Nesting

Sunday morning when we were scrambling around to get ready for 8:00 a.m. choir practice before church, I found Eve like this. I told her it was time to get her dress on so we could go to church, but she said, "No Mom, my nest." Then she pointed to the pile of blankets she was sitting on. She had made herself a little nest and she was perched in it not willing to leave, just like any good mother bird would do! The funniest part came next when she lifted her bottom off the ground and pulled out a pink bunny that she had been sitting on!

Tree Hugger

Last week, on a particularly windy day, I found Grace in front of the window watching a tree that was blowing back and forth. She looked at me very concerned and said, "Oh no, Mom that baby tree is going to blow over!" I assured her that it wasn't that windy and that the tree would be fine. That wasn't enough for her...she insisted that she do some thing about it. So she tied her blanket around it's trunk and set some of her favorite animals next to the tree so it wouldn't be "scared." She felt much better afterward and continued to watch the tree through the window, but this time she didn't worry about her new friend's well being...he had been taken care of!

Where I've Been

You know how some days just seem harder than others? The same kinds of things can happen, but somehow they seem worse. Or maybe it's an issue of just too many things happening all at once...I don't know, all I know is that last week was a challenge for me. It was just one thing after another. It's probably a good thing that I didn't post anything last week, or it all would have come out sounding very negative. Here are some examples of titles that I would have posted had I even considered blogging last week: "The Woes of Sibling Bickering," "The Unrealistic Nature of Finding a Minute Alone," ""A Comprehensive List of Personal Property Destroyed by Eve This Week," "The Sink has Been Full of Dishes for Almost Three Days...We're out of Forks!," "Figuring Out the Delicate Emotions of Little Girls," "Tattle Tales of a Four-year-old."

Dance Recital

Last Friday evening Grace had her dance recital. She did such a great job! She was so brave and had no hesitation about going up on stage in front of a pretty large audience. After the program was over she asked me if she could go up on stage to do her dance again! Maybe she enjoyed the thrill of being on stage, or maybe she's just starting to demonstrate her father's perfectionist tendencies by wanting to do it over again! Only time will tell. Click on the video below to see her dance:

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

I know everyone has their favorites when it comes to flowers. Nothing can cheer a person like a bright, colorful bouquet of blossoms. But would you believe that this dry, dead weed from the backyard cheered me just as well! The other day my sweet little Eve came in from playing, and with a proud look on her face presented me with this beauty! It was such a sincere offering of love as she handed it over and said, "Here Mommy."

She had actually seen her sister do this many times before (although Grace always gifts me with living weeds!) and wanted to show her mommy that she also could give something beautiful.

Just like the painted Christmas pine cone that still sits on my counter, I think this weed will be around for a long time!

Egg Hunt

We had our own little Easter egg hunt in the front yard. The girls had a lot of fun with it! So did we (we got to be a little more advanced in our egg hiding this year...the kids are getting older!)

Yosemite

This past weekend my sister Tausha and her friend Joe came for a short visit. They flew into San Fransisco on Friday and spent the day there before heading to our house Friday evening. The girls and I (Aaron had to work) spent Saturday with them at Yosemite which is about two and a half hours away. It was breath-taking! It was the perfect spring day. The skies were clear, the sun was warm, and there was just a slight breeze...beautiful! I hadn't been there since Aaron and I were dating and I came out to visit his family for the first time. I can't believe we haven't been back to see such beauty for nine years! I won't let that much time pass before I see it again.

It was so fun to have Tausha and Joe here. They were definitely the stars of the weekend with Grace and Eve. The girls followed them around and always wanted to know what they were doing and where they were. They left after church on Sunday and when we came home to an empty house Eve wondered out loud, "Where Joe go?" Hope they had as much fun as we did!

Happy St. Patricks Day!

It's kind of a fun, but unimportant holiday. The important thing is that I remember celebrating it as a kid. I'd make sure to dress in green (as to not get pinched) and every year my mom would make a special green dinner. She would serve green foods like green beans or peas, but would also go as far as to die mashed potatoes and milk green! I even remember one year she made green dinner rolls! She'd also serve the traditional Irish corned beef and cabbage. I have tried to keep up the tradition since getting married and starting a family. It's been fun (mostly for me) to see what kind of foods I can get to turn green and serve to my unexpecting family! I even made corned beef (minus the cabbage) last year. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be doing that this year because I am still getting over my weekend nausea and for some reason the thought of green mashed potatoes is a little too much for me! Maybe I'll just serve green jello or green kool-aid!

Henry's March

On Saturday morning we participated in Henry's March which was a 5K run benefiting Children's Craniofacial Association. The whole thing was put on by our neighbors, who are also past clients of Aaron's and that we have become good friends with. Their five year old son Henry was born with Apert Syndrome and has had to have several surgeries. They wanted to raise money for other children with similar conditions, which resulted in this march. It was a huge success!

The night before the event I felt a little sick to my stomach, but I was sure that I would be better by morning. When I woke up Saturday morning I was still feeling a little queasy, but really wanted to do the 5K and decided to play it by ear. After arriving at the event, Grace took part in the 100 meter dash they had for kids. She did so well...and you can see by the expression on her face how proud she was of herself! It came time for me to decide if I was going to do the run or not, and by this time I was feeling okay...so I registered, got my number and was ready! Aaron was not planning on running so he and the girls took part in other fun things that were happening at the event (like getting their faces painted.)

I began the race with only one goal in mind: to run the whole thing. I didn't want to walk a 5K...I wanted to genuinely run it (no matter how slow of a run that might be!) Putting my Jr. high P.E. knowledge of "pacing myself" to good use, I started at a slow but steady pace. I was feeling pretty good, but somewhere around three kilometers my nausea started creeping back. I knew I wouldn't be able to continue running with how my stomach was feeling so I slowed to a walk. Drat!...my goal was shot, but it got worse. Just after walking past the 4K marker I had to squat by a tree and throw up my whole breakfast. I was so embarrassed! Luckily there were only a few people who saw, and one girl asked me if I was okay. After a minute or two I got up and finished the race and actually ran the last quarter kilometer (I had to finish with some dignity after that!)

Waiting at the finish line was my cute little family cheering for me. Aaron and the girls ran up to me with me saying "Yea Mommy!" It felt good to have finished even though I didn't accomplish my goal. I guess I'll just have to run another 5K when I'm not feeling sick! I feel much better today, but had kind of a yucky feeling weekend. The nice thing was that I got lots of rest.

As much as I enjoy exercising and things like aerobics and Pilates...I am definitely not a long distance runner. I have a lot of respect for people like my sister-in-law Becky who ran a marathon, and Julyssa who ran a half marathon. That takes a lot of endurance...hats off to you!

I've been tagged...

All About Aaron

My friend Julyssa "tagged" me on her blog. I think that means I am supposed to fill out a series of questions that she posted...and this time they all happen to be about my husband. So I'm very pleased to dedicate this post to my sweet Aaron (and hope that he doesn't mind!) Here it goes:

What is his full name? Aaron Lloyd Lewis

How long have you been married? 8 years

Who eats more sweets? He does (but if I could I would!)

Who said "I love you" first? I honestly don't remember

How old is he? 30

Who is taller? He is

Who is smarter? He is

Who can sing better? We both like to sing...I'd say it's a tie.

Who does the laundry? I do

Who pays the bills? He does

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? We switch sides every three nights

Who mows the lawn? He does

Who cooks dinner? I do

Who drives? When we're together he does

Who is more stubborn? This is a toss up!

Who kiss who first? He kissed me

Who ask who out? He asked me out (but believe me I was wanting him to!)

Who has more siblings? He does (just barely)

Who wears the pants? Hard to say!

I tag ANGELA.

*BTW Julyssa, your cute picture of Adam and Nyomi reminded me I had a similar one of Aaron and Eve. Hope you don't mind!

Fish Tales

Yesterday one of our two fish died. Grace took it well...it's not the first goldfish we've ever lost. She even wanted to be the one to scoop it out and flush it. She was more sad for the fish that was left behind. She collected all her favorite toys and perched them up by the fish bowl so Coral (the surviving fish) would not be lonely. When I first saw all her toys stacked up on the counter I thought, "Why is that mess there?" but then I noticed the way they were all facing the fish bowl and realized what a thoughtful thing Grace had done for her fish.

The toys stayed there all of yesterday and this morning until we came back from the pet shop with a new fish. All the way home Grace talked about what to name her new fish. After much deliberation (believe me she talked non-stop about it) she came up with "Diamond Miamond Harriet Tiger House-Peanut!" Don't ask me where that came from. I suggested that maybe she just pick one of those names for short, and she said that the whole thing was it's name. Oh well, no sense changing her mind on something like that!

"It's Still Rock and Roll to Me"

I have been a Billy Joel fan for a long time. It started when I was in third grade and my teacher held an auction to reward us for our good behavior. Throughout the year we were given points for following the rules, completing homework, and things like that. At the end of the year an auction was held and our points were used as currency. The prizes we bid on were a variety of used items that we as member’s of Mrs. Day’s third grade class had donated to the cause (basically it was a bunch of junk that our parents wanted to get rid of…kind of what you might find at a garage sale.) I can’t remember any of what I bought except for a cassette tape of Billy Joel’s album Glass Houses. I think I had one of my older brothers in mind when I bid on it, but ended up keeping it for myself. I can remember feeling very proud of myself for owning my own cassette tape! I have vivid memories of borrowing the portable tape player from my mom (the old kind like they had in the church library for check out), bringing it to my room and belting out “You may be right, I may be crazy…” along with Billy!

Much later when I was a student at Ricks College in snowy Idaho, I came close to my dream of going to a Billy Joel concert. I was extremely excited when I found out he was coming to Salt Lake City. In fact, I remember that when I found out about the concert I was dying to tell someone about it, so I walked all the to my roommate Chelsea’s boyfriend’s apartment to find her and tell her the good news! I bought the tickets and made arrangements to drive a few hours to Utah to stay with my cousin and go with her to the concert. It was all planned out…until a couple weeks before the concert I found out that I had a mandatory choir performance the very same night. I tried to get out of the commitment, but my choir director assured me I had to be there. So, I sold my tickets to a friend. Needless to say I was disappointed. Around this same time was when I met Aaron. In addition to being in my statistics class, he was in the Rick’s College Men’s choir and I was in the Women’s choir. All of the college choirs were working on an Oratorio together which was what we were performing the night of the Billy Joel concert. It was this same day/night I spent getting to know Aaron better at the performance. And at the very moment when Billy was on stage singing and playing his heart out, I was on a chartered bus sitting next to my future husband holding his hand for the very first time! At that moment there was no other place in the world I would have rather been than on that bus driving home from a choir performance, and I could have cared less that I was missing Billy!

Fast forward nine years and I got exactly what I wanted...Last night, my wonderful husband brought me to see Billy Joel in concert! It was so awesome…I loved it! It was so much fun to be there in the huge arena and listen to my favorite songs performed by my favorite musician. We were in total “nose-bleed” seats, but it didn’t matter…it was still great. It sure didn’t stop me from singing along almost the whole time and occasionally letting out a wooohooo! (As you can see I didn't even notice Aaron take this picture of me singing along!) Aaron was getting a real kick out of my reaction to being there. He genuinely loves to see me happy. I am so grateful that even though he doesn’t “get” Billy Joel the way I do (Aaron's words, not mine), he was still thrilled to make this happen for me. Thanks Sweetie!

Every Picture Has a Story

I love this picture because it is so telling. It's not very flattering, just accurate...and it makes me smile (actually more like laugh out loud!) The story behind it is that the girls had been sloshing around outside in the mud. As you can see Grace is covered up to her knees. Eve had already fallen in the mud twice, in two different pairs of pants before deciding to change into this lovely outfit and stay inside where it was warm and dry. As you can see she picked out the outfit on her own...from head to toe (including the too-small dress, the Halloween socks, and sparkly flip-flops! I just wanted to share this moment from my Saturday afternoon.

Interesting Perspective

Yesterday I turned on Sesame Street for the girls so I could enjoy a peaceful shower. After I finished and returned to the family room, this is how I found Eve watching the TV! I laughed and she didn't move or even act as if anything was different. Who knows how long she had been watching like that!

Kids have a way of looking at things differently... that's for sure!

Mommy's Little Helpers

Grace and Eve love to help in the kitchen... sometimes a little too much! I know it sounds awful , but sometimes while they are playing in the other room I'll try to start dinner as quietly as possible just to avoid "help" from them. But somehow they always sense when I'm about to cook, clean, or carry out any other task and come running to my rescue! It is actually really sweet that they want to help me so much, and I'm glad that they have this desire...I just never knew how much work it would be to have help from little hands!

I've really had to get creative in the jobs I give them. The other night I was making vegetable enchiladas and Eve was my designated "olive organizer." As you can see, she's doing an excellent job!

Just Like Dad

I snapped this cute one of Eve reading the newspaper with her daddy yesterday. You gotta love it when they copy what you do!

Snow What a Beautiful Day!

Saturday was my birthday, so Aaron took the day off and we headed up to the mountains for a fun day in the snow! It was about a two hour (maybe a little less) drive to get up to where there was snow...and boy did we find a lot of it! The last time the girls saw snow was two Thanksgivings ago which Grace hardly remembered, and Eve had no recollection of at all. It was so much fun to see their delight in this new winter world. Aaron's youngest sister Sarah came along with us too...she definitely added to the fun!

We found a great snow-covered hill which we had fun sledding down. Eve had a ball sledding down the hill with her dad and sister her first time, but even though she smiled the whole way down..she wouldn't do it again. I think it was the long climb up the hill she was trying to avoid, so she spent the rest of her time content to sit at the bottom of the hill watching the rest of us take turns sledding down. Grace was quite brave, and after sledding down different times with her dad, me, and Sarah, she did a solo run partway down the hill!

Later we had a "picnic" lunch in the snow (it was actually snowing) and built a snowman (more like "formed" a snow mountain...the snow wasn't exactly cooperating) we called Mt. Snowman. Thanks to some snow gear we borrowed from friends, we stayed warm for the most part (Aaron's toes were the exception...his boots weren't insulated.) Overall, a very, very fun day! What a great birthday present it was to be with my adorable family and to see their plentiful smiles and hear their infectious laughter!

Fun with Books

My kids have always loved going to the library, so we try to go every week to check out new books. The last couple of times we've gone Grace has been fascinated by non-fiction. She thinks it is the coolest thing to sit at the library computer and think of any subject she wants a book about, type it in, and then go find it on the shelves according to the number! Her favorite topic is animals, and we have checked out books about beetles, butterflies, lady bugs, dogs, and cats (to name a few.) Today when we were at the library, she insisted that the books she wanted to check out had to be about animals that make her laugh. So she flipped through a few before deciding which animals were funny enough for her. Guinea pigs were first on her list today!

Winning Streak

Just after the new year Aaron and I decided to play Stratego (the game I gave him for Christmas.) It's a strategy game and he's very good at strategy. In fact so good that I hardly ever beat him when we play anything. Since this was both of our first time playing Stratego I knew that if I was ever going to beat him at it, I had to do it now...before he had a chance to master it. It was really fun...and I did beat him! I was so excited when I captured his flag. He's says I get giddy when I'm winning...and it's true. I have a hard time hiding my excitement! I even insisted on taking a picture of the game board because I didn't know if it would ever happen again. As you can see above I was red, and pretty much wiped him out!

My good fortune continued last night when we played "Rook" with Aaron's brother Brad and wife Callen. Callen and I were both new to the game and were teamed up against the guys. The girls ended up stomping (is that nice to say?!) the guys! I guess you can say I'm on a roll (pun definitely intended, although neither game uses dice!)

100th Blog Entry

In case it's not clear, the girls are forming the number 100! Pretty cheesy, but I'm just so excited that I've kept my blog going this long! I really enjoy writing now and then, and I even consider "blogging" one of my hobbies!

Little Visitor

My best friend Julyssa and her husband Adam went on a long awaited trip (they've been wanting to go ever since they got married) to Guatemala. While they are gone we get to watch their darling little baby, Dylan for two weeks. He is such a good baby! He hardly ever cries and is such a delight to have around. We've had him for a week so far and the girls just love him. Eve had a really hard time sharing her mommy the first few days (and still does on occasion) but now she seems to enjoy having Dylan around. She asks where he is when he's asleep and then insists that it's time to wake him up. She also makes him laugh harder than any of the rest of us can! From day one Grace has taken on the job of little mommy. Whenever we go somewhere she tells people that we have a new baby. I have to then explain to my puzzled friends or acquaintances that we are just babysitting. Both girls love coming with me to get Dylan out of his crib after a nap, feeding him his bottle, and taking turns holding him.

Even with him being such an angel baby, it is still quite a challenge to take care of three kids! I have such an appreciation for people who have three...or even more..wow! How do they do it?! I do know we're given the capacity to do things when we need it. Even in just a week's time it has gotten easier (having said that I'm afraid that I've just jinxed myself and tomorrow I'll pay for it! j/k) I'm actually really grateful that I have this opportunity to do this for my dear friend. I hope she's having a good time!

Christmas Morning

We had such a great time Christmas morning with our little family! The girls acted amazed by everything and reacted with gasps, giggles, and "wow"s. Not only did they have a ball seeing their gift from Santa, going through their stockings, and opening presents from family and friends...but they also delighted in the giving part. Grace was so proud of the present she made for me and Aaron at preschool and was thrilled to have us open it. We were just as thrilled to unwrap a beautifully painted pinecone in a just as exquisitly painted pot...all done by the hand of our darling four-year-old!

We also had a wonderful Christmas Eve with Aaron's family at his parents' home. The girls had a lot of fun playing with their cousins that were visiting from out of town.

Eve on her new "car," in her new outfit from Grandpa and Grandma Parkin

Grace digging through her stocking

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

The kids (including me...a kid at heart) are really enjoying the sights, sounds, tastes, and activities of the season. Not only are we having fun with making gingerbread houses (or graham cracker houses at least!) and putting up decorations in our home, but I'm also loving being able to witness Grace's understanding of the true meaning of Christmas! She absolutely loves to hear the story of Christ's birth. She also frequently acts it out. At least once a day she comes up to me and says, "Come visit baby Jesus and bring Him a present." So we find something to bring Him, and make the "journey" to the playroom where she has one of her baby dolls bundled up, lying in a manger.

Pickles are for the Birds

As I was preparing tuna and pickle sandwiches for lunch today, Grace stared at the big pickle jar for a moment and then said, "Mom, did you know that pickles come from birds?!" I gave her a questioning look and she said, "See!" and pointed to the picture on the jar!

Getting Our Christmas Tree

Last night we went on a family outing to get our Christmas tree. The girls had a fun time walking through the rows of evergreens. After picking out our tree we went to a neighborhood known for it's amazing light displays and walked around. This neighborhood has an elevated mini Santa train that goes around the court. It was fun to see. As Grace paused in front of a dancing Santa decoration while on our walk , she looked up at Aaron and said, "this is the best night!" Eve's favorite word of the night was "cocoa!" And of course we went home afterwards and had some!

Photo Shoot

Here are some of the fabulous pictures Julyssa took of our family when we visited her last weekend. I think she did an amazing job...I love them!