A post mostly about Abby.

Dear Resa ~

Let's start with kiddisms, shall we?

Abby: This is a girl, not a baby.
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Abby: Kessa, when I die, I will come back alive in one week to see you. Ok, sister?
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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!
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Abby in the dinner prayer: Thank you for Jesus and that we played with Him all day.
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Abby: I don't need to go potty; I need to go in an airplane!
Kessa: I don't need to go in an airplane; an airplane needs to go in me!
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Me: Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving?
Abby: Because celebrate means we go to Thanksgiving after dinner.
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Abby: For Jesus!
Me, half paying attention: Oh, for Jesus?
Abby: My mouth is heaven for Jesus!
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Me: What game?
BJ: Dominion
Abby: The yellow minion?
BJ and Me: [laugh]
Abby: The purple minion?
Me: No. DO-minion.
Abby: The blue minion? Which minion?! What color?
BJ: Brown.
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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.
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Wow. That was a lot of Abby. Apparently kids are funniest around 3-4 years old.

Well, let's do some more Abby, shall we?



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."

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.

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!

[hugs]
~ Tianna and co.

In which Peter grins at himself, and other kid things.

Resa ~

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.

Of course, he gave himself that same grin at dinner tonight when he caught his reflection in the sliding glass door...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Kiddisms
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Abby just asked me to turn up the volume on the iPad. “It's just so nervous.”
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Abby was stomping around in an obvious potty dance. She saw me look at her and declared quickly, “I'm a stomping elephant!” (That girl is very creative at insisting that she doesn't need to go to the bathroom.)
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Me: I can help you go potty, but then you won't get a sticker. 
Abby: I don't want a sticker; I had too much food. 
Me: [blink] I have no idea what that means. 
Abby, angrily: It means nuffing!
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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.)
Kessa was the lame man, leaving Abby to be Peter. Except she didn't want to be Peter!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.)
So we called her Simon for the duration of the play. :D Thanks, Peter, for having two names!
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Hugs!
<3 Tianna and Co.

This is Halloween; this is Halloween.

Hermana Homer ~

See! I promised I would write tonight! Didn't I promise? 

I've been reading my old blog. 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.

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.

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 soooo many hymns 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 not spew forth spiritual insights with every blog post?

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 so much! 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.

Ok, off my preaching platform here. :D 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Kiddisms:

Kessa, trying to convince us to let her stay up extra late tonight: But I'm speeding nice!

Editor's note: We're wondering if this is similar to being storming night. haha.

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Kessa, singing: I'm going to stone, stone, stone my sillies out.

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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.

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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?

<3 Tianna and Co.

Of murder and giant carrots

Dear Resa ~

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.

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.

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.

And... let's throw things up a little and put kiddisms in the middle today.
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Me: What do wolves say?
Abby: They don't say anything! They talk!
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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.
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Abby: My teeth don't know they're surprised.
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BJ: Let's face it, Bellatrix was no Hufflepuff.
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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.
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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.)

Resa. This carrot is gigantic. Ridiculously gigantic. After we cut off the leaves we weighed it. It was 4.2 pounds! 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. :)

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.

Also about Peter, I think his first word is officially “banana”.

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!

She is also getting a lot better at roller skating.

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.

Love and hugs,
~ Tianna and Co.

A double dose of kiddisms

Dear Resa ~

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.

Forgive me?

Let's start with kiddisms. In good news, you get a double dose.
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Abby: Am I going to Liam's house?
Me: Yup!
Abby: But I don't like boys!
Me: Remember Brother Anderson?
Abby: I like him!
Me: He's a boy.
Abby: I like that boy but not other beautiful boys.
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Me: Can you tell me the story?
Abby: Mmmmm… no. I don't know how to learn it. Because I'm not a mommy.
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Pizza night at the Homers = Zoombini quote night. “There's something on here I don't like!” “The perfect pizza!”
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Abby: Mommy, we forgot to watch a show!
Me: You did watch a show. You just fell asleep while you were watching.
Abby: I noticed.
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Abby: G-O-L-M-O spells go.
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Kessa: Mommy! Time for breakfast!
Me: Is it ready?
Abby: Yes, because I can fly.
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Abby threw up tonight. We just got her resettled on our bedroom floor.
Abby: It's still hurting.
Me: If you need to throw up again, try to get it in that bucket beside you.
Abby, writhing slightly: I'm trying to push it out.
Me: Does it feel like it's going to come out your mouth or your bum?
Abby, relaxing visibly: It came out my toes.
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Abby: If you go to Farm Country, I will give you a candy. Promise?
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Abby, whispering: Mommy, if you let me go to Grandma Lovell's, will you give me a candy?
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BJ: Eight plus the tree plus the two is 13.
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BJ: With our hands combined, we are… holding hands!
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Talking about a favorite neighborhood kitten that died last year:
Abby: She ran to heaven.
Kessa: She didn't run to heaven. She didn't fly to heaven. She died to heaven.
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Abby is scared to sleep by herself tonight. She's in bed yelling, “Daddy, I'm scary!”
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Abby: Cooper! Watch this sound!
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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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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! ;)

And now, pictures.

Some pictures from Grandma and Grandpa Lovell's

Hopefully all is great in Mexico. That you can walk again. And that you understand and speak a little more Spanish. Hugs!

<3 Tianna and Co.

Letters and apologies

Dear Resa ~

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? ;)

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. 

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. 

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!"

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. 

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!"

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. 

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. 

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. 

Love, Tianna

We're gonna miss you while you're gone

Hey 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. :)

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Dear Resa ~

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!!! ;)

Let's see... what things from this week would you care about...

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 that actually happens. Don't hold your breath.)

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.)

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 waaay faster than she really is.)

And because you deserve a cat picture, we have a new pianist at our house! Meow!

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...

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.)

• Me: Kitty. Kitty. Kittykittykittykitty.
  Abby: Mommy don't say that. That is not a word.
  Me: Kitty isn't a word?
  Abby: No it is not.
  Me: Kitty is too a word
  Abby: No, it is not a word!
  Me: Kitty is a word. I think you're tricking me.
  Abby: I'm not tricking. I'm teaching you to not say funny things.
• Abby is playing by herself, singing Let it Go, 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. 
• 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.)
• Things I never expected to say to my children include: “Write 5 words, and then you may go die.”
• Abby: When I am a kitty, I'm going to buy whiskers, a tail, and fur.
• Abby: Do you want Aurora or not Aurora.
  Me: Not Aurora.
  Abby: Well, then you will die to Jesus.
• Abby: My pretty fingernails really want to not fall off.
• 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."
• 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.
• Me: Then why did you need my help?
  Abby: Because I wanted to do it by myself.
• Abby: Mommy, this rice is hot. That's because you're hot, Mommy!
• Kessa: I would never lie because I'm a princess. Princesses do not tell lies!
• In prayers:
  Abby: Thank you I died. [pause] Because I didn't.
  Kessa: Thank you that we got to Grandma's before the sun went down.
  Tamra: Help us to be nice to Grandma and Grandpa Lovell. And to be polite. And to not be rude to anyone.  (Note: this is way back from July when we had my sister's kids here.)
• Abby has gymnastics today. “Oh! I'll have to put on my leilatard! Just like when I'm at Leila's house!”
• I just asked Kessa to be quick to obey like Nephi.
  Abby: I want a fruit snack like Laman and Lemuel!
• Very common conversation lately.
  Me: Abby, did you have a good nap? Did you have good dreams?
  Abby: Yeah, I did.
  Me: What were your dreams about?
  Abby: Aurora.
  Though, sometimes the princess will change. Today it was Cinderella.
• Kessa: Those are falling awake machines, goldfish [crackers] are!
• 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!
• Abby: Mommy, I'm scared.
  Me: What are you scared of?
  Abby, screeching: I'm not scared of!   (Editor's note: This is VERY stereotypical of Abby's completely illogical tantrums.)
• Abby, wearing wings, “Mommy, I'm too old to fly.”
• Abby: I smell thunder!
  Later: I don't see any more thunder. 
• Abby just flushed her panties down the potty. Now she's distraught because her panties won't come back.

Ok, that's probably enough. Hope you got at least a good smile, if not a chuckle out of those. :)

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.

Hugs! Can't wait to hear all about your first week!
<3 Tianna and Co.

Mmmm... Chocolate...

Abby turned three years old 3 months ago today. Perhaps I should blog about her party? Because it was awesome.

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.

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 still asks me to show her "her cake" on my phone.

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.

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.

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.

Then we posed for pictures, ate candy/cupcakes, and just played with Elsa and Anna. Not bad for a 3-year old birthday party!

It was super fun having double Elsa and Anna's. Abby still talks about "2 Elsa's and 2 Anna's at our house!"

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...)

All photo credit goes to Travis Lovell Photography.

Input requested

BJ 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. 

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. 

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!

Fasting when you can't fast

Today 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!

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 really 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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

Something new

So, 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.

So today starts something new. I'm not sure what it is yet, but I guess we'll find out together as it unfolds.

For today, I'll catch you up on all the missed kiddisms (with a few adult guest appearances)...

• 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. 
• Me: It would take me more than my whole life to travel to the sun.
  Kessa: But not the firemen. Because they are superfast!
• Abby: I'm two and Kessa's five, so I'm old.
• Kessa: When can I get my ears punished? (She meant pierced.)
• 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.”
• Kessa: If we all like green like you do, then we'd all have magic in our eyes!
• Kessa wearing her Elsa dress walks into my bedroom, alone, and starts saying very earnestly to herself, “Don't. Feel. Don't feel! Don't feel.”
• Kessa: Abby, you have to sleep.
  Abby: I can't; my hands are full. 
• 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.
• Abby: Oh! Look! My shadow is happy!
• Me: How do we earn points?
  Kessa: Wellllllll… that's a very good answer. 
• BJ: I wouldn't get to wear my Transformer's dress.
• Me: What do you want for lunch?
  Abby: peanut butter
  Me: Do you want it on toast?
  Abby: No
  Me: On bread?
  Abby: No
  Me: What do you want it on?
  Abby: I want peanut butter.
  Me: Ok. But what do you want to eat your peanut butter on?
  Abby: Because I don't like it.
  Me: You don't like peanut butter?
  Abby: No
  [30-second pause]
  Abby: I want peanut butter.
  Me: Do you just want to just eat it with a spoon?
  Abby: No. 
• 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.
• 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.
• Abby: Let's go get oatmeal!
  BJ: Just a second, I'm kissing mommy.
  Abby: And hug! And tickle!
  [BJ tickles me.]
  Meanwhile, Abby: Sorry. Sorry, Mommy. Sorry. Sorry about that. 
• 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!
• BJ: Now that you’re getting your big teeth, you need to take care of them because you’ll never lose them.
  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…)
• Kessa's homework today [Nov 17] is to write numbers as high as she can. Try to get to at least 20.
  She did that easily.
  I asked if she could get higher.
  She said she could get to 100. I challenged her to do it.
  So she hid the paper from me and wrote by 10s up to 100. 😂
• 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.”
  Touché.
• 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.
  
  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!”


  
  I admit, I left and let her watch. It was too hard to not laugh in front of her.

And since he can't talk, I'll just remind you all that this dude is awesome:

The basement!

Jessa ~

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. :)

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.

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.

Walk-in game closet!!!

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.

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.
Before the first talk was over, the "Jesus" bowl was empty.

Just in case anyone doubted that we are Christian.

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?

But we did can 47 pints of applesauce and 26 quarts of apple pie filling! Mmmm.

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.

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 adult alumni! AWESOME! But BJ says he didn't do it, so maybe you didn't either?

Kiddisms:

• BJ: Abby, if there is a fire, where should you go?
  Abby: Ummm… to the moon.
• Kessa, as I played games on my phone: Mommy! You shouldn't play screen time in the morning!
  
  Touché.
• Kessa: Taegen, let's play Duck, Duck, Goose. You touch my head until you say frog or goose.
• BJ read Kessa a book tonight that included a grandpa fixing a kite.
  BJ: Some grandpas are good at fixing kites. What are your grandpas good at?
  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.”

Random pics:

Building domino "temples" was high on the list of Fun Things this weekend.

As was the Saturday between-sessions picnic at the park.

Peter has almost 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. 

Also, Peter is definitely our first thumb sucker.

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.

<3 Tianna and Co.