Gratitude.....

A few things I'm thankful for this week......

Sophie Kate likes to say a prayer whenever she sits on the potty. She just makes me smile.

Sophie also informed me that she wants to name our new baby "chubby." I have a pretty good feeling I was the inspiration for this name. She points at me whenever she says it. I had to look a little harder to find the gratitude in this one.

Luke and I like each other. As far as friendship goes we do pretty good, the mother/son thing still has a few bumps to smooth out. I know I have to do the dirty work of molding him into a nice respectful human being and this isn't always so much fun. It makes me grateful that in between all of that we are friends and like spending time together. With other (ahem) distractions in school all day, he and I have discovered that we are quite compatible. We like to go lap swimming and this week he swam the length of the pool twice without stopping, that along with his mad bike riding skills and how fast he runs away from me when I am trying to do the above mentioned mothering, make me think my co-triathlete plans for him will work out quite well. We both don't mind spending hours reading, running around outside, looking for bugs on trees and avoiding getting ready for the day.....plus he sings "big green tractor" when he cleans his room. I find him charming.

I'm grateful Olivia has a Dad. This week she had to make a turkey with her family to put on display in the first grade hall. We remembered this Sunday night and since it's no secret I don't dabble in the arts and crafts world, we were pretty limited on supplies. After finding some old gift wrap Ben and Olivia came up with the above pictured turkey. I tried to help but started noticing that every paper I glued on Ben redid. I guess I wasn't twisting tight enough and was asked to please just be in charge of cutting the paper into pieces. The fact that I couldn't get this technique down had Olivia giggling and smiling knowingly at Ben while she expertly twisted and glued. Daddy has always been the coolest (and a little bit of an obsessive perfectionist if you ask me).

What a wonderful holiday........ so many, many things to be thankful for everyday.

Seasons of change........

Sophie Kate loves to comb my hair. She also loves to run around the house wearing Olivia's underwear which tend to fall down to her knees. These two things usually happen simultaneously. You know, a sort of Vegas style beauty parlor. I'm thinking we are going to have to tame some of our skimpy wild ways before we get to Kentucky.

Lest you think this is strictly two year old behavior in our house.......I give you the events of Sunday morning.

Olivia and Luke woke up and were running around in their attire of choice for the last 6 months.....Luke in his swimsuit and Olivia in well lets just say her underclothes. They ran out onto the balcony only to discover that winter had indeed come to Vegas overnight. Full on winter, we are talking 68 degrees here people. Frigid. To go straight from the eighties to the sixties was quite a shock to the system and the next thing I knew they had dragged out the "utah box" and had outfitted themselves appropriately. My kids are nothing if not dramatic, and my suggestion that possibly we ease into winter by first, I don't know, putting on clothes fell on deaf ears. Around here apparently the seasons are so extreme that we go from underwear to snowsuits overnight. I'm not sure what comes after snowsuits but they better figure something out.......it is supposed to drop to 64 by the end of the week. (gasp)

friday afternoon......
Sunday morning.......

My hands are fine thank you......

Why is it that EVERYONE at Wal-mart feels the need to say to me "wow, you've got your hands full"
This isn't helpful information folks.
It's almost like they don't think I realize that I am pushing an extra large cart filled with two weeks worth of groceries and three kids while pregnant.
I am aware of this. Why do you think there is two weeks worth of groceries in there.......it's so I don't have to hear this charming statement more than twice a month. This might come as a surprise to you but I was actually not feeling overwhelmed, I was just gazing off into space thinking "I wonder if I'm too old to sport a Taylor Swift t-shirt."
If you feel the need to make a comment to me try "wow, you look like a wonderful person" or "sure is a beautiful day huh" or " here let me buy your groceries for you" or "you know that greasy pony tail of yours sure has a nice bounce to it."
Really I'd take anything.
The other day an elderly woman said to me "so your pregnant right?" I kind of laughed, at this stage let's just say it's pretty obvious. She responded by saying "well I have arthritis, what do you do."
See that wasn't that hard, it was weird, but still it was better than "looks like you got your hands full."
So to the arthritis ridden lady at the store, your methods are a little odd and your conversation skills don't necessarily flow but you made me smile......so cheers to you.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

from
Little Bo Peep

Her little sheep

and......Batman.

And "Hair's" the truth......

Every other time I have been pregnant I get to a point in my pregnancy where I feel the desire to drastically cut off my hair. I'm sure this is some sub-conscious desire to have some sort of control over pretty much the only place I have any control on my changing body. Who knows, all I know is that it happens every time and this time is no different. Well maybe a little different. I promised myself I would make no rash decisions while pregnant and would wait and see how I felt after the baby came. Still the desire didn't go away.
And this my friends is where having a daughter is a wonderful thing.
Olivia came home from school one day last week and was pretty sweaty after having PE right before school got out. I capitalized on this and asked her if she wanted my friend Brit, who happened to be spending the day hanging out with me, to cut her hair. She readily agreed. So here it is. I'm loving it. She loves it.....mostly because she gets to do her own hair in the morning, and I'm feeling like I got it out of my system. I never understood the concept of living vicariously through your children before.......maybe now it makes more sense.

Happy Things......

Just a few happy things from this week.
Sundays always make me think happy thoughts, Monday mornings are less like that.
I am pretty sure it's because I get to spend Sunday laying on the floor doing nothing with these four.

See....Happy stuff.

This little girl has got to be our family's designated "happy place" We all have a hard time walking past her in the hall and not smothering her with kisses or pinching her adorable little behind. This week it has been a lot of the latter...... One more reason for me to be happy.....Sophie Kate became officially potty-trained this week and her cute buns were on show quite a bit. I would take credit for this but Olivia pretty much spearheaded the whole event. She helped Sophie Kate pick out the panties, picked out the potty seat, sat Sophie down and explained the drill, provided the incentives and ran her to the bathroom amid cheers and songs. By the end of the week Sophie was able to make it through church without an incident. ahh six year olds make me happy.
Ok now that I've used the word happy so many times it is starting to sound weird, y'know how that happens? Like right now I'm not sure if it is a real word......
but I know for sure it's a real feeling, and it could pretty much be defined by this little person. She is happiness. Lately she has been following me around singing me sweet songs and kissing my leg, Luke picked up on this and started teaching her songs like "mommy is stinky mommy is grubby" and telling her to go sing them to me. Nice try bud, but I have to tell ya coming from this face it all sounds like sweet music to me.

The "dirt" on childhood.......

Today my disposal broke. It actually broke three days ago, but today it became a bio-hazard. The repairman said he was coming...that was two days ago. I decided to take control of the situation, I left and closed the door behind me. We decided to head up to Red Rock for the day for a little hiking and bouldering.

It might sound like I'm making this out to be a spontaneous outdoor expedition with the sole objective being fun. If I'm being honest it wasn't. I had an agenda. This was an intervention.

I've been up at nights lately worrying about my Olivia. Sometimes I worry being in school all day is stifling her. I'm afraid too much book work will start to hamper her free-spirited granola side. I can't let this happen, I'm partial to that side of her. When it comes to parenting styles I tend to error on the side of free-play. I think our society is forgetting the simplicity of childhood. I read a parenting magazine at the doctors office the other day and I got a headache. Too much information is what I say. After reading it I thought, I'm about to have my fourth child and I don't think there was one thing in there that I knew or have done with my kids. I'm not much for the rat race of kids having to achieve everything first and best. Boo on all the pressure, hooray for spending the day imagining your lost in the wilderness with no arms being chased by a giant tortilla.

To my sweet school teacher mother-in-law, don't worry, Olivia is still enrolled in school. I'm just spending every weekend rolling her in the dirt making sure she stays my girl.

HAPPY FALL......

The other day we headed over to one of the few farms in Vegas and took some pictures for grandma. We ended up spending the rest of the day just basking in the sun. The weather has been a delicious 82 degrees all week and I'm loving it. This kind of weather isn't conducive to getting things done, and needless to say I have neglected almost all my responsibilities this week and pretty much just jaunted and basked. We all have our weaknesses, mine has always been surrendering to the call of a beautiful day. My dishes and bills and laundry have been surprisingly patient, they must know me too well by now. Happy Happy Fall!