Happy Birthday, Spencer!

Well today is his actual birthday. I did type a big blurb under the slideshow of his party, but it got erased somehow. Anyway, just a little remembrance of the boy who has always done it his old way. It was Sunday afternoon, January 29, 2007. I was scheduled to go in for a C-section at 7 a.m. the next morning. I had just gotten home from church when my mom and sister (Shiree and BryAnne) pulled up in my driveway to surprise me. We watched movies all afternoon and ate popcorn and drank crystal light. I kept having intermittent contractions, which I assumed were just Braxton Hicks, since I had never gone into labor on my own before. Throughtout the day they were pretty sporadic, so when my OB-GYN called to see how I was (only in Utah) I said I was fine and I would see him in the morning. Sean decided to give up his side of our very cushy king-size bed to my mom since she has a bad back. The guestroom was already taken too, as Sean's mom had arrived that evening to watch the girls while we were in the hospital. So mom and I snuggled down in the covers (not with each other)and layed awake talking for hours. She would hear me pause and say "another one?" and then "how long since the last one?". To make a long story short, the contractions finally got to be about 5 minutes apart and I had to breathe through them - so we decided to hit the hospital. It was about 1 a.m. By the time we got to the parking lot (2 minutes down the road) my contractions were 2 minutes apart, and lots stronger. Just funny that the only time I went into labor on my own was the time I was scheduled. I remember so many of those emotional highs and lows in the hospital, and also I remember feeling like my 2nd c-section was a breeze compared to my first, and also compared to my horrible VBAC with Mackenna.

Also I felt relief at knowing we were done and I didn't have to go through the physical challenges of giving birth and recovering again! Gratitude for my blessings, my family, mostly kept washing over me and I felt so close to the Lord. I think that is a childbirth thing - and also having a newborn thing, since they are so fresh from Heavenly Father's presence. I also remember the girls visiting every day, and Sean having to drag Mackenna out of the room kicking and screaming because she didn't want to leave me there.


Anyway, I love my rolly-polly boy and I am so thankful we fasted and prayed to see if we were "done" having kids after the girls!

Pantries and Pink Eye

So yesterday Kenna woke up rubbing her eye, saying it hurt. I took a close look and there was crusty stuff all around it. Sean got home from work (graveyard) and said it was probably pink eye. So another trip to the doctor, another $15 copay. Yep, pink eye. And a teeny-tiny bottle of eye drops for $5. Putting them in was really fun. I had to pin her to the floor by straddling her and try to pry her eyelids open with one hand while putting the drops in with the other. This morning she woke up and her eye was stuck, swollen completely shut. Now it is getting better, but Spencer is getting it also.

I have been meaning to clean out my pantry for some time. The shelves were laden with stale crackers and half-empty cereal boxes (half-empty, not half-full), so much that there was no room except on the floor for the cat food, rice bucket, soda, etc. Anyway, I even scrubbed the walls and the floor. It is so much better. Here is what my counter looked like while I was cleaning.

Here is the finished product!

Here is Kenna stacking the cans ("helping").


Now I am in the middle of doing the lazy susan, where all my spices are. Tomorrow I am going to try to do the closet where all our kitchen appliances are, as well as all the useless crystal we got for our wedding, the kids' art stuff, my sewing machine, and an endless multitude of dust bunnies, who are threatening to rise up in rebellion and take over my valuables. Then Saturday is Spencer's birthday party, so I'll be cleaning house all day tomorrow too. What joy is mine!! I am excited to make his football cake and baseball cupcakes though. I love kids' birthdays!!

Pizza and skating

I'm not sure why, at times, I feel the need to put every mundane detail of our life on here, and other times I can go for weeks without posting OR feeling guilty about it. So, yesterday we made pizza for dinner. It is by far the kids' favorite dinner, since they get to do most of it themselves. Here are Sean and the girls making theirs.

Here's Emma's pizza

Kenna's pizza

Spencer eating their leftover crust

Today I took the kids to Classic Skating, and we ended up staying for 4 hours. We got pizza there for lunch (pretty good for 5 bucks), and then Spencer finally tuckered out. So I put the top of the stroller down over him and decided to stay until he woke up. But by the time we got home it was almost time for Sean to wake up. Now the kids are all in bed and I am watching The Diary of Bridget Jones (edited version), from which I have felt keenly a 6-month estrangement (at the very least), since switching from DISH NETWORK to DIRECTV and losing all the movies on our DVR. That sounded very Austen-y, I must say. Due to the fact that I just finished the book Heather recommended, Austenland, and also finished Persuasion (book and movie), and have just started on Mansfield Park. I knew when I read this opening line of Austenland that it was a book for me: "For Colin Firth: I think you're a great guy, but I'm married, so I think we should just be friends."

Going back a little further, Sunday was a great day that redeemed friendship for me. My friend Sarah came over as is our little Sunday tradition at least a couple times a month. She brings her homemade treats that put Betty Crocker to shame, and all the new-release DVDs she has bought since she came last. Then we do our best NOT to eat the treats she has brought, because we are both on diets. Anyway, back to Sunday. Sarah and I were watching Mansfield Park when Dionne called me and said "hey, can I borrow a bottle and some formula?" Since she lives in Orem I was a little confused. I said "uh, sure....when will I see you again?" She turned out to be in my driveway! It was such an unexpected surprise and something I really needed. Thanks, Di! Now I am just gearing up for Spencer's little birthday party this Saturday. In closing, here is a picture of Spencer wearing Emma's panties on his head.

Here is his reaction when I told him we don't put panties on our heads.

Just a grumpy day....

Not really! This is for Dionne - me in my grumpy hoodie she got me for Christmas. Today I volunteered at Emma's school. At first I did it to appease Emma. She couldn't quite understand why I visited Kenna's school every month and not hers (sorry kid, they give us $10 off tuition - didn't seem too good an excuse). So I go to kindergarten once a month too. I am really starting to enjoy it - I usually just pull the kids aside one at a time and quiz them on their letters or at/an/it words, etc. I think I like it because it's lots of other 6-year-olds. Let's face it, dealing with your own kids all day every day is no fun! Maybe it's also the break from the younger two. Anyway, Friday is our "playdate" day. Emma's friend Jordan comes home from school with us and plays for 2 hours. Mackenna just started playdates too - although 3-year-old playdates require a lot more parental supervision than 6-year-old ones. Anyway, Kenna went to her friend Malarie's house - her mom is my VT companion. We decided to switch off Fridays, and today was her day. It was nice. Emma and Jordan ate popcorn, colored, played princess bingo, and then played WII bowling with Sean & I.
Out of all Emma's friends, she gets along the best with Jordan. I have never heard them fighting over barbies or whining at each other. With girls that is a rare thing. When we went to pick Kenna up from her friend's house, Malarie saw me walk in and yelled "I want my friend back!" I deduced from that that they had gotten along, but on the way to Costco Kenna said "Malarie scratched me......Malarie said I wasn't her friend......Malarie said 'no' I couldn't have a snack", etc. Like I said, a little more high-maintenance for 3-year-olds. Anyway, we then went to Costco where I developed all our pictures since Halloween (149 prints....$30). YIKES, I will have to keep up on them better. As for Spencer, he is a man who knows what he wants.
I enjoy him so much more when I've had a break from him at some point in the day!

How many bribes does it take......

So today our whole family went to the dentist for our 6 month check-ups. Mackenna was weeping, wailing, and gnashing her teeth over it so we told the girls if they were both good they would get a happy meal after. Mackenna didn't think that was a good enough reward for letting the dentist count, floss, and polish her teeth. I had some DVDs I got on the 5.50 rack a while back so we told them they could each pick one of those too. Well, they were both great. Unfortunately Kenna has 1 cavity though. So she is going back next week to get it taken care of (with Sean). When we took the kids to McD's they were giving 2 toys in the happy meals for some reason. Anyway, here is Kenna with her shiny teeth,
and here are the bribes.
The other day Spencer grabbed Kenna's scriptures and starting walking around with them. It reminded me of being a missionary. Just slap a tag on that boy and send him out! And pants would be good.

Lazy Sunday

Not much since my last post! Just had to say how proud I am of myself that I finally cleaned my nasty bathrooms - 3 all in one day. And I dusted our bedroom, straightened the kids' rooms, and straightened downstairs. AND most of the laundry got put away. Yesterday was cleaning day - I hate waking up to a messy house on Sunday, and inevitably, I WILL end up cleaning it on Sunday if it's not done Saturday. It just bugs me more on Sundays than other days for some reason. Sean kept cracking the whip over the girls to get them to clean up, and then he vacuumed for me. Spencer has been busying himself with walking all over the house the last few days; he walks from the couch to the coffee table to his toys to the other coffee table to the other couch, and back again. We bought him some shoes with some Christmas money we had (nothing special, just shoes - he hasn't worn shoes until now!), and he absolutely hates them. On the way to church he kept swining his legs in circles whining because he wanted them off. And he won't take a single step in them. I tried a new recipe for chicken enchilladas today, which turned out okay. WOW, boring blog today. I guess I could spice it up by saying that I really want to go make some peanut butter bars, but I am feeling especially plumpy and I won't be able to resist the urge to keep popping them in my mouth every time I pass them. Not to mention it wouldn't be nice to Sean either. We are both trying to diet. There is one large chunk of German Chocolate cake left, which should be gone by tonight, so tomorrow's the day. Somehow I think peanut butter bars with coconut & chocolate chips mixed in and chocolate frosting on top would put a dampner on that. In other news, I have decided to make Spencer a football cake for his birthday. My dilema is that if I am going to spend a good amount of time decorating it I don't want him to destroy it. So I decided to make the football cake for everyone coming to his little party, and make jumbo baseball cupcakes too, and give him one of those to plow into. I am also already obsessing about next Halloween. I know, I swore I wasn't going to do the family halloween theme, or make 5 costumes, next year. The Wizard of Oz came on t.v. about a week ago and the girls watched it twice before the witch nightmares started. Anyway, Emma has decided she wants to be Dorothy. My mom is going to help me make a Glinda dress for me(pink & sparkly). Sean is going to be the scarecrow, Spencer will be the Tin Man, & Kenna refuses to surrender her idea of being a green fairy, so we need to just pretend that they had those at the Emerald City. THAT'S IT! She can be an 'emerald fairy'. I have thought of trying to trick her into being a green witch, but somehow I think she wouldn't like it if she looked in the mirror and saw a sinister black witch dress instead of a cute and perky fairy costume. Well, gotta go. Spencer just acosted a chunk of playdough the girls dropped on the floor and he is gaggin on it. Oh, motherhood......

At the end of the day.......

it's all about the popcorn! I place the blame for this completely on my sister-in-law Viki, who told me in detail about their nightly tradition of popcorn over our Christmas visit. She said they had an old fashioned popcorn popper and they would make some every night and put (oh my gosh) REAL butter on it. How on earth did Matt lose weight doing that?? And Viki is so skinny anyway, she could eat all the butter she wanted and it wouldn't add one ounce. SICKENING. Anyway, my mind has been full of it ever since, so today we went to Walmart and got the popper, the kernels, and Parkay spray butter (fat free). I think I may have to resort to real butter after all too. It was worth a shot though! Today was a pretty good day. Sean got home from his graveyard shift and decided to shovel the driveway. Let me rephrase, since that makes it sound like he thought it would be fun to shovel the driveway after no sleep. HE COULDN'T PULL IN THE DRIVEWAY DUE TO THE 8-10 INCHES OF SNOW ON IT. By the time he had shoveled the neighbor's too (she is pregnant and hubby was at work) ours was all snowy again. The amazing thing was that I was able to take Kenna to school and pick her up without dragging the other 2 with me for once! Sean was shoveling for the first run, and when Kenna got out Spencer was down for his nap. So I turned on a movie for Emma, with the admonition that she was to tear herself away from the t.v if she heard Spencer wake up. Luckily he stayed asleep until I got home with Kenna and woke up about the time I walked through the door. Aside from that, I am proud to say that I spent about 20-30 minutes of one on one time with the girls today. Emma and I played princess checkers (she almost beat me) and I helped Kenna make a car out of the bead-things she got for Christmas.
Now Sean and I are sitting down to relax in front of a movie, as I keep glancing toward the corner. There is a chair there that harbors my nemesis; laundry I have needed to fold and put away for 2 days now. In addition to the other 3 buckets of laundry that are folded, but have yet to be put away.
And then there's the de-Christmasing of the house. WILL IT EVER END??

Happy Birthday, Sean!!

Yesterday was Sean's 32nd. He spent most the day sleeping since he worked the night before. I was going to save the German Chocolate Cake venture for the next day, but around 3:00 I decided that even if he only had 2 hours with the family (since he had to go back to work that night) I wanted him to have his cake. Luckily the hospital put him on call, going into work at 1:00 a.m. instead of 7:00 p.m. So he actually got a birthday dinner, cake, birthday song, the whole bit. His gift was a new cell phone, since his other one was dying. Since I didn't get him anything else I decided to get him his favorite treats: Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia, Diet IBC Root Beer, & a Take 5 bar. And of course, the famous cake. After dinner, cake, and presents, we played the WII for one round of bowling.
Then I took the kids upstairs for the bath while he obeyed instructions and took a foot soak.

Try not to scoff at the pictures too much, he's not too happy with me for putting them on here!!

Christmas Morning

I am so far behind on my blogging! We have been back from California since the 2nd of January, and I am finally forcing myself. So many pictures! Here is one of the girls with their curly-cue hair and the scarves I made them (I felt bad watching them beg for scraps off of fleece blankets I was making and then wrap them around their necks, so I decided to make them real scarves.)
Here are a few of Christmas morning at our house:

EMMA (MORE barbie clothes)


MACKENNA (tiny pieces for Spencer to eat)


SPENCER (BABY EINSTEIN, what could be better??)


ME, GETTING SPOILED!


THE GIRLS PLAYING PRINCESS CHECKERS


AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, THE BOYS (sean DID get a present, I just didn't take one of him opening it)


It was a very good morning. I actually made orange rolls, from scratch! They were yummy. Sean made breakfast casserole, and then the girls rode their scooters around the kitchen until it was time to head for California. We spent Christmas night at my sister's in Cedar City, and then headed out for Cal early the next morning.