rambling shenanigans

It feels like once every couple of days I send a text message to my mom and dad with my kids latest rambles. I'm so glad I do, because if I didn't immediately document this, people would think I'm making this up. I wish I could make this up. I'd write novels.
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Ruby praying: "Bless Grama Deb she can feel better, and bless gramps Trace he can... ... ... ... deal with grama Deb. And bless Hunter he will go on a mission already..."

Ruby: "Mom, I struggling. Cause my feet are so smelly that I can't even think about things. And I need to think about things to make me strong. But the smell gets in the way."
she is not kidding about that, they smell so terrible. 

Ruby: " I'm not feeling very beautiful today. That's why I'm having a hard time."

Ruby: after an all out brawl with Kevin, she was sent to bed early in a full blown tantrum. After Stella had gone to bed, Ruby snuck up to our room...
"Mom, Dad... I need to opologize. I sorry that I was mean and crying."
as Kevin tucked her into bed and said prayers with her... "ahhhhh, my bed feels so much better after I opologize."

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Lately my dad's favorite thing to do is stop by our house about 8pm. Just as the kids are winding down for bed, ya know quiet time. And when Grampa Trace comes over all hell breaks loose and I can't win. So it's not worth trying. This week, Grama Deb took a rest on the floor and Gus stomped on her head. Then Ruby wasn't paying attention and toppled right over her. There were cookies being thrown across the room and boxes of girls scout cookies inhaled. Gus was testing everyone's hand eye coordination by throwing balls out of your peripheral vision. Stella mostly snuggled, holding her own with sweetness. So basically everyday chaos, and then some.
But it did end in Ruby telling Grampa about her new favorite song. As we were anticipating a Katy Perry tune or Taylor Swift, we got a primary song. He sent his Son. I'm counting it as family home evening. (and it was really sweet listening to her sing it.)
As we were waiving goodbye on the front step, Ruby was examining this week's race car when she just got in the back seat with Grampa. Ya know for a spontaneous middle of the week sleep over. Casually.
Stella was a little sad that she didn't get to have a sleep over with Grampa, but was logical in that she had school the next morning. And I let her watch an extra show on TV. At about 10:30 I got a call from my mom. Ruby was coming home, sleepover's weren't her thing tonight.
The next morning I was taking Stella to school (Because my alarm clocks overslept due to there late night sneagians, we missed the bus.) This conversation happened in the backseat...

Stella: Ruby, why didn't you sleep at Grama's?
Ruby: I just missed you Stella...
Stella: But you also missed out on breakfast at Gramas, think about all the kinds of cereal you could have had... head shaking...
Ruby: Oh I didn't think about breakfast...

Seriously. It's hard not to spend your day laughing at these two.

love love

toe pick

We've had a fierce Olympic spirit at this household. Like it's streaming on all our iPad's, on our phones and I'm stocking the alerts on my phone. And of course the little girly girls in this household want to only watch figure skating. Obviously. We watch it a day later because primetime is way past little girls bedtimes.
After a few days of listening to them play "ice skater" down stairs, sliding across the tile floor with socks on, and spinning round and round; I decided it was time for real deal ice skating.
We headed to the olympic arena in Provo along with 4 million other people. You know how I feel about crowds. Not my thing. As Kevin, Hunter and I stared at the rink, the line for skates and the line for tickets we broke the news to two sad faced little girls. We weren't skating tonight. No freakin way.
So this morning we woke up still feeling inspired to ice skate. I called the school and Stella magically had an appointment in Provo, and we spent the morning ice skating.  With a total of 7 other people on the rink we spun around and worked out our toe picks. It was pretty fantastic.

I'm sure your surprised at Stella's choice of figure skater ensemble...

Stella could have skated for the entire day, Ruby liked the idea of skating all day, and Gus wanted nothing but to be on that ice rink. But seriously, he was so mad that he wasn't big enough to do it, and that we weren't willing enough to slide him around bent over the entire time. Kevin and I's backs are still aching.  If your thinking of ice skating, I highly recommend "small and tall" open skate. It's like toddler hour at the rink. For the win!

It was a great morning pretending to be graceful athletes, Stella has asked a hundred times what sports she can do to get into the olympics. I love the idea of her dreaming and being able to support those dreams as her mom. It's pretty awesome. 

love love

lovers you

Valentines day is pretty awesome. Not because I am spoiled, (i am.) Or because I've got a lotta love in my life (i do.) Mostly because it's a day of candy and baking. And I pretty much live off of candy and making a large mess in my kitchen.

So on Valentines Day it's a perfect excuse to make donuts. I do love donuts, and these were freakin real good.

We* crafted valentines for school friends and donuts for Uncle Hunter. We* frosted cookies and colored more pictures. It was a pretty great day to be a stay at home mom.  **(we meaning, I crafted the valentines and they wrote their names on the back, and I baked the cookies and let them frost a few. I'm not that patient of a mother...)

(Gus was there, but he still is blowing snot bubbles. And I don't like taking his picture when he is covered in snot.)

Then when I had scrubbed the walls of all the flour, Kevin came home early with flowers and fixed dinner. He never fixes like a real dinner, he's pretty good at pizza and scrambled eggs. But this was like real deal fancy dinner. He should cook dinner more often. dee-lish.

Kevin helped the girls make me the largest card they could think of. The inside was covered in their handprints. Which is pretty fantastic. 

It took us 3 days to come down from the sugar high of Friday, but it was well worth it. Thanks Tall Friend for making it such a great day. He put thought into the day, took effort with the girls and made me feel loved. Well done Brimhall, well done!

love love

The Circus

Hey Micall!
The circus came to town! And well, it seemed like a perfect place to celebrate Ruby's birthday. Ok not really, we had cake and ice cream, which she didn't eat, on her birthday. But going to the circus made it easier to not have to plan much on her actual birthday.

I'm sure that other girl on there was nice and everything, but we asked her to get off for a picture. 

She sat promptly on his lap for the entire event. Well except for the moment when he bought her a snow cone and then said she had to sit on her own chair until she was finished with it. She didn't eat much, then was back on his lap watching the tigers, clowns, trapeze and puppies. And I'm not in the least bit surprised. 

Ok, I understand this isn't the best picture. But this lady was balancing on a bar that was hanging from the rafters, on her head, doing the splits, and spinning hoola hoops on her arms and legs. Two words: Core. Strength.

My favorite part was June. She was so excited and sparkly watching the entire thing, I just love her so much.

I will say, this circus exceeded all forms of my expectations. And everyone was pretty entertained the entire time. Gus kept clapping and pointing at everything, even though it was hours past his bedtime. Which marks it as a complete success!

Happy Birthday Ruby Red Dress!

love love

fluffy hair and pink skies

Usually on Tuesday nights I hide from the children. I sometimes go for a run, or a bike ride. Sometimes I curl up on the couch and take a few deep breaths because I know the kids are outside watching Kevin mow the lawn. It's sort of become our weekly routine. But with Henry exercising his lungs the last few days, I haven't found a way that will allow both uses of my arms. So my Tuesday night of peace was not happening. He is now requiring I use at least one arm at all times to hold him. Usually I don't oblige to that kind of behavior, just ask the girls. But Henry, he has more stubbornness than I had imagined. He will scream it out for as long as I am willing to ignore his requests. And I am pretty good at ignoring them, like maybe for hours. So when I went outside to check on the girls, I plopped the smelly, whiny, grumpy, sick baby into the plastic chair.
He was happy.
For more than a moment he was happy. He sat and watched the girls jump on the tramp and Kevin mow the lawn for nearly 20 minutes. The best 20 minutes of my day. I was even able to take a few photos with the use of both arms. How about that...

I really enjoy the dazed look in this photo, well done Henry. And also, his hair? It just sort of looks like that all the time. Regardless of what I do to prevent it. 

love love

The grossest phone call I'll hopefully ever make

You know that article that went around about dating moms? How we moms go through the "dating bases" to find the perfect play date mom friends? It's a brilliant article and couldn't be more true.

Well, here it is the morning after all my months of stay at home mom dating and I'm making that phone call. Ya know the one. Instead of having to call and tell them you have herpa-syphal-aides, you have to tell them your kid has lice. My kid had LICE. 

Bugs.

Crawling.

Hiding. 

Laying eggs. 

Hatching.

Freakin' grossing me out.

There it was Saturday morning, and this house full of sickness, was sleeping in. Kevin had strep. Stella had strep. Henry had bronchitis. Ruby was a ticking time bomb in contracting all of it. Stella was feeling better, her bubble gum medicine had taken care of most of it. Kevin was manning up and just dealing with it. Henry was sleeping it off. I suggested a little pool day with all of us. Mostly with Kevin, because me and three small kids at the pool makes me anxious. I started to gather everything up, but first I grabbed Stella to braid her hair, ya know so I don't have to watch it get in her eyes while she is making cannon balls. She brushed it out first and I grabbed the comb to start braiding. 

Then I saw the first one, a flicker. In and out of her blonde hair. I told her to stay still while I searched for whatever it was in her hair. I couldn't find it, but told Kevin that I needed him to look at something. It couldn't be lice right? How could she have lice? My head started itching with the thought of it.

I kept combing through her hair and found another one. I grabbed the tweezers and pulled it out. There it was. A bug. Crawling in her hair. I rushed to google. I compared my sesame shaped, brown, bug with the one google was showing me. Yep. Lice. 

I started digging more and more into her mop of hair and they were everywhere. Bugs. In her hair. Then I started noticing there were little brown flecks all over. Eggs. There were eggs in her hair. Bugs and Eggs. 

{Insert heebee-geebees. gggggrrrrooooossssss} 

Luckily, thankfully, Stella handled it all perfectly. I pulled a Lice out with tweezers and showed it to her. Explained she had bugs in her hair and we had to get them out, they wouldn't hurt, but that it would take a long time. She smiled and said OK. (What child just says, OK and calmly sits there with a head full of BUGS??!!!!) 

I searched google, called our hair stylists and cancelled all our plans at the pool. The moment I got in the car, heading to purchase large quantities of Lice killer, I lost it. I pulled out of the driveway and just screamed. So gross. SO GROSS. SOOOO GGGRRROOOOSSSSSS.

After two stores, 3 pharmacy's and bags full of rubber gloves, garbage bags, NIX shampoo, apple cider vinegar, a coloring book and a large Diet Coke, I think I was ready. Stella was nearly un-phased by all of it. Which was good, cause well I was freaking out enough for both of us. But just in the car, not in front of her, that would be irresponsible.

The next 5 hours were spent washing her hair, applying the shampoo, rinsing, watching bugs float down the drain and then combing her hair strand by strand with a steel lice comb. With a head lamp, tweezers and a bowl of hot soapy water, I combed. We sat in the bathroom, she watched Netflix on my iPad and I picked, and picked and picked some more. Kevin bagged everything that her sweet little head could have ever touched and its still sitting in the garage, cooking all the bugs away. We washed everything we could think of in hot water and sprayed Lice Killer on nearly everything. Mattresses, headboards, helmets, hats, couch cushions, chairs, blankets, car seats... everything.  Just in case. 

When I finally felt like all the bugs and nits had been eradicated from her hair, I climbed in the shower. I have never scrubbed myself harder in hotter water. I washed my hair 4 times. and I am still certain they are crawling all over me. 

I had to call all my friends and tell them the bad news, tell them to search their children and watch out. Such a great phone call to make, it really helps with making new friends. 

"Hi, I know we played at the park and it was really fun, but my kid has lice, so you wanna go again? no? Yeah, I don't blame you."

Yep, we are that family. The ones that got lice. Freaking LICE. But just Stella did. I keep checking everyone to see if I can find anything, and I haven't yet. Luckily. 

I guess thats what I get for going on vacation for a month, I come home to a kid with a head full of Lice. Maybe it was still worth it, those croissants were pretty amazing. But my inability to sleep because I'm certain there are bugs crawling all over my skin is sort of a bummer. {heee-beeee-geeee-beeeeesssssssss}

--Sorry if your kid has lice, I promise we have killed it all off at our house now. Can I bring you a Diet Coke as a form of my sincerest apologies? ---

love love

Are you ready?

Remember how I tend to over do the travel blog posts? There are like days and days of blog posts for the days and days of dreamy vacations I went on. It's fantastic right? Right? Well I'm just adding to the fire here, cause this extra dreamy life of mine has me heading off to the land of the French with no children and no tall friend. Deb and I will meet Micall as she finishes her Moroccan adventure for another fantastic vacation filled with pastries and more pastries in Paris. So just get ready for the insane about of photo blogs that will come, I mean I upgraded my sad little 8GB SD card for a 32GB monster and I plan to fill it like I'm a tourist. Boo-Yah.

**Thanks tall friend for letting me run off to Paris with my favorite girls for a couple of weeks. You're a dream for taking care of those darling children of ours and watering the flowers. J'adore!**

Oh, and we jumped on the trampoline and you would have thought the girls were going to Disneyland. They were so excited that I was going to jump with them. I'm glad they understand how small my bladder is and how much I love them. 

 Excellent form for a non-cheerleader.

 Gus does not like the tramp, or the sunshine or the fact that his hair is translucent. poor kid.

love love

Today

Today is Friday, I think. I'm pretty sure, because I was doing my usual Friday errands, like the dry cleaner and the grocery store. So ya know we can have snacks for the weekend, yay the weekend! And today at the gym, OK fine the county rec center, (doesn't it just sound cooler that I was at the gym than I was at the rec center?) And it was play group Friday, it felt like the whole place was covered in toddlers. Including my own. But I was there first and had been there every day this month, walking my butt around that track trying to keep track of how many laps I had gone. So I can calculate how many miles I walked while pushing my sweet sleeping baby boy. Not to mention the time I spend searching for miss Ruby in the nets of green turf and basketball bleachers. You would think that she is in the herd of other young kids running around with balls and tricycles, but she is not. Never is. She is always by herself playing. She is sometimes playing with the tennis racket, or the football. Sometimes she is making grass angels in the corner. But usually she is in the farthest away court walking on the bleachers talking to herself. Except the one day this month out of the dozens of others, she played with the kids. She ran around and chased after them. She let me speed walk my three miles in peace. I didn't have to convince her to stay in the middle of the track or eat some more snacks. Watching her interact and play with those other kids has never made my heart so happy. Ruby spends her days always with Stella. Regardless of where we are at, she is with Stella. Except at the Rec Center, we go while Stella is at school. And without Stella there to make her play and without me sitting close by, Ruby is forced to figure out what to do with herself. And those moments as a parent, those are the most nerve wracking. You never think that they would be the moments to give you anxiety. I thought I would worry about what they ate, their cleanliness and making sure they see the sunshine. I never thought I would spend three miles walking in a circle praying she would interact with other kids. But she did. She interacted and played all on her own. She shared her snacks and laughed as they chased each other around. And I realized that this parenting business, its not for the birds. It makes me feel like a nervous wreck.  But I am 100% ok with her being an introvert as long as she can be with others when she wants and needs too. So to that, we go to the rec center daily so I can exercise and she can learn to play with others (OK, I go so I can play with others as well, the exercise is just an added bonus).

love love

rearranging

It happened last week, we were wandering around World Market waiting for our silly girls to come back home and we found it. This great table. The kind that seeps into your mind and you can't get rid of it, you know what i'm talking about? The tall tale sign that you need to purchase it, when you can't stop thinking about it. Well I kinda wasn't thinking about it, but my tall friend was. A lot. And a few days after that he couldn't stop thinking about it. He needed it, he wanted it, and he got it. For me.
I have a laptop and a wireless printer so a desk and an office is completely unnecessary. That warped folding table I had set up in the spare room was totally sufficient for my sewing machine and a few modge podge projects. Oh but now... Now I have an office, and I can't believe I didn't have one before! I haven't left it since. Seriously. The girls think I got a new job at home, because ya know I'm in my office so much. I'm working of sorts in there, like paying bills and tinkering. I do love tinkering so much especially with the knick knacks of the house. I have sat in this new office of mine reading a book, rocking the baby, playing on the internet and staring. Staring at all the things I can hang on the wall and things to put on the shelf. When I start to tinker in one portion of the house, it starts to bleed into the others and the next thing you know I'm reworking every closet and nook of the house. It's dangerous. And let's be honest I will settle in shortly at reworking this blog. What fun is it to stay the same? So forgive me while I ramble about nothing and rearrange all the parts of my life, it's January and I'm just trying to keep warm.

But aren't they cute?

love love

'nastics

We have started out the new year with new classes of gymnastics. Ruby started this time around and she is so excited! Seriously. They are supposed to be in separate classes, age and such, but that sounds to complicated. Mostly because Stella's other class was at 7pm on a Wednesday and Ruby's is Thursdays, during the day. So together they are during the day at the beginner class!

I worried that Stella would be all mothering to Ruby and tell her how to do things, but she didn't. They did really well together. 

Until next week...

love love