Get Over It!

Weird things always seem to happen to me. Well, that sounds silly. Weird things happen to me because I have three little kids. The chances of me experiencing something out of the ordinary are high.

However, when I go through one of these experiences, it always takes me a few days (or weeks) to get over it. Like with poopmegadon. I just need some time to process these things before I share them. That brings me to today. I have two stories. Both of which occurred on the same day. Both also involved the SAME child.

Ever since I had Maddox, trips to Payson just don't seem to occur as frequently. We love to go down to G-Ma's and play. Who wouldn't? She feeds my kids never ending treats and there's a trampoline and a swingset. To my kids, it's just short of Disneyland.

Last Thursday, I had a hair appointment. I still get my hair done in Payson. It's just convenient because G-Ma is there and I love the girl who does my hair. When we go to Payson, I like to leave early so that by the time we get there, it's time for lunch and naps. This morning, however, wasn't going well. Holynd was refusing to do everything. She didn't want to eat breakfast, she didn't want to get dressed... It was just a fight straight out of the gates. I finally told her that if she didn't eat her breakfast she would just go hungry. (GASP!) So, I finished getting everyone ready and put everyone in the car.

Now, my girls do have a history of motion sickness. I usually give them snacks to eat on the way to G-Ma's because it is a little bit of a drive and they've gotten sick before. BUT! On this particular morning, I was not about to give Holynd snacks! She didn't eat her breakfast, so she wasn't going to get a snack. (GASP AGAIN!) Plus, what are the chances that this ONE time I don't give her a snack she gets sick? Turns out high!

I'm sure everyone has noticed how lovely I-15 has been lately. This morning was no different. Right around Pleasant Grove they had the freeway cut down to 2 lanes. It was bumper to bumper and very frustrating. Holynd had started to whine, but again, I was pretty much at the end of the my rope with her, so I was, well, ignoring her. (TRIPLE GASP!) All the sudden, she starts to gag. "I'm throwing up! I'm throwing up!" she cried. I turned around and there she was, puking all over everything.

Lovely.

To top the whole thing off, I was stuck, Stuck, STUCK.

I said a tiny little prayer that included the words, "You have got to be kidding me". I'm not sure how that went over in heaven. But heaven wasn't too upset because, miraculously, I found an opening and was able to exit the freeway.

I ended up stripping Holynd down in the commuter parking lot off of 1600 North in Orem. I'm sure everyone at the crowded interesection was wondering what the crap was going on.

I managed to clean up the mess (which wasn't all that bad because she was STARVING) to the best of my ability at that moment and put her in her carseat in nothing but her panties. I climbed back into the drivers seat and did a mental checklist of everyone we had been around lately. My main concern at this point was not the gross smell that was suffocating us, but trying to figure out if it was just car sickness and not the stomach flu.

I kept asking Holynd if she was hungry, hoping that an appetite would prove that it was car sickness. I finally decided to grab some Happy Meals and see if she would eat.

After making sure everyone had their allotted fries, apples and chicken nuggets, I called my friend Nicole. We had been with them the day before. "Are your kids sick?! Holynd is throwing up. I'm on my way to Payson and I can't decide if it's the stomach flu or car sickness." Nicole said her kids were fine, so I decided that we could just continue on our way.

About the time that we got back on the freeway, Sloane spilled an entire cup full of sprite all over the backseat. In my panic, I didn't notice that I had drove away before taking it away.

Double lovely.

We arrived in Payson and everything was cleaned and sanitized. The incident was mostly forgotten, except for my guilt for not giving Holynd her snack on the way to Payson.

We spent the entire day playing. I was able to get my hair done and finish some Easter shopping.

End of Story #1. On to Story #2.

By the time I got everyone ready to leave, it was getting late. My mom was nice enough to bath the girls, but I hadn't brought them pajamas, so she just put them in T-Shirts. We were just going home, so I wasn't worried about them. I had even stole a pair of pajama bottoms from my mom to wear home. (I didn't even put shoes on. The shoes I wore down to Payson were my mom's, so I just left them behind.) I figured that we would just pull into the garage, Matt would carry the sleeping kids in and all would be well.

But... No. This is me. Weird things happen to me.

About the time I reached Spanish Fork, Holynd started crying. Thinking that she was sick again, I asked her if it was her stomach. "No" she answered. "I have to pee pee right now Mommy!".

AAAARRRRRGGGGGGGGGG.

"Holynd, you'll just have to pee in your Pull Up"

"NO! It will leak out"

She was right. I've never regretted using Pull Ups at night, but they're still not the greatest. I knew that with the pressure from her sitting in her carseat that if she did go, we'd have a soaking wet car seat and many more problems.

I couldn't figure out what to do. I had all three kids in the car. Sloane and Holynd were in nothing more then T-Shirts, I had pajama bottoms on and no one had shoes on.

Triple lovely.

Another tiny prayer was said and I immediately remembered a gas station bathroom that was outside of the gas station, attached to the car wash in Provo. I pleaded with Holynd to hold it and sped off the exit.

I pulled up to the bathroom and I could already tell that this was going to be disgusting. I got out of the car, barefooted and took Holynd out. I opened the bathroom door to find a huge puddle of water in the center of the bathroom floor. It wouldn't have been all bad had the water not been the color of chocolate milk. Here I am, without shoes and a crying child who practically naked. I held her over the potty, she went and I was able to pull her Pull Up back up without her touching the floor. I then turned to leave. Holynd then said, "I need to wash my hands". I took one look at the sink and said, "Nope! Not in this bathroom!"

I returned to the car to find Maddox and Sloane both screaming, but safe. I buckled Holynd back in and then tore through my purse to find wipes and hand sanitizer.

With all my experiences with poop, this was the first time that I actually thought I was going to throw up.

For the record, I almost always have Holynd go potty before we leave, but there's no way to be perfect. I'm sure all parents know that feeling. As prepared as you always try to be there will inevitably be a situation where you just can't foresee what's in store.

Maybe in a few days I'll be ready to blog about Sloane waking up in horrific hives and me rushing her to the doctor's office. It'll take some time.

I Heart Presents!!!

Yesterday I turned 25. People who don't know me very well are always shocked to hear that. Yes, I'm only 25 and I have three kids. It seems weird, but hey! I'll be a really young grandma. ;)

I love my birthday, but I really love presents that don't necessarily come on my birthday.

For instance, this gift came in the cold month of December. She's a spitfire. Stubborn, yet loving. She reminds me a lot of myself. That in itself is a little scary, but her attitude and charisma screams, "I AM AN OLDEST CHILD!". I love her. She was unexpected, yet completely welcomed. This gift loves to make demands. Sometimes I have to look at her and say, "Holynd. No more demands for 20 minutes". To which she responds, "But mom, I need so many things!"

Then there's this gift. She came in the month of June. She was also a pleasant surprise, but in hindsight, we knew she was supposed to come and we are so glad she did. She's my baby girl. Her curly hair fits her personality. Sweet, girly and loves to cuddle. She adores her older sister and loves to copy everything she does. Sloane is perfectly content rocking in the rocking chair with a book. Sometimes, when my mothering instincts are whining for some quiet time, I know to call Sloane over to rock, sing and read.

And finally, there was this little gift. He came in the month of November. So so so unexpected, but he makes my heart flutter every time he smiles. Pudee is my little man. Such a good baby that sometimes I stop and wonder what little adventures he has planned for the future. Every night, after the everyone has been bathed, read to, prayed with and tucked in, I climb in my bed and hold Maddox. He is a surefire sign that the Lord's plan for us is so much greater then our own.

I heart presents, especially the ones that don't come on my birthday.

Ba-der

I him-hawed about posting about my birthday (which is Monday! 25 years old!), my birthday present that arrived Wednesday and the night out that Matt and I have planned tonight... But, that felt like bragging and if I'm going to brag, I'm going to brag about my kids because they are WAY better then any present I could ever receive.

Sloane has started to really talk well lately. She's putting lots of sentences together and it's a lot of fun listening to her.

This morning she climbed up to Pudee's crib and said, "I loov you ba-der".

Maddox is still a little nervous around Sloane. He has good reasons. She does only practice tough love. Once she's able to be a little softer, he'll come around. She mostly calls him "ba-der", but sometimes she calls him "Poo-dee" or "Manix".

However, instead of Pudee being nervous around Holynd, something else has happened.

He lights up when she's around. She loves to get in his face and make all sorts of baby talk. This used to make Pudee crazy because he'd get so nervous, but now he'll look straight at her and give her the biggest smile ever. This only makes Holynd want to act goofier, which can get really funny!

These big sisters can't get enough of him. Holynd tells me all day long to call her, "big sissy", but if I call Sloane "sissy", she gets upset. "Sissy is my name! Not Sloanies. Sloanies name is Sloanie Baloanie!"

I'm pretty lucky to be able to be here with these babies all day. :)

Maddox decided to roll over from back-to-tummy yesterday. This resulted in a huge fit because he hates his tummy! When he realized that he was stuck and couldn't get back over, he really REALLY got mad. I don't know if he'll attempt that trick again for awhile. He's also been sitting up for a little while at a time. The other night he had scooted himself a really weird position in his crib. Matt asked if I had laid him in there that way... Yes, I frequently lay our baby in with his head jammed into the side of his crib. ;) Matt and I are finally facing the dilemma of how to child-proof our stairs and still be able to have the little girls go up and down. I may have to just start dragging him down the stairs on his tummy now. It seems unreal that he might be mobile soon. The Easter Bunny called and said that he is worried that the 6-12 month clothes he has for Maddox might not fit for very long once Easter finally get here. I told him I was worried about the exact same thing. Dressing Pudee has been a little bit of a task because he's so tall and skinny. The waist of his pants are WAY too big... but then the length leaves him with high-waters.

Sometimes when I get him dressed in the morning I can't help but ask, "When the flood comin' Pudster??"

Bring Your Dad To Dance Day!

My husband is a sports guy. March in this house usually means two things; college basketball and my birthday. (I've been meaning to file a request that the NCAA Tournament be moved to April so I don't have to share, but who has the time!?)

However, March now carries an even more special day! For the little girls anyway.

Bring Your Dad to Dance Day!

Holynd proudly took her dad to dance class today for an hour of fun! She was really excited.


Sloane watches from the doorway. She wants to be just like big sissy so bad!


Holynd was a little shy around the other dads, but she's still so cute in her tutu! I'm sure she'll be talking about this experience for days.

We love you Matt. Thanks for being a good sport.

There's a special gift being delivered tomorrow! Something that's only worthy of a 25th birthday! Wahoo!

Stories that just need to be told.

I've been talking to my dad lately about genealogy. He helped me create a fan chart of my ancestors and it was really interesting. I found myself googling the names off the fan chart, just to see if any interesting stories existed. I found a few and it was strangely comforting to hear of the struggles my ancestors had went through.

Now, before you roll your eyes. This post is NOT a bunch of stories about my ancestors. While they are interesting, I'm sure they're just interesting to me, not to all of you.

However, these little stories made me realize how important this blog may be to others someday. There are a bunch of little experiences that happen that don't warrant an entire blog post, but they're things that might seem interesting to someone down the road.

*Matt put together Pudee's crib one night while I was sick. Nothing serious, just basically a combination of sick of being pregnant syndrome, migraine headache and a slight head cold. That night, he brought in the big box of crib and changing table parts into our bedroom and started putting everything together. The girls ran around unaware of what this new crib meant. Holynd kept giving Matt instructions. Some of which were completely incorrect, while others were strangely accurate. When all was said and done, the crib and the changing table were everything I wanted. Matt moved the changing table into Maddox's room and then proceeded to push the crib in too. However, when he reached our bedroom doorway, it became shockingly obvious that the crib was too wide to fit through. Now, my husband is smart, handsome, funny and patient. But, everyone's patience has a breaking point and Matt's breaking point is when he has to put things together. So, when he faced the reality that the crib would have to come apart, in order to fit through the door, he wasn't having it. He took the doors off their hinges and placed the doors in the hallways. The crib barely made it through both doorways, sans doors, and the crib was placed in the perfect place.

**We bought our Volvo a little bit before I found out I was pregnant with Maddox. I remember driving around with Matt, totally unaware of my new pregnancy. I looked back at the girls in their carseats and then turned to Matt and said, "What are we going to do with all this room?". I'm sure that gave someone in heaven a chuckle because eight months later we placed a third carseat in that Volvo.

**I was there the day my grandma had to be taken to the hospital. I spent the day in her home with my mom and my little brothers. I was a week away from having Holynd and was still going back and forth about her name. I was pppprrrrrreeeeetttttttttttty sure I wanted to name her Holynd, but I was scared of having a baby without a name firmly picked out. I'm not like that now, I'm ok with being unsure until I see the baby. The last thing my grandma said to me was, "Take care of that baby. Take care of Holynd". That settled it for me. We were going to name her Holynd.

**Sloane struggled with colic from about 6 weeks old to about 3 and a half months old. It broke my heart, especially because she was such a good baby for the first six weeks. Every night she would start screaming at about 6pm and keep screaming until around midnight, sometimes later. It. Was. Awful. I tried everything to comfort her. The only thing that slightly worked was if I paced the hallway really fast and sang, Praise to the Man. For some reason, she loved that hymn. At 3.5 months old, all the sudden she found her thumb. She was a completely different baby. I'd feed her, place her in her crib and she'd stick her little thumb in her mouth and fall asleep. I had remembered on one of her ultrasounds being shown that she was sucking her thumb. It was almost like she needed to figure out how to do it once she was here. She's still a loyal thumb sucker.

**Matt got rear-ended 2 weeks before we got married. His Civic was totaled, but they gave us a rental car to get us by until we bought a new one. It was a Nissan Sentra. It sounded like it had a hamster running on a wheel under the hood. That car was hilarious. A few days after our wedding, we went shopping for things that our little home still needed. We ended up with a TV, a dining room table and bags of other odds and ends. We had completely forgot how small that stupid Sentra was, but somehow, after an hour of moving things around, we got it all to fit. I had to ride all the way home hunched over with my seat smashed forward and not fully straightened-up.

**We had our reception on a separate day of our actual wedding day. We got married on a Friday and had our reception on a Saturday. I'm still trying to decide if this was a good idea or not. Matt and I ran down to Payson first thing Saturday morning so I could get my hair done and my mom could help me into my dress. After we both were ready, we hopped in the stupid Sentra and started driving to the reception center. When we got off the freeway, my mom called, "Your dad is hungry and wants you to pick him up something to eat." (My dad was at the reception center setting up.) So we decided to go through a Wendy's drive-through. There we were, all decked out in our wedding garb in the Wendy's drive-up. I think the kid working at the window did a triple-take. I'm sure he wondered what kind of jerk would take his new wife to a Wendy's drive-up for their wedding dinner.

I'm hoping to keep posting these little stories as they come to mind. Maybe one day our kids and their kids will sit around and laugh at how weird Matt and I were.

:)

The Date

Matt talked Holynd into going to lunch and a movie instead of going swimming. She agreed wholeheartedly when we told her in would be in a theater. She loves the movies, which works out great for Matt because he likes them too. I'm not a movie person, so Matt's been looking for a movie companion for awhile.

They saw The Lorax and said it was really fun!

The babies got to go shopping with Mommy. They were both really good, which was weird because Maddox does not like to shop. He must've known that we were shopping for things to go with Mommy's birthday gift. ;)

It was an awesome afternoon.

I'm off to make another gloriously-ugly sticker chart. Maybe one day I'll splurge and do it on the computer.... Maybe...

PS: The Easter bunny has started shopping. Actually, he started shopping a month ago. I like to buy spring/summer things. Easter is slowly turning into one of my favorite holidays.

It's Off To Work We Go...

The first time Holynd decided to stop being potty-trained, I was in shambles. I had a new baby at home, a middle child who did not like the idea of being a middle child and then my potty-training rebel.

At one point, Matt came home to find me sobbing in our bathroom.

It was a good time.

My mom, having raised a child like Holynd, suggested a sticker chart. "She'll like to see how good she's doing. She's a perfectionist.".

However, having been a child much like Holynd, I was worried that all she'd do was use the bathroom 30 times in one day in order to fill up the chart and get a reward.

We eventually got passed the regression without a chart and life moved on.

About a month ago, Holynd was having potty-training trouble again. Not anything as bad as before, she was just waiting too long to go and having small accidents. A lot of the time, I would find her wiggling like crazy outside of the bathroom. She knew that if she stood up the inevitable would happen, so she just sat there wiggling and crying until I came and carried her to the potty.

I had recently decided that Holynd could use a few chores around the house, just to give her a tiny bit of responsibility. Things like putting her dirty clothes in the hamper and learning how to make her bed. Nothing crazy.

I decided to put my mom's suggestion to the test and went with a sticker chart for chores. She had three chores a day. Her morning chore was to make her bed and put her sippy cup in the sink. Her afternoon chore was going potty before and after her naps. And, finally, her nighttime chore was putting her toothbrush away and putting her dirty clothes in the hamper. She could earn three stickers a day, BUT if she had an accident I had to take two stickers off the chart. (She also loses her mimi privileges.) Once she got to 30 stickers, she got to go on a date with her dad, just the two of them.

When I was explaining the chart to her, I kept thinking, "This is lame and she knows it's lame!" After I explained everything to her, I asked what she wanted to do for her date. "I want daddy to take me swimming!" "Ok.... Do you want the whole family to go? Or just daddy?" "Just daddy and me".

Okie doke.

Matt's a trooper and agreed.

The chart I made up was drawn on a lined piece of paper. It's pretty much the ugliest thing you've ever seen.



Last night, she filled it up! She was so excited she was kissing and hugging everyone.

We made a big deal, took lots of pictures and celebrated.

It took her about 2 weeks to fill it up. She got a total of 4 stickers taken away for small accidents.

I will admit, I'm skeptical about how long it will keep working, but hey! you take what you can get. ;)

PS: mimi = blanket. Holynd has two mimi's that she likes to sleep with every night. If she has an accident she has to go a night without them. It's what got us through the last regression.

I'm 4 months old...

My name is Maddox and I'm 4 months old.

I also hate tummy time.

So I thought about it for a minute and.....

... decided to just roll over!

Go Maddox!!

**We thought it was a fluke, but he's done it 4 times.

4 rollovers = bragging rights**

Age: 4 months

Length: 27.5" 90%

Weight: 14lbs 23%

Head: 41cm 17%

We love you Pudster!

In Case You Were Wondering....

I don't know about you all, but sometimes when I read blogs and moms are blogging about all that they accomplished during the day, I always think.... "I wonder what her kids were doing?"

For the most part, Holynd and Sloane keep themselves entertained in the playroom. That's one of the perks of having kids close in age, there's always a built-in playmate nearby. Most of the time it involves a huge mess, but that's what the playroom is for.

There are a couple of times during the day where they want to be right under my feet. 98% of the time, there aren't any toys upstairs. The girls will drag some up during the day and, when they move on to something else, I'll throw the toy back down to the playroom. It's not the greatest system, but it works.

I've blogged before about how I try to cook dinner while the kids are down for naps, but that doesn't always happen. Not every meal I make can be kept warm until dinner. Somethings just have to be prepared right before dinnertime.

Last night was one of those nights. I made Parmesan Sage Pork Chops and Roasted Red Potatoes. I did do the potatoes ahead of time because it's pretty hard to screw them up, but the pork chops had to be done right before dinner. This meant that chaos pretty much broke out while I was busy cooking.

I decided to periodically take pictures of what was going on. That way when the girls get older and complain about how they can't ever cook without their kids running crazy, I'll have proof that they did the same thing to me.

"Spice Castles" are really popular in this household. The pantry is childproofed, but when I'm cooking, I open and close the pantry door a lot. This leaves plenty of opportunities for the girls to get into the food storage and play around. At this point, Holynd had only gotten into the spices, the canned items hadn't been touched yet.


Again, I do have childproofers for the fridge, but I don't want to take the lock off 40 times while I'm cooking. Thus, many opportunities to get into the fridge are presented. Here we have Sloane eating a zillion grapes.



ZuZu pets are pretty popular while I'm cooking because the wood floor works great for races. Here we have Holynd getting her ZuZu Princess Carriage ready for some kind of journey. It's so much fun cooking while little robotic pets run into your feet.

When I finally got everything in the oven, I noticed that the grapes had went missing. They were found here, scattered down the hallway.

These two are getting to be such good friends.

Changing into princess clothes is a must-do in this household. Holynd loves to dress up while I'm in the kitchen because she can wear her little princess shoes and "click" on the floor.

Pudee gets in on the action every once-in-awhile and decides that he's hungry and wants to eat RIGHT NOW! But, for the most part, his sisters take care of providing our daily dose of chaos.

Here, the girls decided to get all the shoes out of the closet so that Sloane could put on a pair of "princess shoes".

I decided to not post about Holynd going potty and trying to wipe her bum by herself. This left a really ugly mess in the bathroom while the pork chops were in the oven. People keep telling me that boys are worse. I have at least one full-fledged poopie crime scene occurrence everyday. How much worse can it get?! When asked why she didn't wait for Mommy to come help her, Holynd answered, "But mommy, you were cooking and I didn't want to bother you. So I just did it myself." That's very thoughtful of you Holynd.

So there you have it. A documented depiction of what goes on the hour while I'm cooking.