Late Night Birthday Reflections

It's after midnight and I'm awake. The sad thing is I'm not awake with a crying baby. My babies are all soundly asleep and happy. I'm awake because I'm up thinking and worrying. So, basically I'm awake because I've turned into my mother.

Holynd had a wonderful birthday. My kids are still little, so they haven't had many birthdays, but their birthdays always make me reflect on me as a mom.

Hence the worrying.

Holynd celebrated her birthday with her bestest friend. We went to lunch and to Build-A-Bear. I will admit, I was a Build-A-Bear skeptic, but they do really make the whole experience somewhat special.

Kaydence gave Holynd a Sleeping Beauty dress for her birthday. Holynd loved it and asked to put in on right then. What parent could say no?!

Holynd dressed her bear up as a ballerina and named her Heart. My friend Nicole and I went back-and-forth between letting the girls dress their bears how ever they pleased or trying to talk them into something that would maybe be a little less.... well... Tacky???? Princessy??? Dumb??? (Nicole help!) In the end, we let them do whatever. The bears turned out cute regardless of our worries. (There was one point where Holynd wanted to dress the pink bear as Buzz Lightyear. VETO! If I'm paying that kind of money for a bear, it has to be cool to Holynd for more then 10 seconds.)

At the end of the bear building experience, they let Holynd ring the birthday bell and had everyone in the store say, "Happy Birthday Holynd!". She loved it. (Surprised?)

Afterward, I took Holynd out to help me find Pudee a blessing outfit. After a less then successful shopping attempt, I passed this sign:

It made me grin a little because I'm starting to feel that way. I think as parents we worry that everyone else is looking at us and thinking to themselves, "You're doing it wrong...".

Well, I'm here to say that I KNOW I'm doing it wrong. I have absolutely NO IDEA what I'm doing! When Holynd was a baby and something would happen, like a tantrum at the grocery store, I would figure out how to fix it and then make a mental note, 'when that happens again, I'll know what to do'. The truth is, it never works all the time and, more then likely, it won't work at all with the next child. I'm terrified to potty-train Sloane for this exact reason. Three children has made me realize that there's no universal way to parent! Some days I kinda wish there was! It would make my life a lot easier!

So here I sit. Biting my lip and worrying about all the other parents of the world because I know all their doing right now is thinking, "If she'd just get her act together her kids would turn out better".

The truth is, my kids would probably turn out better if I would just quit worrying about all the other parents of the world! I need to focus that energy elsewhere, but my goodness, that's a difficult task. If there's one thing I should be worrying about it's that my kids are going to turn into me because heaven knows that I've got all sorts of issues! I can't let a day go by without throwing a mini-temper tantrum or putting my foot in my mouth! Plus, don't you always feel like there are just some parents in the world that work really hard to keep all the skeletons in the closet??? Things are always just REALLY REALLY Hunky-dory great at their house??? Well, I'm calling a big ole' B!-S! to that! ;)

Raising little kids is hard enough without having to worry about who's pointing fingers, so here's my birthday promise to fellow bloggies. I don't think you need to get your act together. I think you are doing a wonderful job. If you do things differently then I do, I don't think your way is wrong, in fact, you're probably way closer to a solution then I am. Pick your battles. Love your kids and, for heaven's sake, don't blog after midnight. ;)

I started blogging because I wanted people to think that life at the Peterson household was perfect. When it dawned on me that my kids would one day be able to read this, I put a stop to that. I don't want them to think that I was a perfect parent. The perfect parent doesn't exist. All I want them to know was that we tried our best and that we loved them unconditionally.

(Husband, we should probably just start saving for the kids' therapy now.)

Hop Dabday!!!!

Today is an extra awesome day at our house. Today is the day Holynd decided to make a surprise early entrance into this world. It was a difficult induction, but she was totally worth it!

Sloanie kept telling her, "Hop Dabday!" and clapping her hands. She loves her older sister so much.

Maddox gave Holynd some slight birthday jibber-jabber. He still jumps whenever he hears either of the girls nearby. They love him a little too much. It took awhile to capture this tiny "goo" from Pudee. He gets a little upset because were tickling him to get him to "talk". (If you're wondering what he keeps looking at... It's the basketball game that's on TV. Wonder where he got that from...??)

Holynd was born to be an older sister. Bossy and demanding, she keeps the other two in line. But, oh my, can she pour on the sweetness when she wants to. She has her dad wrapped around her finger. I'm pretty sure both my girls think Matt can walk on water. They are daddy's girls, through and through. Holynd loves to talk and negotiate. She can count, name colors, say the alphabet, sing, dance, jump and she especially loves to do yoga. :) She's my little performer. Holynd loves the Theater Room because she thinks it's her stage. I often hear her down there telling Sloane to be the audience. Then, she starts off her show by saying, "Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to the show!" She'll dance around, do her "cool tricks" and then give a bow. At this point, Sloane is expected to clap and then join in on the performance. Her nickname, "Holl-E-Wood" seems to be very rightly chosen.

We have some very fun plans for this week. I'm not going to lie, having a holiday baby is a little bit difficult, but Holynd soaks up the attention like a sponge.

We love you Holl-e-wood.

Merry Christmas Eve Eve!

Today is Christmas Eve Eve! Santa is coming tomorrow night! We can hardly wait...

Hoping today, tomorrow and Sunday is especially special for you!

An Explanation.

"No, I don't know too many monkeys who could take apart a fuel injector." -David Puddy, Seinfeld

Someone texted me the other day and asked, "Why do you call your baby Pudee?"

Let me explain.

Pudee has been a very calm baby. When he was very first born, he used to look at us through squinted eyes. He very rarely wanted to come out of sleep enough to have his eyes wide open.

To me, he resembled David Puddy from Seinfeld.

We started calling him "Pudee" and the name stuck.

Now you know.

I spelled it P-U-D-E-E just cause I felt like it.

You get to do those types of things when you're a mom. :)

Hark the Herald Angels Sing!

Holynd figured out how...

To use the webcam. Good job Holl-e-wood. I don't know how to do that.

PS: Pictures of the Angels and Baby Jesus soon to come.

You Can Always Count On...

"Prayer Feet". Holynd used to sleep in her chair this exact same way.


There's one thing you can always count on when you're a mom. Keeping your kids busy. My kids always seem to need a day of recovery when we spend two or three days just going and going.

Today has been that day of recovery. I love it because I've been able to get a lot done. Monday is the day I try to clean my house. Some Mondays go better then others, but today I actually found time to scrub some carpets and deep clean my bedroom. Bliss. Holynd asked to go down for a nap and Sloane slept for 4 hours then wanted to go back down two hours later.

Some of things my kids spent the weekend doing are:

*As mentioned before, we spent Thursday at the mall seeing Santa. We're still waiting for some of the emotional scarring to subside.

*Friday, Aunt Twitch came over. We went and picked up some Rio, then Matt and I headed out into the world to go Christmas shopping. Pudee was lucky enough to tag along. Because we went later in the evening, we expected all the stores to be really crowded, but it was quite the opposite. We had a really fun time and the girls got to stay behind and party with Aunt Twitch.

*Saturday, Holynd and I went to the Nutcracker with G-Ma and Aunt Twitch, while Sloane and Pudee went shopping with dad. To say that Holynd loved the ballet would be an understatement. She was obsessed with it! She watched the entire thing and then, when it was over, asked to see it again. She came home and told Matt about it over and over and over again. She does "ballet moves" all over the house now. She even makes Matt throw her in the air like the ballerinas. Sloane and Pudee got their first taste of Cabelas. We always hear about how cool it is and we live right next to it, so we finally decided to take advantage of it. I wasn't there to see it, but Matt said that the rumors are true!

After the Nutcracker, Matt and I went to his company Christmas party. It was fun, although we did NOT win a trip to Vegas this year. (We won one last year). Bummer. But it was nice to have a night out with the hubs. Plus, the G-Babies got to spend the evening with their Kunkles. I can always expect the girls to be tired after playing with the Kunkles.

*Sunday was a pretty important day at my house. It was Sloane's first day of nursery and Holynd's last. Holynd got to take her favorite toy with her to show her new Sunbeam teachers. She was very excited and asked to have her Teddy dressed in Maddox's clothes. She was so sweet when she asked that I couldn't say no.

I've been very blessed with kids that love nursery (so far). Sloane walked right in and didn't even look back. Her nursery leaders couldn't believe that it was her first time. She had a blast and has been singing ever since. Matt and I had a fabulous time in Sunday School and Priesthood/R.S. I had forgotten how wonderful class can be. Pudee slept through most of church and woke up during the last half hour hungry. He loved going to the Mommy's Room to eat and get rocked back to sleep. He did so much better then I remember Sloane doing. (I always gave Holynd a bottle at church). Sloane wanted to talk to anyone else who came in. She refused to go to sleep because she was worried she'd miss something.

There wasn't much time to rest before it was time to take off and go to the Walker Christmas party. This is a party with my Grandma Tanner's side of the family. It was a lot of fun. The little kids get to act out the nativity every year. Holynd and Sloane were angels and Pudee got to be Baby Jesus. It was a pretty important role that Pudee wanted NOTHING to do with. He made Mary miserable by crying and trying to wiggle away. Poor Mary. Holynd also decided that she didn't want to be a white angel. She wanted pink wings and a pink tutu. She was a very fashion-conscious angel, I guess you could say. I know there are pictures somewhere, but somebody is going to have to email me some because I have none. :) After the nativity, guess who showed up? Nope, not Santa, Suzy Snowflake! We are WAY too cool for Santa. Suzy Snowflake showed up and gave all the little kids gifts. Even Pudee.

Today my girls are tired. :) But, by tomorrow, I'm sure they'll be up and making us crazy again.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

The title of this post really only pertains to the first picture. I just wanted to make that clear because most of this post is about taking the kids to see Santa, but this title came to me as I was working on this tree skirt.

My mom has recently discovered Pinterest. I'm not on Facebook or Twitter, so Pinterest (as far as I know) is not available to a non-facebooker like me. However, I have not been blind to the popularity Pinterest has accumulated, therefore when my mom started talking about things on Pinterest, I was curious.

Now, for a little backstory, I've never had a tree skirt. There wasn't really room for a tree in our little condo, let alone a tree skirt spread out on the floor. We had a ginormous couch in our living room. I managed to put a tree up, but I made due without a tree skirt. Because of this, I got excited to decorate for Christmas right around the time we moved. In June. I was really excited about having a large tree, stockings over a fireplace and, of course, a tree skirt.

Fast forward to actual Christmastime and my mom started raving about these tree skirts she found on Pinterest. Being the type of person I am, my first question was, "Where can I buy one?". I am not my mom's child when it comes to artistic/creative ability. I'm analytical, not artsy. I don't like to make stuff. I can barely decorate my house and put an outfit together, let alone MAKE something to decorate my house with. But, I trusted my mother and consented to go through this tree-skirt-creation process.

It wasn't that much fun. Even my mother, who actually carries quite a bit of talent in this department, found the tree skirt making less then enjoyable. For one thing, IT TOOK HOURS. It was definitely a start early and finish over a couple of days kinda project. We didn't start early and we didn't have a couple of days to waste making a STUPID tree skirt. We powered through and finished them in one day. I think I burnt all my fingers.

Anyway, here's the finished product. No, there wasn't any sewing involved. Just a glue gun which, for a person like me, can be very dangerous.



*******

We've been quite busy getting into the holiday spirit around here. Last week, my friend Nicole and I put together a little holiday party for some of our friends. We had a blast. We had good food, played games and chatted. AND! Believe it or not, there weren't any poop incidents. YAY! Go us!

The husbands did talk us into playing a rather weird game. The wives put on blindfolds and felt all the husbands' bare legs then guessed which leg was their own husbands. ????? I'm still not sure I feel about this game, but I did guess right! Wahoo!

We played the white elephant game too. We all had a $5 limit and had to get a gift that related to marriage. When Nicole and I made up the rules, we didn't realize how hard it would actually be to find a gift like this, but everyone did really well! Matt ended up with a "Baby-Making Kit" which everyone knows we DO NOT NEED right now, but it gave everyone a good laugh.

I made a trip down to Payson yesterday so that I could have help with sending out my Christmas cards. The actual "putting together and sending out" part isn't hard. It's the "keeping kids occupied so I can accomplish said putting together and sending out" that's hard. Needless to say, I went down to do Christmas cards and ended up running 5 million errands. Luckily, I have a wonderful mother who loves to entertain her grandbabies while I run around. Makes my life so much easier.

Today was a busy day. We took the Kunkles and the g-babies to see Santa. This is one of those situations where I start asking myself, "What were we thinking?". The clouds did part and shine down on us so that we could get this picture. Shortly thereafter, the photographer came over and told us the picture didn't work and we'd have to take another one. The g-babies were NOT having this and so the second picture could've been sent into the Ellen show to be showcased as a bad Christmas picture. 10 minutes later, we were informed that the first picture had been salvaged somehow and that's the picture we were sent home with. Now, we only have the memory of all the babies screaming their heads off. Don't worry, we are saving for their therapy.



Pudee slept through most of the experience.



Yes Pudee, Christmas does rock.

That morning, we had to write our letters to Santa.

Dear Santa, Holynd wants an elephant. Yep, an elephant. Good luck with that.

We have lots of fun Christmas plans still to come!

Full.

"We'd rather have our hands full, then empty"

I thought of that quote today after finding my driver's license in the CD drive of my laptop. (Thanks Holynd). I got a little upset and thought to myself,

"How would it be to have a laptop that was always clean and never had cards in the CD drive??"

The answer came almost immediately.

"Empty"

There are quite a few times where I catch myself throwing around negative thoughts like that. It doesn't take a lot for the Lord to whisper little answers in my ear.

Question: "What would it be like to drive somewhere without all three kids screaming in my ear?"

Answer: "Unfulfilled"

Question: "Would I be a better parent if Matt and I had saved more money before having kids/had more time for more vacations before having kids/finished graduate degrees before having kids???

Answer: "You'd be worse at it./Your kids are worth 100 times more then a vacation./You'll get to that. For now, I need you here."

Parenting is an amazing thing. It humbles you while at the same time making you proud. I'm so proud of my kids and I become more proud of them everyday. They really now how to humble me though. I love them for that.

I try to take pictures everyday. I like to capture the little moments that will make me laugh when life really gets me down. I think that's why I love blogging. It's really easy to post pictures and include the little story that goes along with it.


Sloane's newest word is "Light". She loves to turn on and off the lights. The problem: She can't reach any of the switches on her own. Sometimes, when I need to keep her preoccupied for a few minutes, I'll put her highchair up to the row of light switches in our kitchen. She loves it.



We very rarely get Pudee to stay calm when he's not swaddled. He loves to be all wrapped up and cuddled. He loves the quiet (came to the wrong house for that buddy). He's such a good baby. So long and skinny too.

Sloane is the messiest eater on the planet. I can't leave her alone with her food or else I have food splashed and thrown everywhere! Holynd struggles with this because she's a little OCD. Holynd does not appreciate it when Sloane tries to kiss her when her face is dirty. "Ew! Mommy! I'm sticky! Sloane touched me! She's gross!"

Holynd is so happy that Sloane is showing an interest in coloring. Well, actually, Holynd thinks that Sloane wants to be her student. If this was a video, you'd get to hear Holynd telling Sloane the ABC's and how to spell her name. "H-O-eleven-S-S-S-5-B-C"

Holynd got to have an early birthday celebration because the Peterson's celebrate family birthdays every second-Sunday of each month. Her cousin made her some really cute bows! We love bows in this house!

The other day, I started to notice that the house seemed to be functioning a little bit better. Things were less chaotic. After assessing the day, I decided that things weren't getting easier, we're just getting used to it.

At the end of the day, when we're tired and exhausted, we never go to bed feeling picked on.

We always go to bed grateful.

PS: Dear Mom, I'm still trying to get over the tree skirt extravaganza. The tree skirt will see it's day in blog world.

I just realized....

Peterson Christmas 2011

Yes, I put pictures of my babies on my tree.

****

Last night I went to go help put together gifts for the Relief Society. While we were working away, we talked about our kids and our troubles with our kids. I opened up about Holynd and her struggles with potty-training. I was a little worried I would be told that I wasn't trying hard enough, not doing it right.... blah, blah, blah.... But I was pleasantly surprised when everyone told me to relax!

One thing that made me laugh about the conversation is that one lady said, "Wow! I just realized that you have three kids under three years old".

WHAT! You JUST realized that! I have eaten, showered or slept regularly in.... well, A REALLY LONG TIME! Hello! Where've you been lady!??!

I just laughed and said there are good days and bad. The good days always make it worth it.

And they do.

Today was a good day.

Today:

Holynd decided to rearrange the dining room furniture.

Sloane and Holynd got into a fight in which Sloane bit Holynd and Holynd clocked Sloane in the head with a Jack in the Box. Holynd's injury is non-existent. Sloane has a black eye.

Sloane broke a glass.

Holynd tried to get crackers out of the pantry by herself and spilled crumbs all over the pantry.

Two sippy cups were spilled, but were, thankfully, full of water. (Yay!)

Holynd threw grapes all over the kitchen because she was trying to throw them up and catch them in her mouth.

I stepped on a grape and it almost scared me to death.

G-ma bought the girls ZhuZhu pets. Probably one of the most annoying toys in the entire world, but it kept the girls totally entertained while I ordered Christmas cards. (Insert mini-celebration here)

Holynd pretended to race the ZhuZhu pets through the kitchen. During the "race" she would sing, "Go ZhuZhu pets! It's your birthday! Go ZhuZhu pets! It's your birthday!"

Pudee slept for about 5-6 hours straight the last two nights.

Pudee snores like his daddy.

I've come to terms with the fact that I can't blame my kids for all my forgetfulness. I locked myself out of the Volvo with my purse and phone inside. All I had was my cart full of groceries. I had to walk into Costco and ask to use the phone to call Matt. I didn't have a single child with me.

Holynd begged to put her panties on by herself. They're on inside-out and backwards right now.

Sloane chased Holynd around trying to kiss her on the head. Holynd loved it and would run around for a little while, then slow down and let Sloane catch her. Sloane got bored with it and Holynd picked a fight with her because Sloane wouldn't chase her anymore. Sloane pulled Holynd's hair and, therefore, won the fight.

See! Probably a more relaxed day at the Peterson household.

Hooray!

Something Came In The Mail....

See I told ya. Most beautiful babies ever.

I'm Going There Someday...

I always hate it when people have babies and then quit updating their blog... Since this is my only attempt at a journal, I'm determined to find time! So, here's what's been going on around here.

Holynd has decided to cycle around and hit a potty-training regression again. Yesterday I got really mad at her. After sending her to room, I sat on my bedroom floor and cried. Parenting sometimes makes me feel very inadequate. I tend to want to control everything and the fact that I can't make my kids obey kills me. Plus, no one likes to clean-up dirty panties. Holynd seems to have gotten that same control-freak gene because she wants to control me and she's doing a really good job!

I love listening to married couples who haven't had kids yet. They seem so sure that their kids will never act-out, disobey, throw tantrums in public etc etc.... because they have the whole parenting thing figured out! What do they think that other parents thought before they had kids???? It's not like I sat there and thought, "I'll probably screw-up and never get my first child potty-trained... It's just not something I want to worry about". Hello! Of course I thought this would never happen to me! I just assumed that everyone else was lazy and didn't discipline enough. Oh, that is so not the case... But...I'm not judging. I've been there. But I'd be lying if I didn't say that I chuckle behind those other couples' backs. My mom likes to tell me all the time, Heavenly Father was a perfect parent and he lost 1/3 of his children. The truth is, parenting is difficult, but so much more fulfilling then anything else a person can do. Plus, if you do end up with perfect kids, all other parents tend to harbor a little bit of hatred for you.

At this point, I'm at a complete loss as to what to do, so right now, I'm at the pray-and-hope-that-someone-else-will-fix-it-for-me stage. I highly doubt someone will knock on my door and tell me exactly how to fix this dilemma, but if it were to happen, I'd be eternally grateful. I know part of it has to do with the new baby because, a week or so ago, she and I had this conversation:

Holynd: Mommy, when is Maddox's mommy going to come pick him up?

Me: Holynd, I'm Maddox's mommy.

Holynd: No your not. You're Holynd and Sloanie's mommy. When is Maddox's mommy going to come get him?

Me: I'm Maddox's mommy and Holynd's mommy and Sloanie's mommy. Maddox's is staying here with us.

Holynd: But I want someone to come get him...

Lovely.

So, while I wait for someone to come and fix this for me, I've been doing the one thing I do really well... complaining. But, the truth is, if potty-training is my biggest problem right now, I'm living a very blessed life. My kids are healthy, my husband loves me and makes it extremely easy to love him, my home is warm and has space for our family to keep growing.... Potty-training seems like a huge deal right now, but Holynd playing in her poopy diaper seemed like a big deal too. Now, that poop-playing experience is just a funny story we tell other couples' to freak them out. I can't wait to read this post years from now and think, "Oh! We were so pathetic!" I'm sure we'll have a good laugh.


****

Moving on, I've been trying to bake more often. I'm really not improving all that much, but I manage to make things that actually resemble the pictures in the cookbook.

Holynd wants her own apron really bad. I haven't really been doing a good job finding her one, so I put my Grandma's apron on her and tie it up so it sort of fits. And yes, I let my kids eat chocolate chips while I bake. They're only little once, let them have chocolate chips once in a while!

****

Over the weekend, we dropped Pudee off at Grandma Kathy's and took the girls up to Temple Square. I love downtown Salt Lake. It makes me miss going to school. I used to get to ride up through downtown everyday. Now, I hardly ever go up there. As always, Temple Square was beautiful.

It was cold, so we spent a good portion of our trip in the Visitor's Center. Sloane wanted to drive the stroller and Holynd wanted to play with all the touchscreens that were at each display. We didn't care. We were there to let the girls have a good time. It's nice to let them run the show every now and then.

A night out wouldn't be complete without dinner. Sloane is at the age where she loves to eat right now... It's only a matter of time before she makes a complete 180 and gets really picky like her sister.

If you'll notice, Holynd is now sitting by Matt, as is Sloane in the above picture. When you go out with two kids, you do a lot of seat switching. Don't go out with two kids expecting to eat, especially if you have a wait before you're seated. Our kids love to play on our phones, but that only lasts about 30 minutes. We exhausted that option while we were waiting for our table.

Pudee is such a wonderful baby. He definitely suffers from Third Child Syndrome. I run around taking care of his sisters all day long. He doesn't get much attention until the girls are in bed for the night. At that point in the evening, he gets really needy because he KNOWS this is HIS time with Matt and I. Since I'm able to get everything I need to get done during the day and get to workout, I'm so, so, SO ok with him doing this.

I know you're all asking yourselves this, so I'll just answer your question. Yes, my babies are the most beautiful babies on the planet. I know. It's crazy.