Birthday Girl

Tess turned four years old on Thursday. It’s hard to believe! I’ve included a few photos of her at about 2 days old and 2-3 months old, and it’s just amazing how much she’s grown and changed; and changed our lives forever! You know, I’m a pretty grumpy mom some days, and sometimes I think the chaos of raising kids is not well-suited to my perfectionist, OCD personality, but still I wouldn’t trade my kids for anything in the world. I love them to pieces and Tess really is a sweet little thing most of the time.

We went swimming for her birthday (the day before) and we went to Papa’s house for a sleepover (the day of). Bryan had to go to Oklahoma on her birthday, so we did the presents with him that morning, but the cake that evening was without him (which he was probably not too sad about since he hates cake!) Tess had been asking for a real flute and a real house (with grass and flowers and a sidewalk!) for her birthday…but I think she was happy with the “TubTunes” flutes we got her (you fill them with water to different levels to make different notes) and the awesome dollhouse Papa got her. She also got a digital camera and she has already taken about 90 pictures with it—mostly of her knee or of our chests because when she pushes the button to take the picture, she kind of pushes the whole camera down as well. But she loves it and it’s no waste of film, so no problem!

We had Craft Night with some of my girlfriends at our house this week and I spent the whole time working on Tess’s birthday cake…one of her favorite shows on PBS is “Martha Speaks” about a talking dog. So I tried to do a Martha cake using a new method of decorating called a “frozen transfer.” I had seen really cool pictures of this on a friend’s blog (Hi, Natalie!) and so I thought I’d give it a shot. It actually was quite fun to do, but then it didn’t freeze quite right and I ended up really frustrated with the “transfer” part (the decoration is supposed to peel off the wax paper onto the cake, but it stuck to the paper and ended up smudged and stupid). In the end, it looked OK, and Tess liked it, but I definitely want to try it again someday and do it right this time. (I’ve since done some more research about how to do it and I hopefully figured out where I went wrong!) I’ll try again in December for Miles.

Also this week, I began my new calling as the Young Women President in our ward. I was scared to death when the Bishop first asked me because I’ve never even been in a YW presidency before. But, luckily, our YW is really small and they do most activities and lessons all together. There are about as many leaders as there are girls, which makes me feel a little more relaxed. I’m really excited for this new challenge, and honestly I think it will be a nice break once a week to get out of the house & do something new and different from the daily routine.

I guess that’s it for us. Happy 4th of July to all!

pictures

Still growin'

Our grass is really coming in very well now. It has been one month today since we got the seed in and Bryan has mowed the lawn once, and is probably going to again tonight (it needs it!) We’re so excited about it. There are still several patchy areas where it’s mostly dirt, but in the areas where the grass IS growing, it’s growing like a weed. It’s gotta be the poo-dirt.

Our kids are also growing bigger. We had both kids to the doctor for well-child check-ups last week. Miles is 18 months (in Nursery! Yay!) and Tess will be 4 years old this week. Miles is off the charts for height; he’s going to be taller than Tess before we know it. We LOVE our new doctor!! Bryan came with me to the appointment and he was also very impressed by him. I had seen him once when Miles was 15 months and really liked him, and after this visit I like him even more. It is so very, very nice to have a doctor whom we trust and also really like. We had a fabulous doctor in Logan, and in Riverdale we had two not-so-great doctors, so it’s wonderful to have a fabulous one again. Both kids seemed to really like him too because he makes the kids feel so comfortable. I could go on and on because it’s so refreshing after 2 ½ years to love our doctor again….

We had our cute niece Emma come to stay with us for a few days earlier this month and it was great! She is 9 years old and a huge help to me. She loves my kiddos and she’s really sweet with kids, so it was almost like free babysitting for 4 days. At the park, I could be a lazy mom and just sit on the bench and watch the kids play (normally I have to run after Miles and make sure he doesn’t fall off the jungle gym), and when Tess had to go potty “right now!” in the middle of the checkout line at Wal-Mart, I just sent Emma with her. It was great! I’m looking forward to having kids that age, where they not only entertain themselves very well, but they also help out so much!

This past weekend was a family reunion for my Gramma D’s siblings and their kids. I think there were not only 2nd cousins there, but also 3rd and probably 4th cousins as well. I knew very few people. But it was just nice to see my own 1st cousins whom I don’t see very often. The reunion was at a hot springs in Idaho and unfortunately it was cold, windy, and rainy all day long…luckily the swimming pool felt like a nice warm bathtub so we just played in the water most of the day. Even Miles who doesn’t usually like water loved just floating around in his lifejacket.

We also got to see Bryan’s family yesterday for Father’s Day. Tess is at the age now where she loves wearing dress-up clothes. Everything is “Princess this” and “Princess that” and she had a blast wearing her cousin’s fancy dress-up clothes. Gramma and Grampa Terry gave her an early birthday present of a “Sleeping Beauty” dress with shoes, crown, and purse and she hasn’t taken it off yet. She’s pretty cute.

Speaking of cute, the other day Tess was playing and got a little confused about the different traditions on holidays. She came over to me and pretended to knock on my door. When I answered she was standing there, holding her Easter bucket, but instead of saying “trick or treat” she was asking for Valentines.

The pictures this week are of: 1-Miles enjoying a marshmallow when we went up the canyon a few weeks ago for a campfire (Bryan wanted to try out his new chainsaw, so we had to find an excuse!) 2-I took Tess and Emma to the library for an evening of “Clowning Around” with face painting, balloon animals, puppet shows and the like. 3-One evening after the kids were in bed, Bryan & I were outside and saw a little baby frog in the grass. We’ve been hearing them for months now, but we couldn’t ever find one. Anyway we brought it inside to show Tess and she was thrilled. He was a tiny little thing but he could jump so far and Tess was just cracking up. 4-The last picture is what I found when Tess called to me the other night after she was supposed to be sleeping. Right before bed, (during the “Quick!-Stall!-and-ask-Mom-something-ANYthing-before-she-can-turn-out-my-light” portion of our bedtime routine) she asked if she could comb her hair in bed. I said, “no; go to sleep” and turned off the lights. Well, about 15 minutes later, she started crying and yelling for me. I went in and she had gotten out of bed, gotten her comb, and gotten the comb terribly stuck in her wet hair. She said she had been twirling it. It was pretty bad; so bad that for a minute I was worried that we may have to cut it out. But, eventually I got it out, and hopefully she learned a lesson about minding Mom! :)

“Ch, ch, ch, chia!”

We have grass! Little baby grass shoots peeking up everywhere and it’s wonderful! Every morning the first thing we do is run out and bend down close to the sidewalk to see how long and thick the baby grass is. It’s quite amazing to see how fast it grows; we got the seed in last Friday and started seeing little baby grass in about 5 days. It’s been 10 days now and it’s looking pretty good. Most people have told us that they could walk on their new grass in a month, so we only have 2 ½ weeks to go! I’m sure we won’t be really playing on it until about July, but I’m OK with that. It’s just so exciting that it’s coming in. It’s funny what little things you take for granted until you don’t have them. I never appreciated my yard in Riverdale like I should have. So, with the grass seed in, we spent the last week putting in the flowerbeds and mulch. I think everything looks pretty good; a few flowers are looking droopy, but I’m hoping that they’re just shocked from the transplant and they’ll perk up soon. I’m crossing my fingers! I’ll be sure to send a photo of the whole yard in a month or so to show the finished product.

Other than yardwork, we haven’t been up to too much. Tess is done with school but swimming lessons haven’t started yet, so we just try to stay busy. She LOVES playing with our next door neighbors, a 3 year old boy on one side, and 2 girls (ages 5 & 9) on the other side. Usually all four kids are outside running around and riding scooters or bikes. Jackson (the boy) has a “Rhino,” which is a battery powered ATV that the kids take turns driving. Tess loves it and luckily she hasn’t run anyone over yet!

That’s it for us. Sorry if you have the Chia Pet jingle stuck in your mind now.