put them on his face, then came back to the fence and watched Abby ride the pony. Hah! Then we went and rode on the wagon, then went home (much to the girls' dismay. But it was nap time for Abby and lunchtime for Peter. So I didn't budge.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuUerpWTAMLYE861phkFdYmaNmQbYbdQhqB21Sib0-4m3J9hQlAgYbw-rYYMOgtWvT_x7BUNNPCbaqp42kqFQr4qjbLUuR-sfpFZa-xT38Xi2mwedQinVis62OBRc1-cKPXqpFjUa2k0c/s1600/Farm+Country.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuUerpWTAMLYE861phkFdYmaNmQbYbdQhqB21Sib0-4m3J9hQlAgYbw-rYYMOgtWvT_x7BUNNPCbaqp42kqFQr4qjbLUuR-sfpFZa-xT38Xi2mwedQinVis62OBRc1-cKPXqpFjUa2k0c/s1600/Farm+Country.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a><br />
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For months now we've talked about having Heather (Jenson) and Adam Thompson over for a game night. They just live in Pleasant Grove, so they're pretty close. Plus they got 7 Wonders for ... Christmas, maybe? and didn't know how to play, so we were supposed to teach them, but then they figured it out themselves. Anyway, at the wedding I talked to them and said, "Ok, let's just plan a date." So we did! And Tuesday they came over. We taught them Kingdom Builder, which you haven't played yet, but will. It was fun. And then we played Pandemic because they've been wanting to play it, but never have, and we have it. And we won. It felt a little too easy. I guess that's what happens when you go back to the beginning game. It was nice, because they know strategy games well enough to pick up on both quickly.<br />
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Yesterday we had a family reunion for my dad's siblings down in Lindon. It was a pretty small turnout this year, but was still fun. And the girls had a blast with cousins. (Errrr... second cousins. BJ doesn't like when I use "cousins" as a catch-all term. Silly boy. :D) We ate dinner and the kids played water games. (BJ wanted me to play water balloon toss with him, but I was wearing a white shirt, so I declined.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgokL4lZILfvaIam6w2dZj9xftdpUH4nIow18fXU3ocS23gA3ugKaE9ls24mEsujG7Cgpkr_jbX5K7pYQ2ZZyJh53gGIrTfnWthpHLxYe-FIrAJKTEkepj5XqyxZepoWKUbXnwoWAnPZMw/s1600/Reunion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgokL4lZILfvaIam6w2dZj9xftdpUH4nIow18fXU3ocS23gA3ugKaE9ls24mEsujG7Cgpkr_jbX5K7pYQ2ZZyJh53gGIrTfnWthpHLxYe-FIrAJKTEkepj5XqyxZepoWKUbXnwoWAnPZMw/s1600/Reunion.jpg" height="320" width="640" /></a><br />
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Damian came back down this week. But his wife, Kim, is the expert painter, so this time she came with, and thus all the kids. He got the tile on the bathroom floor done and the trim around all the windows and doors and baseboards. Kim primed all the walls and ceilings and got the office and bathroom painted. And then at the very end Damian put together the siding for the playhouse! The girls were super excited about that. It'll be fun to see it painted. And my mom is going to paint on the wall around it. Maybe trees and clouds and something? We'll see! That'll probably be further out, though, because she's spent the last 3+ weeks up with Jalin and will stay at least a week after the baby is born. And really, the baby isn't actually due for 2 more weeks, so who knows how long she'll be there. After that long of being away from home, it's going to be awhile before I can talk them into making another long trip down to my place, I'm pretty sure. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOihfVWx5aghGA5TaO5rh-WCX_uFIDegYdRy2L_IkwV7E3-B2cr8U0ffcC_UQ6nsJb4Az-lKiNAC-eHTjd3vX7Jy3Tlje63n9NZlm2pGbSDRU7D271KdfYrbKLdl9rYxf7s1TZwW1aiBI/s1600/basement.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOihfVWx5aghGA5TaO5rh-WCX_uFIDegYdRy2L_IkwV7E3-B2cr8U0ffcC_UQ6nsJb4Az-lKiNAC-eHTjd3vX7Jy3Tlje63n9NZlm2pGbSDRU7D271KdfYrbKLdl9rYxf7s1TZwW1aiBI/s1600/basement.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a><br />
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Meanwhile, I had the kids upstairs. The first day Lexi and Parker come running down the stairs holding a chore reward chart I had made for Kessa. Basically the idea was, 1 chore = 1 point. Here are the things you can spend your points on. And largely the rewards were outings. Mostly things we have passes to. "Aunt Nana! Can we do 20 chores and earn swimming?!" Umm... yes? The great part is, they're 11 and 9, so they can actually do chores without me holding their hand the whole time. So I wrote a bunch of chores, easy and hard, on post-it notes and put them on the wall. When they did a chore, they wrote their name on it and put it in a bowl. (An idea very similar to one I had just seen on Pinterest. Hah!) In 2-3 hours I had all of my baseboards cleaned, house dusted and mostly vacuumed, windows washed, cupboards and appliances wiped down, toys picked up, front porch and deck swept, light switches and handrails cleaned of fingerprints, etc. It was pretty great. Honestly, I was probably more exhausted by the end of it than any of them were. They ended up doing 35 chores! Which meant they not only earned swimming, but also ice cream and a trip to the Museum of Natural Curiosity. (Aka the Children's Museum.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeb5T7C9LPGTaPltJpHg7LPR7-zacQZxWS79UFE7Z0czdpR-H1G1p1q5OsKI0FB4EpkXfwOaaVG0_ICIelNG79jCRqsx_rZBe2ASx8J6PWDN440SL37_GGy9MJ3XKJjVWcHspVhE5_614/s1600/Chores.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeb5T7C9LPGTaPltJpHg7LPR7-zacQZxWS79UFE7Z0czdpR-H1G1p1q5OsKI0FB4EpkXfwOaaVG0_ICIelNG79jCRqsx_rZBe2ASx8J6PWDN440SL37_GGy9MJ3XKJjVWcHspVhE5_614/s1600/Chores.jpg" height="320" width="640" /></a><br />
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So Thursday BJ took work off a little early and helped me take <i>seven</i> kids to the swimming pool. One being a 2-month old baby who can't even hold his own head up yet. Thank goodness for life jackets for the 2-6 year olds. But we had a lot of fun and it wasn't nearly as overwhelming as I feared it would be. On the way home we stopped and got ice cream at Arctic Circle. (Yes, right before dinner, why do you ask?)<br />
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Friday I was a little smarter and put the two 2-year olds and Peter down for naps and left them with BJ (who was working) and took the 4 oldest to the Children's Museum. Much more manageable. Honestly, having the two older kids here makes me very excited for when my kids are older. Except that I'm not yet ready to wish their childhood away. So mostly I'm just glad to know that I'll enjoy that age as well as this one.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj_3D-4Hg4jqfDnvNRpcPntYr-UFnCsPdu5uIOsor0zviwNqkoB7bNsHD-ALhtVZoc6snNGQ75i0notvBfAvuqCiEMCti-5A29JVH8ptBPsAzJRX2Wu0owNIZT4ncvlxwEEOov872Hnbg/s1600/Headless.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj_3D-4Hg4jqfDnvNRpcPntYr-UFnCsPdu5uIOsor0zviwNqkoB7bNsHD-ALhtVZoc6snNGQ75i0notvBfAvuqCiEMCti-5A29JVH8ptBPsAzJRX2Wu0owNIZT4ncvlxwEEOov872Hnbg/s1600/Headless.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR5dsM156j_Hcu8HLA4AE8nwX3HRAVGdPkzWhJxYnOXyyVNcBto9sg7EcoZbJF9VlaKhXiHLj6zqFu59Vvi0A1jor6HeRhzO9UW6gfi1dO7uEq80LfwnkAEWtO98koUlI9pP8889JuHAk/s1600/Natural+Curiosity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR5dsM156j_Hcu8HLA4AE8nwX3HRAVGdPkzWhJxYnOXyyVNcBto9sg7EcoZbJF9VlaKhXiHLj6zqFu59Vvi0A1jor6HeRhzO9UW6gfi1dO7uEq80LfwnkAEWtO98koUlI9pP8889JuHAk/s1600/Natural+Curiosity.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a><br />
Have I told you about potty training Abby? I know I told you that we started, but I was pretty half-hearted about it and it wasn't working really well. Well, I finally gave up, but Abby still wanted panties and I was pretty much too exhausted to fight her on it. It was just easier to clean up her accidents and say, "No sweetie. Pee pee doesn't go in your panties, it goes in the potty." And next thing you know, she started peeing on the potty on her own! It probably helped that I gave her a jelly bean every time she went. And turns out, she loves jelly beans. (Thank goodness we have a Costco-sized container of Jelly Bellies in our pantry!) During waking hours, she's pretty darn good about going, even all by herself, then running out to tell me "I went big pee pee in the potty! Jenno-bean?!" Best potty training ever. Well, except sleeping is still only 50/50. But she's perfectly capable of taking off her diaper and peeing on the bed or floor, so doing a diaper when she sleeps doesn't really help. And she's not good (at all) with poop yet either, so... we still have plenty of work to do. But overall, it's been a major blessing to my super tired mind.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4DsoCl8EOANqfPqNoxK948z4hcY5QNE7pKvq5WfU9OLY8qQlYTkmBysfkqX6hxI5sEQd8x58LlgGnQVT9Op9v1SV1r9eAsfb-12H3HOKK1sf7xAdYqRchuzAvxsfMBrBVmE2tRTZFZEk/s1600/Playhouse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4DsoCl8EOANqfPqNoxK948z4hcY5QNE7pKvq5WfU9OLY8qQlYTkmBysfkqX6hxI5sEQd8x58LlgGnQVT9Op9v1SV1r9eAsfb-12H3HOKK1sf7xAdYqRchuzAvxsfMBrBVmE2tRTZFZEk/s1600/Playhouse.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a><br />
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Speaking of major blessings... Peter. Seriously. Who is this boy? He is BJ incarnate, I think. Did I tell you about the deal I made with God when I found out Peter was a boy? Abby was going through an overly-energetic phase and I had been spending a lot of time with my high-energy nephew and neighbor twin boys, so I was a little panicked about being able to deal with a boy. Ok, maybe a lot panicked. So I told God, "Here's the deal. If you want me to have more than 3 kids, this boy had better be BJ and not Nick or Damian. Because if you give me one of those, I'm done at 3." Pretty sure that if I can judge by 2 months, we'll have more kid(s). He is the <i>easiest</i> baby ever. He's sleeping from about 8-6 every night. <i>10 hours!</i> (I'm really nervous about putting this in print. Will this jinx us? :S [knock on wood]) This has been going on for a couple of weeks now with only one night where he woke up before 6 ish. And during the day, he mostly just sleeps all day long, too. And when he is awake, he's just happy to lay there, eyes open, and just stare at things. Happy and content. He only cries when he's hungry or getting tired or needs a diaper change, and I haven't figured it out fast enough. And then once I start to take care of it, he's totally cool again. Best third baby ever. I needed this.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6CNL815kMt4A_i8E910vZmhMrbUB-1zQ7ayXuTFVBT8PDWVJR8gOrmCZdS8LoxFjbJnXZW0uI3-JungMixqs93t12qZaWU5JNjvdjUOkuOlHwYd_yR1vX2VWpSKu78li02cWO0qzyrqU/s1600/Peter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6CNL815kMt4A_i8E910vZmhMrbUB-1zQ7ayXuTFVBT8PDWVJR8gOrmCZdS8LoxFjbJnXZW0uI3-JungMixqs93t12qZaWU5JNjvdjUOkuOlHwYd_yR1vX2VWpSKu78li02cWO0qzyrqU/s1600/Peter.jpg" height="316" width="640" /></a><br />
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We found a really awesome website the other day. <a href="http://roots-fb.cs.byu.edu/" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://roots-fb.cs.byu.edu/</a> Basically you sign in through Family Search (same as your lds.org login) and it looks at your family tree and tells you how closely related you are to prophets, apostles, pioneers, US presidents, famous authors, famous scientists, signers of the Declaration of Independence, etc. It's pretty awesome. (Did you know that Nana and Harold B. Lee are 2nd cousins?! Who knew?) You can also create groups and people can join them so you can see how you're all related. A neighbor made one for our ward (which is how I found out about it) and we discovered that BJ and I (and thus you and I, too), are 5th cousins once removed! So far we're the most closely-related couple in our ward. Hah! In good news, we're still two generations further than legal for marriage, so we're all good.<br />
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Our garden is growing pretty nicely. Minus the yellow squash that totally died. Everything else, though, is good. I even discovered one peach on our peach tree today! I thought for sure there were none. Hooray!<br />
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The grass, however, is another story. We've been fighting that for two years. But we think we finally figured out why we have dry spots! They're right where you'd expect them to be if the sprinklers weren't spraying far enough, but every time we tested them, they covered those spots quite nicely. But we discovered that at certain times of day we have almost no pressure. Like some heads can't even fully pop up. So that's why our grass was dying! We changed the time to morning when we can actually watch it and make sure they're working, which seems to have mostly solved it. It's been so nice watching our dead spots slowly regrowing.<br />
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BUT our actual sprinkler box is possessed. It hates our lawn, and I think is actively trying to kill it. I don't even know how many times it has decided to lose power or something and change the date or time and suddenly our sprinklers are on in the middle of the day on a Thursday (we're under water restrictions, so we can only water on MWF, and then only between evening and morning). Which means we missed the times we could actually water the day before, and now we're risking a fine by watering at the wrong time. It's been very frustrating. And then the other morning I noticed they hadn't run that morning and so I went out to check and discovered that it was running on very minimal power. We could run the system manually, one station at a time, but it couldn't even light up the screen. What the heck? But then after we manually ran all the stations, the screen lit up and has been working perfectly ever since. I don't get it. It hates me, I'm sure of it. So if you think of it, pray for my grass, will ya?<br />
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I've been on a mission to simplify my house lately. I was sick of puzzle pieces and board game pieces everywhere, especially as their boxes are now broken beyond repair, so we spent several days putting together all the puzzles, turning them over and writing a letter on each piece (so when we find random pieces, we know which puzzle they belong to), then putting all the pieces in a ziplock bag along with the picture of the puzzle cut out from the box. I was impressed that only one puzzle was actually missing a piece. And we found it this week! We also put the board game pieces in ziplocks, then just stacked the actual boards together. Our game closet looks a lot nicer. (Note: we only did this to the kids' games. Our games miraculously get left alone. It had better stay that way.) I also gathered all the toys with the intention to box half of them up and put them in storage, but it didn't get done before niblings (that's an actual word for nieces and nephews! What?!??) came, so they're strewn around the house again, so I'll need to gather that all up and finish that project this week. And then I tackled the craft supplies in the guest room closet. I bought a bunch of small bins and sorted all my stuff. So I have one for crochet/knitting, one for sewing, one for adhesive/fastening things, one for crafting tools, etc. Maybe now I'll be able to find things! Though, I need to label the boxes...<br />
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Grandma Goddard's birthday party was tonight. Kessa made her a yarn bracelet. It was lavendar. "That's an old color, right?" she asked while wearing a dress the exact same color. Hah! Also, when I told her we were going up for Grandma's birthday she said, "So that means she's going to die soon, right?" I asked why she thought that, "Because Grandpa Goddard had a birthday party, then he died, like, the next day, right?" I reminded her that he had had lots of birthday parties before that one and that he had lived much more than one day after the party. "Oh yeah, cuz like, I had lots and lots of birthdays before I turned 5, huh!" Yes, dear. 4 is lots and lots. Hah!<br />
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Facebook:<br />
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Oh, no big deal. Just driving home listening to BJ asking Kessa big math questions like, "If it was 100° when we went up to Grandma's and 93° now, how many degrees did it drop while we were there?" And "If there are 6 shoes, how many kids are there?" And she's getting it right. And hasn't even started kindergarten yet.<br />
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This girl got her daddy's love of math, that's for sure.<br />
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I knew I needed something from Costco that didn't get put on my list, but I couldn't remember what it was. So I bought a whole bunch of extra items not on my list, just to be safe.<br />
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Next day:<br />
I remember what I wanted from Costco. I didn't buy it yesterday. #facepalm<br />
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Kiddisms:<br />
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<ul>
<li>Kessa talking on her pretend phone. Part of the conversation included, “My password is, 81773812345678910.” Including appropriate pauses between numbers.</li>
<li>Kessa has a baby doll she's pretending is her baby. She's been calling me Grandma all morning. Just now she was talking to her baby about Peter. “That's baby Peter! He's your cousin!” Well… she figured out what a grandma is, but I guess we still have some work to do for uncles vs cousins.</li>
<li>Abby: I two! And Kessa five!<br />
She tells us this all the time. Sometimes she'll say one of us is 5. We've tried to teach her our age, but more often than not she says we're 50.</li>
<li>BJ told Kessa the story of the 3 little pigs<br />
BJ: What does this story teach us?<br />
Kessa: To not get eaten by wolves!<br />
BJ: What else does it teach us?<br />
Kessa: To not build a straw house!</li>
</ul>
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<b>Random pictures</b><br />
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</b> Girls with Peter<br />
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We found Kolter and Abby <i>dancing</i> atop the goldfish they had poured out. I made them sit and watch me clean it up, so Taegen and Kessa came to be my enforcers. "I'll make sure my baby brother doesn't get up and you make sure your baby sister doesn't either." You can tell how Abby felt about that idea.<br />
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I told Lexi to make the alphabet out of pretzels. So she did!<br />
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Kessa playing with Shawn's phone at 4th Sunday dinner.</div>
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They were playing Star Wars and Kessa was Leia, so Lexi put buns in Kessa's hair. Hah!<br />
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My awesome babysitter with her favorite charge.<br />
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Seriously. I can't leave Kessa alone with Peter. The first is from Farm Country when she was supposed to be watching Peter. The second (sorry it's dark) was how I found him after I left them alone to go do laundry or something upstairs. Good thing the gym was there to hold up all the cushions and pillows!<br />
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<3 Tianna and Co.Tiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6449137189263457728.post-1439052116532319842014-07-21T19:35:00.000-06:002014-07-21T19:51:57.122-06:00Peter: the detailed birth story<b>The pre-labor story</b><br />
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This pregnancy, birth, and newborn phase can be summed up as follows: I finally get it.<br />
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This has been both a relief, a comfort, and a downright annoyance. With both Kessa and Abby I did not feel contractions until my water broke. That includes 22 hours of induction with Kessa. With Abby I went into the midwife at 38.5 weeks and found I was dilated to a 6, 100% effaced, with baby at a +1. In her words, "How are you even walking?" My response, "Should I not be?" With Abby I eventually figured out what Braxton-Hicks contractions were, but they were so minor that I rarely noticed them, and even when I felt them, I was never certain until I felt my belly to see if it was hard. Even after my water spontaneously broke with her, I didn't feel a contraction for over a half an hour. But with both girls, once my water broke and I got the first contraction, it went from nothing to hard and heavy. And baby came 2-2.5 hours later.<br />
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Peter, however, was a different story. Heather (the midwife) told me over and over again to call/text her at the first sign of labor. She knew my history (and was my midwife for Abby), knew how fast I could go, and wanted every second to prepare that she could. So when one night, probably around 37 weeks, I actually started <i>feeling</i> contractions, I probably overreacted a little. I felt like a first time mom all over again. I laid on the couch for awhile, breathing through contractions, though I didn't need to, then I rushed to the store to buy last minute birth supplies that I had been procrastinating, even though I had guests coming in 30 minutes. I texted Heather to let her know. By the time I got back from the store, the contractions were gone and I was left slightly disappointed.<br />
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It probably didn't help that everyone assumed I'd go really early and were constantly asking me if I was trying to induce labor, wondering when that baby was coming, making plans for me not to be places. So I started to expect it, too. I started moving from being content to be pregnant and enjoying the benefits that came from that (things I'd lose once Peter was born), to becoming more and more impatient. The downfalls of pregnancy became more oppressing. Peter liked to kick at my SI joint. I'd get what felt like an electrical jolt down my right leg that would nearly knock me to the floor. Once or twice it actually did. My left side and back, along my ribs, constantly hurt. My tailbone ached from an old injury. Rolling over at night or getting out of bed was a hassle. I was starting to get worse sleep because I'd have to wake up in order to roll over. I was tired. I was cranky.<br />
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But Peter wasn't ready to come, and to keep me from doing anything drastic, I'm sure, he kept flipping to posterior. I'd go in for a checkup and he'd start out anterior, but by the end of them palpating my belly, he'd have flipped to posterior. The fact that he could move so easily was heartening; chances were great that when I did go into labor, he'd be able to quickly flip into position. But we didn't dare start anything ... just in case. When she'd do my internal check, she found that his head was not in a good position. It was often resting on my pubic bone instead of my cervix. Again, we had high hopes that he'd flip to anterior and his head position would right itself. So instead of being impatient (I had zero desire to back labor a posterior baby because of impatience), I spent a lot of time on my hands and knees. I planted and weeded my garden and flowerbeds. I scrubbed baseboards in my bathrooms. I hand mopped parts of my kitchen floor. Then I got on spinningbabies.org and found exercises to help turn him. So I did those.</div>
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One Sunday (just over 38 weeks) we were driving home from dinner at BJ's parents' house in Riverton when, just after a few contractions that I could <i>feel</i>, I felt an odd bubble in my vagina. I had never felt its like before and had a hard time describing it. I wondered if it was my water trying to break. I turned back to toss a water bottle back to Kessa and when I turned forward again, the bubble was gone. I checked and I was slightly wet. Had my water just broken? But only a tiny hole? Had I peed my pants without realizing it? (Sadly, that wouldn't have been surprising.) I didn't know. But the circumstances were suspicious. And, feeling like a first time mom again, I started wondering, "Is this it?" I called my mom to give her a heads up and warn her to pack her bags. My sister, Jalin, was visiting her and leaving the next day, and I had been forbidden from going into labor until the next day (Memorial Day) after Jalin left, but I figured Sunday night would be good enough. I texted Heather and we talked back and forth. I couldn't tell if I was leaking or not. There was no bloody show. We shooed the girls to bed, I sat on the birthing ball and did spinning babies exercises, and I texted everyone on my list to give them a heads up... just in case. By 11 pm I was exhausted and decided to go to sleep, just in case he made his appearance at 3 am.<br />
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I woke up the next morning completely dry and very disappointed. BJ didn't take the holiday off work. Between the two, I was a pretty grumpy momma that day. Sorry about that, girls.<br />
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The next day they gave me a birthing tub. BJ filled the sides and bottom with air so it would be ready anytime. The next morning it was half deflated; the tub had a leak. So I took it back to the birthing center and exchanged it for another one. While I was there I asked Heather to check me again. She did and found Peter to be in a much better position. "I definitely wouldn't say he's in a bad position. I also wouldn't say he's in an ideal position. But I will say that he's in a <i>good</i> position." She gave me the option to do a natural induction or to wait for things to start naturally. I was also dilated to a 6.5 and at least 80% effaced. Over the next few days I started to lose my mucus plug.<br />
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I was torn. On the one hand, part of me wanted to do it naturally. I wanted to know if he'd come early or late. I wanted to know what my body tended to do when left to its own devices. Abby came a week early, just before a scheduled natural induction. Like, 2 minutes before. It was convenient. On the other hand, if I waited, I knew my mom wouldn't be able to be there. She lives too far away. I also had a slight fear that I'd spend much of labor without my team there, and that would worry me, considering how fast my labors are. What if they didn't get there in time?<br />
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Convenience, peace of mind, the desire to have my mommy there, and impatience won out and we scheduled the induction for Friday afternoon. I let everyone know and got to work cleaning my house and getting all the birth supplies set up.<br />
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<b>Birth day, pre-labor</b><br />
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Friday morning I had a pre-natal massage scheduled. When I told them I was being induced, they switched it to be a "labor stimulating" massage. I really liked it. I still couldn't feel contractions, though the masseuse could. I just prayed that it wouldn't stimulate labor too soon as it was in SLC and I still had to drive home. And I had to stop by my Aunt Grace's house on the way to pick up the girls. I had no desire to go into labor at any point during that. Though, I did carry a chux pad and depends-style underwear in my car for a couple of weeks prior, just in case. But to my immense relief, all went as planned.<br />
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Friday afternoon came and everyone started showing up. We had to push back the induction a few hours due to another birth earlier that morning. Where my labor <i>could</i> be changed, time-wise, I was happy to let Heather (midwife) finish up the previous birth, change clothes, clean up, eat lunch, etc.<br />
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Everyone joked about how it was a party. And really, it kind of was. There were 13 adults and 1 child (Kessa) in my bedroom for the birth. There was the birth team: Heather (my midwife), Karla (a CNM), and 3 students. Then there was my hired help: Carrie (doula), and Cali (photographer). And then there was my family, aka my moral support team: BJ, my mom, BJ's mom, Resa (BJ's sister), and Chelsea (soon-to-be sister-in-law). And, of course, me. There was a snack table in the loft (they request snacks, just in case the labor is long; they don't want to have to leave me to go seek out food). We set up chairs in the bedroom (I wasn't gonna make everyone sit on the floor or the bed, which was covered with plastic under the sheet). I had bought the girls a bunch of new toys, so if they got bored watching my almost-silently labor, they had something to do besides cause problems, so the kitchen table was covered with play dough, bubbles, glitter chalk, and a plastic golf set. It kind of was a party. Let's consider it an elaborate 0th birthday party for Peter. :)<br />
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Heather was on the phone doing some business while her team was setting up. At one point Karla asked if I would be comfortable just having her break my water and we could get things going right then instead of waiting for Heather. I'm pretty sure she asked because she was pretty new to the practice and I didn't know her very well, so she was asking if it would bother me if she did the breaking instead of Heather. Honestly, I wouldn't have cared who did it. But I immediately pushed back, not because of her, but because I hadn't expected it to start with breaking my water.<br />
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When we planned Abby's induction, they told me they'd do massage, oils, pressure points, etc. then send me on about an hour walk to get things going. If my body was ready, it'd respond. If it wasn't, it wouldn't. Which, after my 24-hour induction with Kessa, sounded pretty great. And then 5 minutes before we got started, my water broke spontaneously. They still did the massage and oils, then sent me to walk around the house, which lasted maybe 5 minutes before contractions kicked in full force. I had expected something similar. (Honestly, I secretly hoped and almost expected that my water would again break spontaneously, even though I knew that to be a very unlikely outcome.)<br />
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For a moment I had a moment of panicked flashbacks of Kessa's induction. When they broke my water with her, it was after 22 hours of failed induction methods. It was the point of no return, with no guarantee that it would even work. I ended up having 2 hours of sheer pain (I'm sure because I was scared instead of being relaxed), enhanced by Pitocin contractions. I did not want that experience again. But there was a lot of things going on in setting up and it was really easy to get side tracked and never really answer the question.<br />
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Instead I grabbed my Hypnobirthing book, sat on my birth ball, and read the breathing chapter again, to help myself remember the breathing techniques. I knew I was going to need them soon. I felt a little silly, like I was cramming for a test, but I really wanted it fresh in my mind.<br />
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Around 4:45 Heather came in, checked me, and asked if I was ready to break my water. At least this time I was prepared for the question. I told her I hadn't been expecting to start with breaking my water; that wasn't what we had done with Abby. She said that we could induce like that again, but warned that even when they were done with their part, it could take several hours of me walking and such to get labor started. She said she'd be happy to do that, but that if we chose that route, they'd get me started, then her birth team would go home until labor started to progress more. Then everyone left the room so BJ and I could talk privately.<br />
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I was torn. On the one hand, everyone was already there. I was ready and prepared to have the baby. I was already dilated to a 6.5 and 100% effaced. On the other hand, part of me wanted to do the whole thing naturally. I wanted to know if I tended to go early or not. I felt like I <i>should</i> be scared of breaking my water, because of Kessa's birth and because I was worried about having to make that decision for Abby's birth. I felt like I <i>should</i> be freaking out at having to make the decision. But the thing is... I wasn't. Neither was BJ. So we talked it out and decided to just do it.<br />
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Everyone gathered back into my room as I lay on the bed, several chux pads underneath me, as Heather broke my water. It gushed up my back, and despite taking precautions to prevent it, we ended up with amniotic fluid on my bed. Just a small patch, though. And thankfully I had put a giant piece of plastic under my sheet, so the mattress was safe. I quickly dilated to a 7 after that. They then helped me into the very attractive adult diaper and told me to walk around while rubbing my belly clockwise. To help making the rubbing easier, I diluted some clary sage oil (which is supposed to help induce contractions) into some olive oil (for a carrier oil) and rubbed that onto my belly.<br />
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I started pacing my room, the nursery, the hall, and very soon became bored with upstairs. Everyone else had long since realized that this part was boring, so they'd gone down to the kitchen to play with the girls and their new toys. I like being with people, so I went downstairs, too. Just as I was about to turn into the family room, I noticed my dad on the couch. My dad is a very Victorian kind of guy, and I was wearing a sleep bra and a tank top, pulled up so my belly would show, and a lava lava. I wasn't sure if he'd be comfortable like that. So I sent BJ to warn him. BJ walked into the family room and said, "Dad, your daughter is coming down the stairs. Her belly is showing. Be ok with it." Hah! But instead of putting him on the spot, I turned right instead and paced the hall between the stairs and the office.<br />
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Honestly, this part was ridiculously boring for me. There were no contractions to focus on. At least that I could feel. I was pacing the same hall back and forth. It wasn't even a good walk with changing scenery. It was like 10 steps, then turn. I was amused to find that every time I walked from the office back toward the stairs, water would gush out more than any other time. I went back upstairs, then back down randomly. BJ and Carrie dutifully followed me along like baby ducklings following their mother. At one point upstairs, as I was coming out of my circuit in the nursery I mentioned that I was bored. BJ suggested I do jumping jacks. Carrie was horrified and said that hurt her just to think of doing that while in labor. So I started joking that maybe I should do something on the Wii. Surely something on Wii Fit would be appropriate. BJ suggested biking. I suggested hula hoop. Carrie approved of the latter. But being the boring person I am, just laughed and continued walking. Looking back, I wish I had done it if only for the story. :D I went back downstairs to find that my dad was gone. Apparently he had gone up to his room to nap. So my pacing started to include the family room, dining room and kitchen. As I walked around the table one time, where everyone was playing with play dough (Resa made a chess board!) I mentioned how <i>bored</i> I was. The reaction was priceless. Jaws dropped, eyes popped, "Tianna! You are in <i>labor!</i> How can you be bored?!"<br />
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Sometimes I wonder if my labor experiences are unique. I know that I'm fairly unique among my personal acquaintance. This story proves that. Most stories I hear/read include the mother feeling early labor contractions. I just... don't. But historically, before the push for drama-riddled birth... was my experience more common? Or did I just do something <i>very</i> right in the pre-mortal life to earn such an awesome blessing? Because apparently someone with her water broken shouldn't be bored while pacing for more than a half an hour. But let me tell you—it was boring.<br />
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At one point BJ asked if I wanted him to play the piano, or if I'd rather have his constant presence. (With Kessa, he couldn't even direct his attention elsewhere without me wanting to die, so it was very sweet of him to ask.) I figured a change in atmosphere wouldn't hurt, and I didn't need his constant attention at the time, so I agreed. So at 5:07 I paced to John Schmidt's "Morning Light".<br />
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Maybe around 5:20 or 5:30 I finally started to feel contractions. This is when labor became real for me. Up until this point I was only a passive participant. I did what I was told, but I wasn't <i>really</i> a part of it. But as soon as that first contraction hit that I had to stop walking and talking through, it became real. I became an active participant. It wasn't intense. It was just there. It demanded my focus, but didn't cause me any pain. After a couple of those downstairs I decided to go back upstairs so I could sit down. I rocked on my birth ball, but didn't like being on it during contractions. When I felt one coming, I would kneel down on the floor and lean up against the ball or against the tub wall. With my hands clasped while kneeling, I kind of felt like I was praying. And in a way, I was. I wasn't actively praying, but I was turning myself over to my subconscious self and opening myself up to one of the most spiritual events a woman can participate in.<br />
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Between contractions I chit chatted with Cali who had been upstairs working on her YW lesson. Occasionally someone on the birth team would pop in to check on me. Sometimes they'd check the baby's heart. Sometimes they'd ask how far apart and how long contractions were. We had to guess. Finally I opened the iBirth app I downloaded on my phone during Abby's pregnancy and turned on the contraction timer. I had always wondered how far apart my contractions were and how long they lasted, but we'd never timed them before.<br />
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With Abby's birth, I was very withdrawn. I didn't really talk. If someone asked if I wanted something that I didn't want, I simply wouldn't answer. No one even knew I was pushing until Abby was crowning and I yelled "Pushing!" Even then they just thought, "Oh, good. She's finally reached the pushing stage." It wasn't until one of the student midwives happened to notice she was crowning that they all figured out what was happening. And then she was born during the next contraction. I also tore in two different directions and it was miserable. My goal this birth was to be more in touch with reality and keep everyone abreast of what was going on.<br />
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I started with the contraction timer. BJ knew when contractions would start because I'd cut off mid-sentence, close my eyes, and rest my head on my arms against the side of the tub. Then when the contraction ended, instead of just laying there resting and ignoring everything else, I would say "Ok" or "Done."<br />
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We started timing at 5:45 pm. They were, on average, 2 minutes long and about 4 minutes apart (from start to start, so really, 2 minutes in between). After a few more contractions I decided I really wanted the buoyancy of the water, so I asked them to start filling up the tub. At 6:00 I got in. It was wonderful. It truly is amazing how water can take away intensity, simply by nullifying gravity's effects. Instead of my uterus contracting and pulling down simultaneously, I only had contractions. Bliss.<br />
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This pattern continued for about a half an hour. Breathe through a contraction, time it, relax for a couple of minutes. Repeat. Kessa would come in occasionally. Once she told me that I was doing a great job and that she loved me. It was super sweet. She would ask questions, I would answer. But even with her I would stop mid-sentence to focus on a contraction, then finish answering when it was over.<br />
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I hadn't practiced relaxing and breathing as much this time around, so I found that I had to actively focus on relaxing. I would often find myself mid-contraction very tense and would have to force myself to relax. Instead of just dealing with it, I reached out. After a contraction I told BJ, "I'm having a hard time relaxing. I need you to remind me to relax during contractions." Without skipping a beat he asked me what parts of my body I found the most tense. My legs and shoulders. From then on, he would remind me during contractions to relax those, and other, parts of my body. It was very helpful, because I would become so focused on the contraction itself that I stopped paying attention to my state of relaxation until he spoke up. Sometimes I'd even forget the breathing techniques until he reminded me to relax.<br />
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Just like with Abby, BJ was my rock. Having Carrie be able to focus on my physical comfort left BJ to focus on my mental and emotional needs. He whispered to me. He comforted me. He told me I was doing great. He told me he loved me. And when I needed more of a distraction, I would kiss him. It really is amazing how much that really does help. ;)<br />
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Kneeling upright for a long time makes your legs fall asleep, as I'm sure you can imagine. With Abby, I refused to try other positions. They just didn't even sound comfortable. This time I wanted to be more open to suggestions, so when my legs started to fall asleep and I ceased to be comfortable, I flipped over and sat, resting my back and head against the tub wall behind me between contractions. But when the next one started, I immediately turned back to kneeling. I just didn't like laboring while sitting. I'm definitely an upright kneeling laborer. I repeated that 2 or 3 times, but mostly just stayed on my knees.<br />
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I was most worried about pushing. I feel like that's where I failed the most with Abby. I wanted to trust my body so much that I went too far and didn't help it along. I didn't listen to it when it told me to bear down. I thought I was doing it right, but I went from never pushing to my body saying, "Fine! If you won't work with me, I'll just do this myself." When I pushed her out, it was purely reflexive. I didn't have a choice. Which is, I think, why I tore so badly. So this time I focused more on what my contractions felt like and how effective my breathing was. And this time, I recognized when my contractions would turn "pushy." I don't know how to explain this, but there is a difference between pushing and bearing down. With Kessa I pushed. I wanted her out Right Now. So I pushed. But with Peter, I bore down. It wasn't so much an exercise in getting baby out as it was just doing what my body told me to do. It involved more grunting and focusing on moving everything downward. It was part of breathing.<br />
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The bearing down contractions started around 6:20. It wasn't every contraction, and that urge wasn't even there for the entire duration of a contraction. Those moments, though, were far more intense. Not painful, but intense. But when I would work with them and bear down with them, the intensity lessened. It was an empowering feeling. The whole time I was just thinking that it took 3 labors, but I finally was working with my body. I was finally getting it right. I started to look forward to those moments. I knew they were the most productive. I knew they were bringing my baby closer. I knew they were marking the end stretch. So I welcomed them and worked with them.<br />
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Transition came. It wasn't as marked and obvious as it had been with both girls. With them there was a definite moment of, "I can't do this anymore, please make it stop." I was waiting for that this time. I knew I'd feel like that and I knew I'd make it through. I had done it twice already. But it was never that strong. I remember thinking a time or two that I was nearing that point. One moment in particular I thought, "This is hard. I just want to be done. I don't know how long I've been doing this, but I know it hasn't been long enough yet. My labors go longer than this, so I've still got some time to go. It's hard, but it's gonna get harder yet. Just focus. Just breathe." There was a moment when suddenly just Carrie giving massage and counter pressure just wasn't enough. I tried to deal with it for about a half a second before I remembered that this was my time to be spoiled, so I said, "More hands!" and next thing you know, the entire birth team was around the tub, giving me relief. I think that was my climax. That was my transition. From breaking water to birth was still about the same length as my other two labors, but it had taken a lot longer before I felt contractions this time, and I had a lot longer in between them. So it <i>had</i> been a shorter time than I had anticipated. So I was surprised when Heather checked me around 6:45 and I was completely dilated and she could feel Peter's head. I still had a small lip of cervix left, so she told me not to push yet, but that it would be soon. And soon it was. That also happened to be just after the last contraction we timed. They were getting to the point that it was hard to say when they started and ended. It was getting to be too much of a hassle to try to identify those moments, so instead I just told BJ that we were done with timing.<br />
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Things progressed quickly. Soon my bearing down started bringing Peter down the birth canal. The moment he started to crown a student midwife was kneeling next to my head, coaching me through it. I hadn't realized I'd have a play-by-play coach, but I appreciated it. I really didn't want to tear. That long-term desire was the only thing that kept me from pushing as hard as I could to get him out. She kept telling me things like, "I know it's hard, but let's do this slowly. Let him stretch you. I know you don't want to tear, so let's let him help you. Push with the contraction. Stop when the contraction stops. You can do this." It was the Hardest Thing Ever. Ever. It turned out the cord was shorter than normal, because it was wrapped around him, so he progressed slower. And I was pushing slower. So the entire crowning process took longer than normal. And talk about the Ring of Fire. I now know what that feels like. I remember with Abby having her head halfway out, then the contraction stopped, as well as all sensation. Mid-crown I thought, "This isn't so bad; I can do this again." And then laughed at the whole situation. But with Peter, there was no relief between contractions. There was just stretching and fire. It took every ounce of willpower I had to go slowly. And the whole time I was thinking, "Is it really worth it not to tear? I don't really care. Let's just get him out and be done." But deep down I knew that giving into my short-term desires would just end in long-term regret. And so I pushed slowly.<br />
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Heather had heard a slight dip in Peter's heart rate during one of my later contractions, so she listened to it the entirety of one of these last contractions to make sure everything was ok. (It was.) She didn't explain why at the time, but I knew she felt it was necessary. I hated her for doing it anyway. It wasn't comfortable. I think I even told her, "I hate you right now, but I know I'll love you again later."<br />
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I kept my hand on his head the entire time. I remember feeling hair and being confused (my kids don't have hair at birth), but not having the presence of mind to really process what I was feeling. The next part is somewhat of a blur. I remember him coming out. I remember either seeing or hearing someone say that he had the cord wrapped around him. I felt the urgency of the birth team to get it unwrapped. I instinctively flipped from a kneeling position to a sitting position to make unwrapping easier. (Heather later told me that had made it so much easier and was grateful I acted on my instincts.) I remember as I was flipping the birth team was panicking to keep Peter under the water as I moved. As soon as I was sitting, Karla reached over and quickly unwrapped the cord. <br />
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At 6:57 pm, he slipped out. I held him in my arms, feeling a great relief that it was all over. I love the pictures of that moment, because they are so real. The emotions are so raw.<br />
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Often people talk about how the cord was wrapped around the baby's neck and how scary it was and how the baby could have <i>died!</i> But the majority of the time, it's not a problem. Because as long as the cord is still attached to the placenta, the baby is still receiving oxygen through the cord and doesn't need to breathe. It actually happens quite often. What makes it scary is when the cord pulls tight around the neck and cuts off the artery to the brain. The oxygen is getting to the baby, but not to the baby's brain. That had been the urgency to get the cord off. They knew that he would be fine, especially as his heart rate was strong, but they knew they had to act quickly.<br />
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From my perspective, everything was much the same as Abby's birth. Sure, they had to unwrap the cord and that was different, but he looked and acted peaceful and much the same as Abby had. I could feel the urgency in my birth team, and I worked with them. But I didn't feel their urgency. I knew, without doubt, that he was ok. I trusted my birth team and did exactly what they said to do. It was nice to have such trust that I could know there was urgency and act upon it, but not have to feel it myself. I could fully bask in the joy.<br />
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When Abby was born, she didn't cry. She was calm and peaceful. She took almost a full minute to take her first breath. Some of the student midwives voiced concern over it, but Heather calmly explained that so long as her heart rate was strong, she was fine with Abby taking her time. Peter looked and acted the same to me. So I was a little surprised when Heather calmly instructed me to give Peter a puff of air on his mouth. But I didn't question her, I just did it. She had me repeat it two or three times. She also had us fold him in half. Again, I didn't question, I just helped the mass of hands following instructions.<br />
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Then he started to cry. A very angry cry. And just like that, all the tension in the room was gone. Just to be safe they pulled out the oxygen tank and put the mask next to his face. He didn't need it on his face, but they wanted to give him more oxygen to breathe in, so they just held it right next to his nose and mouth.<br />
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Peter came out very purple (BJ commented on how he blended into the purple towel we had him wrapped in), but quickly gained a nice rosy color. After 10-15 minutes I delivered the placenta (with some prodding from the birth team) and they cut the cord, after showing me that it had stopped pulsing. I handed off Peter to BJ while they helped me out of the tub. They helped me into dry clothes and another lovely adult diaper.<br />
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Kessa got to watch the birth. My mom said she went around the tub, peeking in between people, then moving on to the next gap. Apparently she wanted to see it from every angle. The only time I saw her, she was in someone's arms and had a semi-panicked look on her face, but was quiet. I was a bit preoccupied, so I couldn't do anything about it, but I knew she was in good hands. I just hoped it would be a good experience, and not traumatize her. But apparently she did just fine, since she got up and went around, trying to see everything she could. And now she'll tell you that she loved it. <br />
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Abby apparently fell asleep on the chair in the office watching VeggieTales. Which is good because she totally missed her nap earlier, and I was afraid she'd be cranky and we'd have to send her to a neighbor's house. I'm glad we didn't have to do that. She woke up soon after Peter was born and came up to look while I was still in the tub. But she was still tired and out of it and cranky. I don't think she even saw or processed Peter, even though she was sitting right next to him.<br />
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Someone took her downstairs and fed her and after that she was back to her normal bubbly self and was very excited to run up and point out "Baby! Baby!"<br />
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<b>The non-glamorous post-birth</b><br />
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After birth is a bit of a blur for me, too. It also will probably have TMI for some people, so if you're not into that sort of thing, this is a good place to stop reading. But it was part of my experience and I want to remember it. Also, I think it's important that first-time moms hear about the real experience, including the not-so-glamorous parts.<br />
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I did have a minor tear, which was a bummer, but it was still a billion times better than Abby's. (It also healed quickly and didn't cause me much discomfort at all, thank goodness.) There was some debate as to whether or not to even stitch me up, but in the end Heather decided it was deep enough that she wanted stitches. But it was deep enough that the anesthetic took full effect and I couldn't feel most of it, which was fantastic. It's the surface tears that don't numb well and Abby's tear was mostly surface and I felt every stitch.<br />
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Most of what I remember is afterbirth cramps and trying to breathe through them. (Glad I expected them this time so I wasn't quite so bitter about them.) I remember tensing up my legs through them and carrying almost all my stress and tension in my calves, so I almost constantly had Carrie, my mom, and/or BJ massaging my calves. I was bleeding more than they wanted (yay for being a redhead?), so I couldn't take the anti-cramp tincture (apparently it can cause more bleeding), but they gave me a bunch of other not-great tasting stuff and I had to keep an ice pack on my abdomen off and on for hours. It still didn't work as fast as they wanted, so they gave me a pill of some sort, which must have done the job because they stopped fussing about it after too long. Turns out they hadn't even pulled out the big guns. There was a pitocin shot in my fridge they never used. It was comforting to know that although there was some concern, there wasn't enough of a problem to pull out the pitocin. Especially since I hate pitocin. I'm glad they were able to fix it enough with natural remedies. But I'm also glad they had more powerful options in case I had needed it.<br />
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I remember Peter being passed around while they stitched me up. I remember nursing him for the first time and how easy it was, but knowing that was a first-time thing only. I don't know what it is about that first nursing that is so instinctive that it is perfect, but it only lasts that once. Then it's a total learning process for both mom and baby which takes time and tears and sometimes some blood. :/ I remember being helped into the bathroom where they stressed how important it was that I pee, even though I felt no urge. Luckily it was pretty easy to do. They gave me a peri-bottle filled with water and witch hazel and told me to use it every time I went to the bathroom. One suggested I add a drop of frankincense oil if I had it, because of its strong anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, etc. properties. Another suggested lavender oil for its soothing properties. I couldn't find my lavender, though, so I started putting in frankincense. It's a really expensive oil, though, so I only put in one drop per day. But I think the oil seeped into the bottle, because I could still smell it all day long, every time I put more water in.<br />
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I spent the next couple of days in adult diapers, until I ran out of them, then the next 2-3 weeks or so using overnight pads until I ran out of those. Then until week 5 or 6 I still needed pantyliners. From what I understand, many women don't bleed for that long, but I've always bled until week 5-6, so it wasn't surprising for me. I was actually surprised at how quickly the flow slowed down to just a trickle.<br />
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I remember my mom videotaping the student midwives doing the baby exam and Abby and Kessa running in and out of the room, happily yelling. It made me laugh, because we were catching real life on the video. I remember debate over whether he was 8 lbs 13 oz or 8.13 lbs. Heather settled that one by declaring it was the first and then I heard one student mumble, "Oops. We got the one this morning wrong, then. We'll need to fix that." Haha. Apparently the scale was new to her and didn't read as she expected?<br />
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I remember that almost immediately after birth my dad showed up at the door, grinning, but not daring to come in. I was still in the tub at that point, but my mom assured him that I was covered up with a towel, so he came in to see his newest grandson, beaming all the while.<br />
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I remember being asked what seemed like every 5 minutes if I was hungry and if they could get me food. But I wasn't hungry. So I kept declining. I had eaten soon before everything started. I knew I'd get hungry soon, but I wasn't hungry yet. I had prepped dinner and Carol had put it in the oven before she left, so I figured I'd just eat dinner when it was ready.<br />
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I remember everyone slowly trickling out until all that was left were my parents, BJ, Peter and I. (Grandma Homer took the girls to spend the night with her.) We meandered downstairs where I camped out on the couch, holding Peter, while my mom finished getting dinner ready.<br />
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I was so spoiled the next week. I think I changed maybe two diapers total, and those at the very end. My mom cooked every meal. I think I made a few malted milkshakes, to help my milk come in, but that was it. I mostly chilled on the couch or overstuffed rocker recliner, holding or feeding a baby. Or sleeping. I often passed Peter to someone else so I could walk around when I was tired of sitting, or so I could nap. Anytime I wanted something, I asked and it was delivered. When Peter fussed at night and I'd already fed him and he just wouldn't sleep, my mom would come rescue us and she'd stay up for an hour or two with him to give us more sleep. I was so scared for the nights after she went home, but when she left, he stopped having nighttime fussiness. He'd just wake up, eat, and go back to sleep. I think he just wanted to have grandma time and realized when he wouldn't get it any more. So. Spoiled.<br />
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BJ worked that week, while my mom was there to take care of me and the girls. Then the next two weeks he kind of worked half days. Mostly he was just available as needed. When he heard crying or fighting, he came down and rescued me immediately. He took care of kids whenever I needed a nap. It was seriously so wonderful. Bonus of working from home.<br />
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The only problem those first few weeks were due to Peter being born with a recessed chin (but isn't the dimple super cute?!) It made breastfeeding painful. It had the same effects as a tongue or lip tie, except it wasn't as easy to fix as a simple snip of the scissors. Instead I found a chiropractor that was willing to help and we spent several days (and several hundred dollars... thanks insurance for not paying!) in the chiropractor's office. I saw a marked decrease in pain while nursing, though, so I consider it time and money well spent.<br />
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Mostly, though, he was a very good baby. He slept a lot. He's super chill and rarely fussy. Overall, he's not the baby boy I was scared of having, so that's good. I think he's very much a baby BJ. I hope that continues as he gets older... :D<br />
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Sure, there were some things about the birth that weren't ideal and weren't what I was hoping for. But 98% of everything was perfect. And the things that weren't I think were dealt with as perfectly as I could have hoped. I am 100% satisfied with how it went, how my birth team responded to everything, anyhow I was treated. I felt like I was respected and had a say in my birth. I was treated as part of the birth team and not as a patient who couldn't make decisions and was supposed to just do what I was told. I felt empowered. Changing my actions to also involve the birth team in what was happening during labor was also surprisingly empowering and made the whole thing better. I felt like I finally got the hang of things. I actually felt and recognized contractions more pre-labor, though I still didn't feel the majority of them. I opened myself up to feel and recognize when I needed to bear down and was empowered when I realized that I was helping myself. I was able to push slowly during crowning, despite a massive desire to not to. I was able to breastfeed on my own with minimal help. And when things didn't go well, it wasn't because of my lack of ability, it was due to something beyond any of our control. But I was able to find someone to help with that as well. And I've done much better about feeding on demand and trusting his signals to tell me when he's hungry instead of relying on an app on my phone telling me how long it has been between meals. (I still use the app, but I use it as a tool, mostly to keep him from sleeping too long during the day so that he'll take his long stretch at night.)<br />
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So far, Peter has taught me to trust myself and my instincts. He has taught me that I can listen and understand far better than I expected I could. He has empowered me. I love him for it.<br />
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Welcome, Peter! Thanks for making us a family of 5.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">All photos by <a href="http://www.calistoddard.com/" target="_blank">Cali Stoddard photography</a></span>Tiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6449137189263457728.post-64111712679736302552014-07-20T22:49:00.000-06:002014-07-20T23:19:20.682-06:00In which there was a weddingDear Jessa ~<br />
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Of course this week was largely wedding-centered. But I'm going to go in chronological order, so wedding stuff is last. Tough. :)<br />
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Kessa had an art camp this week. So instead of one 1-hour art class, she had three 2+ hour art classes. They tie dyed shirts then turned those into bags. They water colored a large piece of paper, cut them into triangles and glued them onto poster board in modern-art fashion. They let paint drip down a poster board to look like colored rain, but in the middle it stopped where they had a cutout of a dancing elephant holding an umbrella. It was really all very cute.<br />
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Tuesday morning the Harris' invited us to go to the splash pad at Thanksgiving Point with them. In an attempt to make Kessa more responsible, we've been giving her one chore every day that has to be done before she can play with friends or have screen time or ride her bike. Tuesday's chore is emptying all the small garbages into a big garbage can. It's easy, but she hates it. So when they invited us an hour before we'd have to leave so we could get back in time to go visiting teaching, I was skeptical if it would happen. Especially as Kessa was still in bed. So I went in, woke her up, explained the situation, and placed the responsibility squarely on her shoulders. We've been doing this every day and she'd already missed a trip to Farm Country with the same friends, so she knew the consequences of not being fast. She managed to do it! Barely, but she did it. Then we got there and the line was <i>huge</i>. I'm talking at least an hour just to get in. Problem is, the splash pad is part of the new children's museum, which is super busy during the day during the summer. Bummer. We didn't have time for that because we needed to go visiting teaching, so instead we went back to Melanie's and turned on a sprinkler. Abby played in it. The rest of the kids played a safe distance away. Silly kids.<br />
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Tuesday night a former co-worker of BJ's came to dinner with his wife. (That feels like a very awkwardly worded sentence.) After dinner we did games. They introduced us to a new game called Citadels. I really like it! I may have to add it to my wish list...<br />
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Wednesday I came downstairs to find this note:<br />
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Translation: Hi Mommy and Daddy. Audrey at 6:00. Go to Audrey's house. The #s are tic tac toe boards, so we can play it lots. The person at the bottom is Audrey's mom, Melanie, holding her purse. She has a heart on her chest and the # over it is a cage to keep her heart from coming out. She didn't finish, but the circle next to the purse was going to be Audrey's brother, Reddick.<br />
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So that night, a little after 6:00, we took a walk to the Harris's and stayed longer than we anticipated, making me late for a RS activity. But it turned out ok. We were tying quilts for the Humanitarian Center and it was so much fun. I like how tying quilts is mindless, so a bunch of women can sit around, doing something productive, and feel justified about talking for an hour or two. It's like a perfect girls' night! In RS today someone even asked if we could get more quilts and do it again. I'm down with that.<br />
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Thursday evening was Nick and Chelsea's dinner up in Bountiful. It was a great dinner. The food was <i>delicious</i>. My girls, especially Abby, spent most of their time running around the tables and sitting up with Nick and Chelsea. We tried to take Abby, but Chelsea insisted that she was fine. So we let her stay. Chelsea's family has a tradition of "roasting" the bride and groom. So all of Chelsea's siblings got up and gave them little presents, all making a good-natured jibe at Chelsea. For example, one gave Nick earplugs because she and her sisters can get laughing really, really loudly. (Humorously, Teresa gave Chelsea earplugs because Nick and your family can also get really, really loud. Hah! Guess the two families work well together.) That was really fun. I didn't get the email about it, and wasn't planning on saying anything, but then Chelsea's bro-in-law and future bro-in-law both got up, so I did some quick thinking and came up with a story. But BJ missed the part about giving a gift, so I did, too. And Shawn's was a lot of stories with props, but no gifts. Only Resa had a gift. But we still did the "roast." It was a cute and fun tradition.<br />
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We didn't leave there until well after bedtime and we had to be back to Bountiful by 8:30 the next morning, so instead of going clear back to Lehi, we stayed at my aunt's house in Salt Lake. We all slept in one room. It wasn't too bad, but it did turn out to be a long night. Peter woke up 2-3 times to eat. Kessa woke up desperately needing to go potty, and had an accident on the way. As we were coming back in, Abby wandered out, upset because she had a big pee pee in her diaper and needed a new diaper. [sigh] But we managed. We even got up and going early enough to leave by 7:30!<br />
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As we got into the car I had a horrifying realization—my purse, with my temple recommend, was at home in our other car. We didn't have enough time to go home and get back to the temple before the session started. I started to call Resa to see if she could rush down and get it for me, but then we realized that our garage code thingy is broken, so she would have no way in. I really just didn't have a recommend. Jessa, I cried. It was heart breaking. I called my bishop and he didn't answer his phone. But before we got there he called back and said he'd keep his phone nearby. That was a relief. When I got there, though, I was still nervous, especially when I had to write down my stake president's name on their request slip. Did they have to call both of them? What if my stake president didn't answer? And then they took about 10 minutes to come back and let me in. Ugh. So not cool. Lesson learned. But it all worked out! And thankfully we did get there so early, because it gave time for all of this to play out without feeling too rushed.<br />
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The ceremony was beautiful. I've been endowed almost 8 years now, but this is only my 2nd sealing (not counting my own), so I don't have a lot to compare it to, but I learned a lot from it for my own marriage, and I spent most of it all teary eyed. The room was packed; the big sealing room was still occupied, so we got put in a smaller one. We were literally sitting 3 people to 2 chairs. Uncle Richard ended up sitting on the windowsill. No joke. And once we thought we were packed to capacity, Bonnie showed up in her wheelchair. Hah! But we managed to fit everyone.<br />
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As we were about to leave the temple, I had just fed Peter and was burping him when he pooped and exploded out his diaper and all over the both of us. Yuck. Poor boy had to ride back to to my Aunt Grace's house in just a diaper because we didn't think to pack a change of clothes. Oops. This is the outfit he soiled. Doesn't he just look so sharp? I died of cuteness overload every time I see him in it. (Not pictured: for the wedding he had that same onesie in bright yellow and grey pants.)<br />
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Then we got back and Aunt Grace was at a hair appointment. Kessa was very disappointed, so we told her to draw a card for her. She drew a picture of the wedding. Translation: "Married together. I love the temple." Awww. You can see the steeple with Angel Moroni on top. Then Chelsea and Nick, complete with wedding dress and veil, and suit, respectively. The lines below them are the stairs of the temple and the squares with grids are the windows with the pretty designs in them. IT IS SO STINKING CUTE! She drew another one for you, though the people are more scribble than anything in yours. Theoretically we're mailing it to you. But I'm not sure where she put it... hopefully it comes.<br />
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The reception wasn't until that evening, so we took the break in between to make sure Abby especially got a nap. We went into the room at one point to get something and found her at the foot of the bed, buried in a pile of blankets and pillows. Adorable.</div>
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Then we went up to the reception. The girls were flower girls and oh my goodness, their outfits were adorable. Of course they loved them. A lot.<br />
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Abby is magnetically drawn to water. There's a picture above at the temple of her playing in the water, too. So when we got to the reception and there was a stream, she was there in a heartbeat. And then was very upset when I wouldn't let her play in it. But we hadn't even done pictures yet! Finally about halfway through the reception when she was just a Miss Crankypants, I caved and let her go at it. She laid on that bridge and would put grass and dirt in the water. She pulled up handfuls of the grass right there. I didn't care; it would grow back. Eventually she started putting her head into it. And, of course, she was so cute that the only consequence was that everyone oohed and awwwed about how gosh darn cute it was. I had to agree. But her pure white dress was not so white by the end... yay for washing machines!</div>
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And then as we were packing up to leave the reception, Peter exploded out of his diaper again, this time on BJ. Go figure. At least he was kind enough to wait until the very end of both events...<br />
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And now to move past the wedding onto random pictures.<br />
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Kessa reading a book to Peter. She really, really loves him.<br />
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We moved these cabinets up to the kitchen, in an attempt to organize a little better. Kessa immediately stuffed one with her blanket and doggy. They're not that big, so the door wouldn't close. This was her solution. Hah! It lasted maybe 30 seconds before it popped open.<br />
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Our flowering, non-fruiting, plum trees out front once again gave us mini plums the size of cherries. They are, once again, delicious.<br />
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And the garden is producing, too! This cabbage was ginormous. The picture doesn't do it justice. I left the paper towels for perspective. But that thing was probably the size of my head. I chopped up that one and one more, not quite as big, and made peppered cabbage and canned it. Generally you get 4-5 pints per head. I got 7 quarts (which is the equivalent of 14 pints)! So the two combined were about the sizes of 3 average heads! Amazing!</div>
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Kessa wanted to stay in the cart while we shopped. So I buried her. She loved it.<br />
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She also discovered a new way to ride the exercise bike.<br />
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<b>One Kessa-ism</b></div>
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Kessa: "Daddy, would you get off the computer? Mommy needs to do her brains!" (Translation: She wants me to exercise my brain on Lumosity, a website that has you play games that work your memory, flexibility, speed, etc. It's supposed to be a really good way to work your brain and I tell Kessa it's my brain exercises and that I need to do it daily.)</div>
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And... that's all for today, since you're online. [hugs!]</div>
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~ Tianna and Co.</div>
Tiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6449137189263457728.post-15770019076350140642014-07-13T22:17:00.001-06:002015-11-15T20:41:39.356-07:00It was my birthday!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Jessa ~</div>
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Sunday night I decided to eat fewer treats. Then Monday I woke up and realized it was Chelsea's bridal shower that night and my birthday on Tuesday. Wednesday is better, right? :D Haha. I actually did pretty well on both days. I mean, I ate treats for both, but not nearly the amount I had been consuming previously. But seriously. Poor planning on my part. But in good news, I managed to go running twice last week. My goal is to run MWF and do weights TTh at our clubhouse. The problem is, I know nothing about weights. So... yeah. My goal needs some work.</div>
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The bridal shower was fun. It was up at Barbara's. We played a fun game where I learned I could guess mustard powder by sight combined with Barbara's reaction when tasting it. Woo! Go me! Haha. Grandma Goddard got to hold Peter, so I got a picture of that. I figure it's good to get lots of pictures of my kids with great grandparents when possible, because who knows how long that'll be able to happen, y'know? I never knew any of my great grandparents.</div>
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Tuesday was my birthday! I'm older than BJ again. Alas. ;) It was a good day anyway. Honestly, I don't remember much of it. I know the day was pretty good. I had DJ's middle two boys, Parker and Taegen, here. I told all the kids that what I wanted for my birthday was happy, obedient kids, so whenever they started to fuss I reminded them and they calmed down. Wait, I'm remembering more. I woke up that morning feeling pretty refreshed, so I went on a run. I got back to find that Parker had made scrambled eggs for breakfast. Then BJ gave me some bamboo wind chimes. Yay! Now the awful wind here can bring a little joy, too. I'm listening to them right now as I type. Lovely. After work Travis and Brenda came and brought pizza. We ate, then went to Thanksgiving Point's children museum. The goal was to wear out the kids so they'd go right to bed, which mostly worked. So then we had adult time afterwards and played Stone Age. Overall, it was a very lovely day.</div>
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Saturday we went and saw Mary Poppins. My mom was supposed to come with, but my sister went into labor early, so my parents headed up there instead. (She's only 35 weeks and they want her to be at least 36 before baby is born, so they have her on awful medication and she has to stay at the Ronald McDonald house right by the hospital, two hours from her home, until next week, on bed rest. Say a little prayer for her, k?) We couldn't find anyone to take the ticket, so we took Kessa with us instead. It was a really long play (2 hours, 45 minutes) for a 5-year old, but she did pretty well, considering. Now she's loving plays and Mary Poppins. Our next girl is supposed to be named Mary Poppins (but she won't let us rename her Kessalyn Mary Poppins Elizabeth Homer. She says that'd make her name too long and she'd forget it. lol). And tonight she asked if they did plays on Sunday. I told her no, but we could do a play here. We had friends over for dinner, so she and Audrey acted out Samuel the Lamanite for us. Twice (so they could each have a turn being Samuel). And then BJ helped them act out other stories, like Lehi's vision of the tree of life, while the other adults chatted. It was adorable. I think we have FHE figured out for the next many weeks!</div>
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Kessa loves Peter and wants to hold him. All. The. Time.</div>
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From Peter's blessing. Candids from my mom's phone. We think he was trying to tell us that he was done with pictures. :D<br />
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Grandma Goddard holding Peter... with a funny look on his face.<br />
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Tile in the bathroom downstairs! There's more done than this now, but doesn't it look nice? I picked out the tile. Be proud.<br />
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At the museum. Abby <i>loves</i> water. Particularly washing her hands.<br />
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Teeter totters! Not just for children!<br />
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More Kessa loving Peter and needing to hold him. He puts up with it.<br />
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Mary Poppins!<br />
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We went to Jim's for dinner so that Resa could be our waitress. We had fun making it awkward, like me saying, "My husband just gave my waitress one of my fries." Then joking that he was flirting with my waitress. And Resa wondering how he ever got married if that was how he flirted. Hah! But really the best part was that Kessa was the start of the show. She had all the waitresses wrapped around her finger. :)<br />
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Random Peter pic. I like the fist. Clearly he's powerful in his dreams.<br />
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<3 Tianna and Co.</div>
<br />Tiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6449137189263457728.post-90136301350002843272014-07-06T22:34:00.000-06:002014-07-06T22:34:06.546-06:00The 4th, a car, and shelvingJessa ~<br />
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Last week Damian came down, again with his bro-in-law, Matthew. This time he also brought his eldest and youngest kids, Lexi and Kolter. Basement news: They finished the mudding, taping, sanding, and texturing. They built my shelves for my storage room. Woo!<br />
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Lexi and Kessa were best friends. They played together quite well, despite a 6-year age gap. She was, as always when she's here, my big helper with all the kids. Kolter and Abby got along quite nicely, too. It was adorable to watch them run up and down the hall, laughing. Then stopping to show the other some toy they had, then laughing. Abby always wanted to know where Kolty was if she couldn't see him right off hand. I'm glad they've got cousins for friends. This week we've got the other two kids, Parker and Taegen. I'll report back on how they interact next week.<br />
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We bought a new car this week! An electric car. Specifically, a Nissan Leaf. I'm super excited about this. It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment purchase, in that we weren't actively shopping for cars. BJ saw this one, it was a great price, we decided to test drive it, and bought it. But we have been talking about it for months. We've been wanting to be more eco friendly. And it would save a lot of money on gas. And as well qualified as we are to be a one-car family, we don't like it. So all things combined and suddenly we have a new car! Hooray! It's super fun. I'll let you drive it when you come home.<br />
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The 4th of July was this week. It's one of my favorite holidays. I think because it's close to my birthday, I love fireworks, and I loved pretending that the fireworks were for my birthday. My parents decided to come down that morning (instead of Saturday as I had anticipated). So in the morning while we waited for them, I braved taking all three kids to Hobby Lobby where we bought stuff to make "firework wands" (red, white, and blue ribbons tied to dowels), and t-shirts to paint. When my mom got there, we started crafting. I think the end products were adorable.<br />
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We had planned on going to Thanksgiving Point to see fireworks, but as we were getting ready to leave, we were invited to join a neighborhood party in the cul de sac across the street. I knew my parents would rather not fight the crowds, and a bunch of Kessa's friends were there, so we decided to stay. The neighbors had chipped in and bought a bunch of fireworks, so we had our own fireworks show. I contributed sparklers and glow sticks instead. Abby <i>loved</i> it. She sat on my lap and for awhile, every explosion was met with, "Wow! Wow! Wow!" She'd point out the colors and ooh and ahh. It was adorable. I love this age, where they're enamored and willing to sit on my lap still. :) Kessa was running all around with other kids. I don't know how much she actually saw, but I do know that she had a great time with a bunch of glow sticks on a trampoline. :D<br />
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Saturday was spent shopping and cleaning and cooking to get ready for Peter's blessing! It was a chaotic, stressful kind of day that I am glad is over. And inspires me to try to keep my house cleaner on a more regular basis.<br />
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BJ blessed Peter today in church. More pictures to come later. When I get them from Travis. :D It was a wonderful blessing. I'm sad you missed it. But it was beautiful. I remember thinking, "This is the best blessing ever. It's full of things I would hope for in a blessing for one of my children." And then BJ mentioned the word "scriptures" and it hit me <i>so powerfully</i> that Peter needs the scriptures strongly in his life. And that we need to do better to have family scripture study and to make the scriptures come alive. It hit me so powerfully that I have no idea what the last half of the blessing was about, because all I could think about were scriptures. So we started reading the Book of Mormon as a family tonight. We'll try to do it every morning. Hold me accountable, k?<br />
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Damian working on building the playhouse. </div>
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Peter, just chilling.</div>
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Turns out, getting a picture of the shelving is hard. But here's the best I could do.</div>
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It's a horrible picture, but it's the best I have right now of the new car. It's the white one on the left.</div>
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<b>Kiddisms</b></div>
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<ul>
<li>Kessa: I was still a little hot from my blankie, because blankets make us nice and cool.</li>
<li>Kessa: it's ok if you go faster than the speed.<br />Me: Oh?<br />Kessa: yeah. One time we were late to swimming so daddy went over the speed. So it's ok if you go faster, because we're late.<br /><i>BJ claims that he wasn't speeding, but rather was accelerating quickly.</i></li>
<li>I told Abby to give Peter a kiss, so she did. On the mouth. As she walked away she suddenly started crying, “Uh-oh! I ate Peter! On the mouth!”</li>
<li>Abby turned the music on the swing on, and to the highest volume. “There! I fixed it!”</li>
<li>BJ was doing math flashcards with Kessa. 2+3. Kessa: “It's almost 4, but it's not 4. It's 5! Do you know how I know that? Because 2+2 is 4, and 3 is one bigger than 2, so it's 5!”</li>
<li>Grandma and Grandpa Lovell came down for Peter's blessing. As they drove down, Kessa kept impatiently asking, “When will Lovell be here?” “Tell Lovell to hurry up!” And when they got here she ran out yelling “Lovell is here!!!”</li>
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<3 Tianna and Co.Tiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6449137189263457728.post-22468643642713463622014-06-29T22:55:00.001-06:002014-06-29T23:34:53.841-06:00Best part: 9 hours of sleep.Jessa ~<br />
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I feel like this week was full, but looking back, it seems pretty boring. Maybe because most of what I filled my life with was actually feeling like being productive. Which doesn't make it into my calendar or photo library. Alas.<br />
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Damian was back again this week. This time he brought his brother-in-law, Matthew, to help out. They finished (I think?) all of the mudding and taping. Which is his least favorite part. But he's coming back tomorrow night for a few days. I think next up is texturing the walls. It's coming! Hooray!<br />
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So the girls finished their swimming lessons this week. It was bittersweet. I miss the time alone in the middle of the day. They miss swimming. But it is nice to have a normal schedule again. And it's nice for BJ not to take 1-2 hours off of work every day. Kessa almost passed level 2 this time. She only missed being able to float on her back unassisted while kicking for 2 body lengths. So the question now is... do I put her in level 2 again? Hmmm...<br />
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Abby has decided she hates her diaper when it's dirty. So she takes it off, then poops on the changing pad. Or the blanket. Or wherever she feels like it. In good news, she doesn't play/paint with it like I've heard of other kids doing. Hooray! But it's still annoying to clean up. Or when she pees and it gets everywhere and I end up putting 7 blankets, 12 stuffed animals, plus a pillow or two, and sheets and mattress pads, etc. in the wash. Or scrubbing down half of her floor on my hands and knees. So we've decided to start potty training. We keep a potty chair in her room (because her accidents often happen at nap or bedtime) and one in the kitchen. Once she starts having some successes and figures out what we want from her, I'll move them into the bathrooms. But I don't want to spend my life in the bathrooms. We have her sit on it multiple times a day. We're bribing her with jelly beans, which she <i>really</i> wants. And she's getting the language down. So far, though, our only success was today when she told me she got a "little pee pee" in the potty. And she turned out to be right. It was maybe the size of a nickel. It was tiny. But I made a huge deal about it and gave her a jelly bean. So hopefully we're on the right path? I feel like we're not giving it our all, though, because we usually put her in a diaper at night and sometimes naps. It's not like she can't take it off... but it might prevent some cleanup for us. So we hope. And she's in a diaper whenever we go somewhere, which is often as we have been taking walks every couple of evenings. So basically, we're hoping for a miracle.<br />
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Yesterday we had a party at your parents for Brian and Danztel's wedding. It was fun to see everyone. Kessa insisted on bringing her bike, so she rode it around a lot. And there was lots of yummy food. So it was good. Also, Chelsea brought down clothes for the girls (and a skirt for me) for the wedding, so we tried them on. It was adorable. Just look at the picture. But the best part was Abby, pleased as punch, walking around saying, "Abby pretty! Pretty dress! So pretty..." She thought it was the greatest thing ever. And she cried when I told her she had to take it off. I'm going to have to hide it lest she find it and put it on herself and get it dirty before the wedding.<br />
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Then we rushed home and I changed into a dress and headed over to our Stake Activity Days Day Camp, aka Daddy/Daughter Princess Ball. My Activity Days counselor and her committee planned and did the whole thing, which was great as I've been busy recovering from baby stuffs. They did an INCREDIBLE job. Especially considering our teensy weensy budget for it. I loved it. And there was a HUGE turnout. I'm guessing around 200 people total? The gym was full of little girls and their daddies. We had several dads that wore suits (and sometimes cummerbunds!) to match their daughter's dresses. Adorable. But my favorite parts were 1) watching the dads that were clearly <i>way</i> out of their comfort zones, but dancing anyway, because their daughters wanted them to, 2) watching the dads bust out 90s dance moves, including a line dance I didn't even recognize, whenever their era of music came on. Songs like "Ice, Ice, Baby". And the girls watching them and trying to mimic them. 3) The last song was Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up." I was seriously moved to tears as I watched several dads pick up their girls and dance with them in their arms, or kneeling on the floor to be on the girls' level. It was so incredibly sweet. I heard that it was a similar heart-wrenching scene when they played "Butterfly Kisses" halfway through, but I missed that one. But we had several requests to do this again, so I think it was a success.<br />
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And THEN last night? Peter slept for 9 hours. Which means I slept for 9 hours. It was amazing. I am trying not to get my hopes up for a repeat performance. It's hard.<br />
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So you know Pi Day is 3/14 every year, right? Well, that means 6/28 is 2π day! But it was crazy busy yesterday, so we didn't have time to celebrate. Instead we had a 2π+1 dinner tonight. Travis and Brenda came and we had a chicken pot pie for dinner (except I forgot the chicken... oops!) and an apple pie for dessert. Then we played some MarioKart and Dominion. And it was great.<br />
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<b>Random pictures:</b><br />
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On a walk the other day, Abby was really tired. So she'd lean over the side of the stroller and sat there, half comatose. It was kind of cute.<br />
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On another walk Peter managed to get his arms out of his swaddle blanket. He also really likes to kink his head way back in the most awkward looking positions.<br />
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Kessa made a monster out of Duplos and immediately asked me to take a picture of it. You can't tell, but those red legos are angled and look like feet.<br />
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With long hair I would wash my hair at night and let it dry while I slept. It would be a little crazy in the morning, but gravity kept most of it under control. And I could always pull it into a ponytail if I didn't have time to tame it. Turns out, this haircut is not going to allow me the same privilege. Check it out. Pretty awesome, huh? And this picture doesn't even begin to do it justice.<br />
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One of our projects this week was to dig up our front flowerbed, dig up all the tulip and daffodil bulbs, add compost to the almost pure-clay soil, replant the bulbs, then plant some annuals for color. We only got the first half done, but that was by far the hardest part. I'm hoping to get the rest done first thing tomorrow morning. Though, I may let the bulbs dry out and wait till fall to plant them again. Which means I could get the petunias planted in about 3 minutes and call it done. Kessa wanted to help me with the shovel.<br />
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Having Damian here all week also meant lots of time with our garage door open, which means lots of flies. So BJ climbed over storage, strollers, bikes, etc, onto the couch, to hang a fly strip on the garage door braces. The things we do... Also, it's probably a really good thing we got rid of our second car. We don't have room for it anymore.<br />
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Abby and Peter cuddled up with Trav tonight while we played MarioKart. It made it a lot easier to beat him when Abby was constantly trying to throw his items for him. Bwahaha. </div>
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<b>Random things</b></div>
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From my journal: </div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Tonight both girls had memorable prayers.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
For the first time Abby actually said a prayer. Generally we just say one for her. Not even a repeat-after-me prayer. She won't repeat. “No, Daddy say it!” We just say a prayer on her behalf. Tonight BJ did that, then was trying to get Kessa to pray when suddenly Abby started praying aloud. She said Thank You for 15-20 different things before getting distracted and not really finishing. Thank you big monkey and little monkey. Thank you Kessa's bed. Thank you window. Etc. how adorable is that?! </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Kessa was saying a pretty good prayer when she stopped partway through. “Daddy, I stopped to listen to the Holy Ghost, but I can't really hear him.” So they talked about how he can sometimes help you think things. “So what are you thinking?” She thought a moment more and said, “He told me 'In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.'” So she closed her prayer. </blockquote>
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Abby doesn't know the meaning of the word "scared" yet she really loves to use it. For example, she was walking with BJ down the stairs, holding his hand. At every stair she'd happily say, "I too scared" and then she'd jump down to the next stair. All the way down. There's another example in the kiddisms. It's hilarious.</div>
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I got an email from Pinterest telling me I'm a top pinner and inviting me to try out a new feature. I'm not sure if I should feel embarrassed about this or not. But turns out, nursing gives me lots of time to pin! So I've been pinning again. I hear there's a max number of pins you can have and the official advice is to just set up a new Pinterest account when you hit that number. I think that's a horrible solution and I'm fearful for when that day comes. :/</div>
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I've started reading aloud to Kessa. We started with Charlotte's Web. We just read a chapter here and there throughout the day, whenever one of us thinks of it. So far she really seems to be enjoying it. I'm enjoying it, too, so I'm glad I decided to do it. I can't wait till Abby is older and I can have both of their rapt attention.</div>
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<b>Kiddisms</b></div>
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<li>While I was doing Abby's hair:<br />Abby: I'm scared.<br />BJ: Is mommy making your hair so pretty?<br />Abby: I'm happy now!</li>
<li>Travis: How come you pay more attention to Peter than you do to me?<br />Kessa: Because I love Peter more than I love you.</li>
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<3 Tianna and Co.</div>
Tiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6449137189263457728.post-77704271726641199292014-06-22T22:28:00.002-06:002014-06-22T22:28:46.664-06:00A normal week post again!Jessa ~<br />
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I think I maybe told you Damian was here this past weekend? Well, Monday he and BJ worked hard all morning finishing the sheetrock in the basement for the second inspection. Unfortunately, the inspector came before they were done. Fortunately he looked at everything else they had done and said, "You clearly know what you're doing and I expect you'll continue doing it right," and passed it. Hooray! So there is only one inspection left, and it is the final inspection! Damian used the rest of his stay to start mudding and taping the sheetrock, so that's partly done. Progress!<br />
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Both girls started swimming lessons this week. Kessa seems much more excited about everything she is learning this time, so I'm hoping that means her confidence is higher. Perhaps she'll even have the confidence to float on her back and front unassisted this time around so she can pass level 2. I don't mind her repeating levels. She doesn't realize she's repeating and it's building her confidence, so I think it's great. Abby is doing a parent/child class with BJ and our backdoor neighbor is also in it! Surprisingly, Abby is the one who is being more cautious and nervous about everything. Go figure.<br />
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I got a haircut on Wednesday. It's short again. So far I like it, but I haven't had to style it myself yet (bonus of not having to wash my hair daily!) so we'll see how that goes... That's always the scary part. But I have high hopes for it.<br />
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BJ and I had our 6th anniversary this week! We thought about going out to dinner or something, but realized that where Peter hasn't been introduced to a bottle, we really wouldn't have much time. He often eats every 1.5-2 hours. And by the time we travel to and from wherever we were going, we wouldn't really have much time. So we had this brilliant epiphany and decided instead to celebrate it as the birth of our family. Which sounds like it should be a family celebration! So we ate at home, then after dinner took the entire family to the Timp temple, where we were married, and walked around it, looking at different things on the temple (like the stained glass windows, and the sun, moon, and stars) and the landscaping. Kessa wanted to go in, so we went into the waiting room and talked quietly in there about eternal families. Then we went back outside and sang "Families Can Be Together Forever" ... at least part of it before Kessa got distracted. Then we went to Coldstone and got ice cream. It was So Much Fun. So I think we're going to make it a tradition. BJ and I may still go out on a date when we don't have a brand newborn, but the family date will definitely have to be repeated.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxSEHwby7tIewSP7eONuz5zDrTb3KFi5E7wlJ4YumACtl5xHtu3mH3X5RizpDURKFoglWMQGQY_nvADgSFZSBcqJ8yUs6JfJMc_cJU49SiMl5rnwKcA_a0X7me4njg6sB4RCP5rDA4TbM/s1600/IMG_2039.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxSEHwby7tIewSP7eONuz5zDrTb3KFi5E7wlJ4YumACtl5xHtu3mH3X5RizpDURKFoglWMQGQY_nvADgSFZSBcqJ8yUs6JfJMc_cJU49SiMl5rnwKcA_a0X7me4njg6sB4RCP5rDA4TbM/s1600/IMG_2039.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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Travis came home from his 7-week adventure to Australia, Samoa, and New Zealand yesterday. That's exciting. :D Except he's going to want his blender back, so that's sad. Alas. But hopefully more frequent game nights will remedy that.<br />
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4th Sunday dinner was tonight. I swear we've eaten at your parents house 4 out of the last 5 Sundays. It's really quite possible, actually. Thankfully they don't seem to be sick of us yet (we can probably thank the cute kids for that) and we love going up there, so it seems to be a win. But I think we're going back to our normal schedule of only going up once a month. Alas. We have to grow up and be big kids someday, I guess... ;) But we got to meet Sis. Payne! Which was exciting. She's fun. The Christensens came to look at her pictures and stuff and we warned her that they were nervous about Sam going there and she was like, "Oh. Maybe I should have brought different pictures." Hah! The very first picture was a pile of skulls. Then later she talked about how if you get hit by a car, you have to get yourself (or your companion has to get you) off the road ASAP lest they come back to hit you again, because it's cheaper to pay for a funeral than hospital expenses. Then she immediately turns to them and says, "But don't worry, that won't happen to your son!" Bahaha.<br />
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<b>Random pictures</b></div>
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Our strawberry patch is producing magnificently. This was one harvest. We get about 6 cups every time we harvest, at least 1-3 times per week. It's insane.</div>
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Kessa got stick-on earrings for her birthday. Obviously she and Abby love them. But in her obsessive love of Peter, she likes to stick them on him as well.</div>
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Kessa loves to sit on Abby's chair with her. Especially for dessert. Abby doesn't seem to mind, so I let her. It seems like good sister bonding. Especially when we get scenes like this over strawberry shortcake. *love*<br />
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And Peter! I took him for a walk the other day while BJ put the girls to bed. Hence why he's not actually buckled. I don't expect a high-collision crash while walking on the sidewalk. Call me a risky parent, I know. ;) But seriously, isn't he so handsome?!<br />
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Abby: "I painted my fingernails!"</div>
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[sigh] That's watercolor paint. At least it's easily washable. Tonight she found a marker at your mom's and did it again. At least it's just on her hands? And at least she's adorable?</div>
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<b>Kiddisms</b></div>
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<li>Kessa: Every night we need to have ice cream from now on! That's the new rule! [folds arms and stamps foot!]</li>
<li>BJ: You're missing out on so much if you don't know everything! … that's kind of my whole philosophy on life.</li>
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<li>Me: I love you Kessa.<br />Kessa: And I never want you to die. Never, ever.</li>
<li>Fashion diva just powered up to a new level. Abby wants me to tuck her shirt into her pants/skirt. She told me to “hide her shirt”. How does she know that tucking in her shirt is a thing?!</li>
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<li>Abby took her diaper off last night. Then wet the bed. So her nightgown is all wet. While BJ was telling her she needed a bath, she was yelling, “No bath! Want diaper on!”<br />Go figure. [rolls eyes]</li>
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<b>Random kid tidbits</b><br />
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Kessa loves Peter. Perhaps a little too much. The most commonly used phrase in the house these days is, "Kessa! Just leave Peter alone!" or "Just let Peter sleep!" She always wants to hug him, kiss him, hold him, show him things, tickle him, etc. Which is, admittedly, adorable. But not when she's constantly waking him up and I <i>just want him to sleep so I can get something done!</i> There are worse problems, I know.<br />
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Abby also loves Peter, but in a less demanding way. Whenever she comes into a room and sees him, she'll start saying, "Baby! Baby!" And then she'll run over and look at him for a minute, then run off to do something else. She's starting to talk in more full sentences, so sometimes she'll say, "Can I hold him please?" which is adorable, so how can I possibly say no? But her idea of holding him is coming from his side, one arm under and one over. So basically I hold him and set him on her outstretched arm for about 15 seconds, then she's done.<br />
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Kessa rides her bike outside about 17 times per day. At least when I let her. Thankfully she's getting old enough that I'm comfortable letting her play outside without me. I know she'll follow the rules and I can check on her periodically. Plus, we live on a cul de sac that she can safely ride in. So that's nice.<br />
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Both girls have started playing "I see the temple; I win." Kessa is actually pretty darn good and legitimately beats us fairly often. She's even started saying the name of the temples that she knows. One day we were driving to your parents' house and then I hear, "I see the temp— Noo! I see the <i>Drape!</i> temple; I win." a) she got the word Draper adorably wrong (she's now knows it) and b) we never taught her to say the name or what the name of that temple was! She figured it out on her own by listening to us! Incredible! Abby mostly just says, "I see the temple; I win!" whenever she sees a church steeple or hears one of us see the temple. But at her age, that's awesome enough.<br />
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Did I tell you that BJ has started to teach Kessa piano lessons? Unsurprisingly, she's picking up on it super well. Also, today she read me part of a Little Critter book before she got sidetracked. She was reading words like, "Sometimes" and "remember". Where is my little girl!?<br />
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Abby likes to be knowingly mischievous. Like after a meal, she'll ask us to wash her hands, then while we're getting a rag wet, she'll run to the family room, occasionally looking back to make sure we're watching, all with a huge grin on her face. The more we say, "Come back here Abby..." the bigger the grin gets, until she runs and hides behind the couch. The entire time with her hands up in the air so as not to touch anything. Then BJ will go fetch her and start counting down from 5, and she'll run out, gleeful that she's been caught, and hold out her hands to be washed. But we got after her for doing that enough times that now she just runs to the line where the carpet starts and sits down on the carpet and holds out her hands. She knows she's supposed to stay in the kitchen. So she literally toes the line. I fear for her teenage years. :D<br />
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And... that's all the random tidbits I can think of right now. Hope you have a great week!<br />
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~ Tianna and Co.Tiannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10225416679542274879noreply@blogger.com0