I Know the Feeling

My mother-in-law sent this to me, and I thought I would share.  Don't you just know the feeling? :-)

An older, tired-looking dog wandered into my yard. I could tell from his collar and well-fed belly that he had a home and was well taken care of. He calmly came over to me, I gave him a few pats on his head; he then followed me into my house, slowly walked down the hall, curled up in the corner and fell asleep.
An hour later, he went to the door, and I let
him out..

The next day he was back, greeted me in my yard, walked inside and resumed his spot in the hall and again slept for about an hour.This continued off and on for several weeks.

Curious I pinned a note to his collar: 'I would like to find out who the owner of this wonderful sweet dog is and ask if you are aware that almost every afternoon your dog comes to my house for a nap.'

The next day he arrived for his nap, with a different note pinned to his collar: 'He lives in a home with 6 children, 2 under the age of 3.He's trying to catch up on his sleep. Can I come with him tomorrow?'

Putting up the Christmas Tree

Tonight we decorated for Christmas.  It was SO MUCH FUN!!!  Abby and Isaac put all of our family ornaments on the tree, plus a few of the crocheted snowflakes from our wedding.  We recorded most of it, but it was fun to see how they both approached it so differently.  Abby wanted to get them on the tree and rush back to get another one as fast as she could.  And she wanted all the pretty ones (like - don't hand me that plain old crocheted snowflake, mom - I want the PITTY one!).  Isaac meticulously and methodically hung each one he received and then came back and asked calmly, "Nother one, please, Mommy - nother one, please."  And if he hung one that didn't hang "just right" - he took it back off and hung another one.  Towards the end, he had four or five snowflakes hanging on the same branch.  I guess he just really liked how they hung there!  I am hopeful that having them take control of decorating it will minimize their interest in touching and taking down and moving the ornaments later.  We'll see.

I also had some window stickers that I bought last year and we put those up on the glass door in the kitchen.  Again, it was really a fun distraction/perfect activity for two two-year-olds.

And isn't it amazing the difference a Christmas tree will make?  Even our small one that my mom thankfully loaned us from our wedding reception.  It's simple and has pre-hung lights attached to it, but it is perfect!  I am amazed that there is a completely different feeling in our home/living room whenever I look at it.

I also moved our kitchen island into the entry-way and put our nativity set on it on a cream table cloth.  And I FINALLY finished the advent calendar my sisters and I started making last year (more to come, including ideas for things to do with young children).  I'll have to post some pictures once we get it hung up.  But it looks SO AMAZING - and we made it ENTIRELY from scratch!!!

Incidentally, if you want to do an advent calendar but don't have a lot of time or money, my friend made one that I WISH WISH WISH I had seen last year, because it is about ten thousand times easier (and cheaper, even shopping sales with extra coupons and discounts) than the one I made!  Hahahahahahha!   Anyway, for a picture and tutorial, go here.

I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving.  We went to Dave's supervisor's house.  It was so wonderful!!!  They have five kids and their entire house is like a toy store -- except you can actually PLAY with ALL the toys!!!  Isaac didn't want to leave.  He cried and cried when we took him away.  I guess we'll have to drive to Rosamond to have play dates.  It would be great for all of us, I think!!!  I also met another girl with whom I really could relate and I think we could be really great friends!  If only they didn't live in Rosamond. :)

Oh, and if you attempted Black Friday sales, I hope you had as much fun/success as we did.  We have a tradition of buying the kids an ornament that represents something from that year (and we have a Christmas journal in which we write down what they got and why) and we also give them each a book and then one more gift.  Stockings are for oranges, nuts, and small pieces of candy (and Dave likes to do wool socks as well!).  This year, we found glass airplanes for like $2.50 a piece after all the sales and extra discounts.  NICE!!!  We bought one for every one of us to represent our first Christmas at Edwards.  I also bought some of the charity Dr. Seuss books at Kohls for my kids.  For only $5 a piece, it was a STEAL!!!  And with that, we're giving them some presents we bought last year for their third gift of Christmas (like the wise men's three gifts -- get it?) and our shopping is officially done!  I also got the rest of Dave's Christmas present, but I can't write about that yet.  Now to finish making Grandma and Grandpa gifts!

I love this time of year!!!

Christmas Around the World

I don't want to take away from my last post.  If you love Beauty and the Beast, you HAVE to read it.  But I am also really excited about our Ward Christmas Party this year and wanted to write about it.  I mulled over a lot of ideas!  And in the end, this one just felt RIGHT.  Dave found a free Christmas card on the web and used it to create our announcement.  Isn't it so amazing?  He did a great job!!!!  Without further adieu . . .

What I really wanted to do for this activity is focus on the strong testimony I have of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World, Emmanuel, the Beginning and the End, the Light and the Life of the World - and His incredible life that began with such a humble birth.  We have two accounts of His life and teachings, including His birth.  One in the Bible, another in the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.  I wanted to remind our Ward members that we are so blessed to know that the Earth received her King, not only in Jerusalem where the bright star shone over the humble stable in Bethlehem but also in other parts of the world.  We have record, for example, of the sign of his birth in a town called Zarahemla on the American continent.  There wasn't a star, but there was a day and a night and a day without darkness.  The Light of the world had come, and that was the sign to believer and non-believer alike - a night bright as day.  It will be amazing someday to see what other signs the Lord used to communicate to His other children around the world at that time that Jesus Christ, of whom the prophets had testified and witnessed and prepared the world, had indeed been born on that day.  We now call it Christmas.  And it is celebrated all over the world, in different ways by different cultures.  And it has always been an international event, celebrated and announced in different ways but representing the same, unifying occasion: the birth of Christ.

So that was the focus for the theme.  Not just on the spiritual side of Christ being born but also on the secular side of Christmas and giving and all the joys and traditions, different though they may be, around the world.  I found the idea on the web, though I don't remember where, and we tweaked it a bit for our little area.  Here's the general outline, in case you are ever interested in doing this or something similar:

Date/Time: Friday, December 10 - 6:00 p.m.

Theme: Christmas Around the World

 

Dinner:

Tri-Tip Steak and Ham

Baked Potatoes and Baked Sweet Potatoes/Yams

Green Salad

Green Beans

Desserts

* We are going to pass around sign-up sheets on Sunday for people to bake the potatoes and bring desserts.

 

Decorations:

Christmas Trees in each of the Four Corners

Country-themed Table Decorations

Lights and Garland around the gym

* We are going to pass around sign-up sheets on Sunday for people to volunteer to do a centerpiece representing different countries.  

We'll fill in the gaps for the rest of the tables and serving tables

 

Program:

Ward Choir and youth will do their numbers from the Stake Nativity Night/Program.  Then there will be a few other special numbers.  As many as possible will include the music in different languages, performed by people who lived or served in other countries and members of the Ward of different nationalities.

 

MEANWHILE back at the ranch . . .

 

We'll do Christmas Around the World activities with the children.  

 

Activities/Countries will include:

Germany -- Graham Cracker houses and Gingerbread Cookies to decorate

England -- Christmas cards for missionaries and/or snowflakes

Japan -- Fans and Origami Swans

Mexico -- Shoes with candy and Paper Plate Morraccas

Phillipines -- TBA

After the children are done, we'll have them come out and sing the last song on the program and then have a ward sing-along of both traditional songs and hymns until Santa comes in.  Then we'll have him go to another room where the children will be invited to sit on his lap and have a picture taken.

 

Giving Tree

We are going to do a money giving tree, a fabric tree with buttons for hanging Christmas die-cuts with amounts written on them.  Then the Bishop will take the money and distribute it to needy families to provide food, pay bills, buy Christmas for their children, etc.

 

Publicity

Bulletin

Larger Poster for our spot in the hall

Fliers

* We're going to ask everyone to take one for themselves and one to give away to a friend.

Tale as Old as Time . . .

First of all, super cute moment.  I was expecting Abby to catch onto the whole breastfeeding thing.  And sure enough, she has become a little Mommy to her two babies.  One's name is Marie and the other is named Dollie (of course, right?).  Anyway, she hops into bed next to me or onto the sofa or wherever I am and feeds her babies every time I feed Brianna.  What I hadn't thought about was Isaac picking up on it.  But he has become quite the jealous little man!  He looks for opportunities to steal Abby's babies (which, of course, is like ripping her HEART out and stomping on it 1,000 times), and though sometimes he is trying to upset her for attention, sometimes I think he is just plain jealous.  And today, while I was feeding Brianna and Abby was feeding Dollie, Isaac snatched Marie out of Abby's other hand and lifted up his shirt and started to feed her.  As Abby told David tonight, "Isaac shirt baby feed stomach."  Isaac fed the baby on his stomach.  It was really pretty cute, I thought.

Second of all -- for all of you who absolutely positively think that Beauty and the Beast is one of THE BEST movies of ALL TIME . . . how would you like to own it on Blu-Ray for around $5.00?  That's right, folks.  But you have to act by tomorrow.  Here's how:

1) Go to Disney Movie Rewards and print off the $10 off coupon (if you aren't a member, just create an account - it's free!).

2) Go to Target's Printable Coupons and print off the $5 off coupon for a Disney Blu-Ray $16.99 or above.

3) Go to Campbell's Kitchen and print off the $5 off coupon there.

4) Go to Campbell's Kitchen and print off a coupon for the soup of your choice (one that fills the requirements in the $5 off coupon).

How does it all come together?
Blu-Ray Sale Price: $24.99 until tomorrow.
Less $10 Disney Coupon: $14.99
Less $5 Target Coupon: $9.99
Less $5 Campbell's Coupon: $4.99

The soup should cost around $1, maybe $2.  Add in taxes and a stamp, and you're looking at $5-$7.  Pretty slick deal, eh? Oh, and if you go to your local Wal-Mart and take the Target Coupon and Disney coupon, they should price match and accept them both, and their sale price on Beauty and the Beast is only $22.96 - which makes it that much cheaper, right?  And if you watch Albertsons ads, sometimes they have a double value coupon, so you would save $2 on three cans instead of $1 on three cans.  Which would probably make them free.  As long as everything happens in the next month or so, in time to mail in the rebates, it's totally legit!

Craft Time with Toddlers

A few months before Brianna was born, I was in like UBER organization and schedule mode.  I wanted to have EVERYTHING pulled together and perfect.  I started my quest for things to do with toddlers. 

Now I have to confess that I am NOT a good toddler mother.  Why?  Cuz I haven't gotten over my I-can't-deal-with-messes-and-my-fear-that-you-are-going-to-paint-on-the-walls-and-it-won't-come-off-and-we're-just-renting factor.  Particularly with my two. One I can keep an eye on and work through things with and even stop before things get too out of control.  HOWEVER, my two tend to gang up on me.  I don't know if it's intentional or not (I read online that two-year-olds engage in parallel play, so them ganging up on me would be incredibly out of character for a typical two-year-old; and I'm going to ignore the fact that they do it all the time and even got my two-year-old niece to engage and play off of their antics while we were visiting her; yes, I'm going to ignore all of that because the "experts" say that they aren't aware of each other and are only interested in parallel play right now).

Anyway, I read on my friend's blogs that they have art time with their kids, and creativity time.  And I am totally jealous of that and aspiring to be the BEST mommy with the BEST, most well-rounded kids out there.  So I naturally have to figure out how to do this with MY kids, in spite of my fear of destructive messes (or even messes that take longer to clean up after five seconds of effort on my children's part than I may have to clean them in an entire day).

There are a few books I got in my quest: First Art, The Playskool Toddlers Busy Play Book, and the Toddlers Busy Book.  I don't love the Playskool one, just FYI.  But the other two have great ideas, some more or less age appropriate (or maybe just this parent appropriate) than others.  But otherwise GREAT ideas. Particularly if you're trying to preschool your own children or do a preschool co-op with other moms.  I'm excited for those days!!!  Only two more years to go!!!

But to make a long story short, despite my best efforts, I really haven't done anything they suggested.  Life got crazy.  And even meal planning is NOT my forte right now, let alone activity time planning.

So between me being super mom and my current me, I did make a great purchase in the midst of all of this.  I bought a two-sided easel on sale at Michaels, one for each of course because when you have twins you HAVE to have one for each - particularly when they hit the mine stage.  It's called damage control, putting out fires before they start.  And this particular easel has a chalkboard side and a dry-erase side.  I found a 48-pack of Crayola colored chalk in the clearance aisle for $1.50.  And my awesome mom, who knew about my quest to be the PERFECT mom and have art time with my kids, got my children an art bag for their birthday.  In that bag, she included some washable dry-erase board crayons.  WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT?!?!?!?!?  They MUST have had two-year-old twins at some point. 

I have gotten the chalk out quite a few times (what's easier to clean up than dust-it-off-and-go chalk?).  We've used that as our starting point for teaching them to ONLY write on the chalkboard.  Because THAT is where you color and draw with chalk.  It has gone pretty well.  We've had some short art times (because repeated drawing on other things - like walls and doors and your sister and skin - meant we had to stop for that day and try again to learn to listen and obey and JUST write on the chalkboard).  And we've had some long art times.  Mostly with Abby.  Isaac seems to get bored with it - probably because it's too structured for him to JUST draw on the chalkboard?  I don't know.  But Abby LOVES to color!!!

And today I looked at my bored little man and got brave and pulled out the crayons.  Abby LOVED them!!!  I like them better than the chalk because the colors are more vibrant, so when we're working on identifying colors, there is more contrast and they can see the differences better.  They don't come off of our dry-erase board very easily, meaning with lots of elbow grease and almost as long to clean it completely off as it took the kids to fill it up with color.  But that's minimal, as long as they stick with the dry-erase board!  Overall, though, I'm a fan!

And our easels have a clip with them, for clipping things on the easel.  So my next venture, once we master listening and obeying with crayons, is to pull out the finger paint, spread some newspaper on the floor, clip on some paper, and let them go!  But I think that will have to wait a while, not gonna lie!

Still Here?

Yes, we're still here.  But we're not still there . . . in Boise, I mean.  We have been home now for officially one week and a few hours.  And I JUST got my clothes put away from the trip.  Yep.  Awesome.

There are a few cute things I've been wanting to put on here all week.  But I haven't had time.  And now I can't remember them.  So they'll have to wait.  But I thought this super cute picture of Brianna couldn't wait, even though Dave said I should wait to post pics until we have some of Abby as well.  So it's just a sneak peak, I guess.  TTFN!!!

Oh I can't get enough of her!

Almost . . .

Tonight we were driving home, dinner (at 8:00 at night) in the front seat with my mom as I drove.  Here's the conversation:

Abby: Mommy - I hungee.
Me: I know, honey, but we're almost . . . we're getting closer, okay; so please just sit tight until we get there and then we can eat.  Okay?
Abby: (reluctant whine) Okay.

Isaac: Mommy, dink of water, please. Dink of water, please Mommy.
Abby: Almost, Isaac.  Almost.  Isaac?  Almost, okay Isaac.  Almost house, Isaac, okay?

Me: (smile at my sweet girl taking care of her brother and the fact that Isaac asked so politely)

Brianna starts crying uncontrollably.  I reach over the back seat and put my finger in her mouth cuz I cannot reach/find her paci (yes, I'm driving  -- you do what you gotta do sometimes).

Me: Brianna -- it's okay, honey.  We're almost there.  Brianna, honey.  Calm down, it's okay.
(crying continues - light turns green - I focus on the road)
Abby: Honey - okay, Nanna.  Okay.  Almost house, Nanna.  Honey - Nanna - okay, Nanna.

They hear everything, don't they?  Sometimes, that's a really good thing. :-)

I need . . .

A vacation . . .

"Vacation is what you take when you can't take what you've been taking any longer."


- Lion from Wizard of Oz

Since my last post, we found out Dave had mono, found out the twins didn't respond to medicine and had to have heavier antibiotics, found out Abby had scarletina during a quick ER stop in a random town on our way to my mom's, found out Abby was allergic to the second round of antibiotics they gave her, and have been in Boise for about three weeks now (one and a half to go - but who's counting?).  And Dave found out yesterday at lunchtime that he's being discharged from the National Guard (yesterday) and we found out that we no longer have health insurance, effective the day of his discharge. 

So now I'm praying Abby doesn't have another ear infection and that no one gets sick until we can get health insurance through Dave's work figured out and to kick in.  And I'm praying that the new insurance doesn't go from January to December, cuz that means we will have just met our first deductible for the other insurance and have to meet it again between now and December for the new insurance and then start all over yet again in January.  But that's trivial, right?  And I'm hoping that we have dental insurance options we can afford to get through all the dental work that Dave hasn't been able to get done yet because he's been sick and our dental insurance is also . . . over and out.

And after one more day of crying, I officially need a vacation.

And the upside of all of this is that they didn't decide to discharge Dave until AFTER Brianna was born and our last month of health chaos (I'm keeping my word choice g-rated on that one ;-D) and over 12 doctor's visits in a month.  And the other upside is that Dave has a job where we can GET health insurance. 

So we're still VERY blessed and officially have NOT hit rock bottom. 

As I laid in bed last night, feeding Brianna and trying again to not cry and to let myself feel peace about all of this, I was thankful that I have my children, that there hasn't been a death in the family, that they keep me happy and make me crazy and make me laugh and sometimes swear (like when Isaac fed my grandma's hearing aids to the dog last week -- yeah, that was NOT a good day!!!) and give me reasons to be thankful and to try hard to learn who they are and what they need and what they are capable of that they need me to help them tap into.  I'm thankful that we all have life and (for now, for the most part) health and family and income and the atonement and opportunities to rise each time we fall (even in things like this).

And that's all I've got --- unless, of course, you want to give me a vacation for Christmas? :-)