Oops...Monday 10

This week has been busy...thus the lack of the Sunday 10. Enjoy.

1. Monday I ran some errands in the morning, then babysat my nieces for several hours in the afternoon and evening. I haven't babysat them since I got pregnant with Brynne, so it's been awhile. My girls love to play with them.
2. After the girls left and Alex got home from golfing, I left to meet up with Chelsea where we did a whirlwind shopping trip to find bedding for her new guest bed. We hit up 5 stores in less than 2 hours. I think that's impressive. Alex thinks that's crazy (a.k.a. death by shopping).
3. On Tuesday my lovely friend Joy came over with Chase. Usually our kids play together (or fight, but at least they interact!) but not this time. Alli was at preschool when they first came, so it was just Holly and Chase, and they both pretty much clung to their own moms. So odd. Then Alli came home and Alayna stayed to play a little, and then all the kids played just fine together. And, as always, Joy and I enjoyed fun girl talk throughout it all.
4. While they were here, I got a call that someone was going to see our house that night. So the second they left, I started my scrubbing, vacuuming, de-toying routine for house showing. Then I threw together some egg salad sandwiches for dinner and we headed to the park. But since all 3 kids fell asleep in the car, Alex and I decided to drive around a little and look at the ginormous homes in Alpine. Huge. So HUGE! Then we went back to the park and ate yummy egg salad and let the kids run around.
5. On Wednesday we went to Alex's sister Betsy's house for dinner. I made another pumpkin pie, except I didn't have a pre-made crust this time so I made it from scratch. Yummy. I ended up with an extra crust, so I threw together a chocolate pudding/banana pie. Also yummy. Pie. So good.
6. Thursday morning brought another roommate breakfast. I made an egg casserole thing and won the good wife award for making an extra one for Alex to eat. (So maybe it wasn't the good wife award so much as the making-up-for-last-time-when-I-didn't-make-an-extra-one-for-Alex award. Either way, he was very grateful.) I always love roommate breakfast.
7. On Friday the girls and I headed to Herriman to visit one of my oldest friends, Heather. We were in the same ward back in our early primary days and have had a lot of fun through high school and college, and now our babies are only 8 days apart. It was so fun to catch up and see how much her little boy has grown since I saw him last. I'm excited for when he and Brynne will be old enough to play together.
8. On the way home from Heather's, we stopped at the Walmart out there and picked up some paint for Alli and Holly's room. (And, by the way, that was the first Walmart experience I've had in a long time that didn't make me want to gauge my eyes out from frustration. Huge new store. Very friendly old paint employee that was so helpful. Aisles big enough to breathe in. No line at the checkout stand. Amazing. I might drive all the way out there next time I have to make my dreaded Walmart run.) We also stopped by Alex's work for a few minutes to say hi.
9. Friday night Alex and I moved the furniture out of the girls' room and got a coat of primer up on the walls. Saturday morning Alex went to basketball practice and as soon as Brynne was down for her nap I got working. I painted the first coat. My sister came over that afternoon and helped me get a lot done. Finally finished later that evening! Alex took the girls to a friends house, and I sat down to watch the RS conference with Brynne. Then we left and went to different stores around here looking at dishwashers. (Come to think of it, much of my week has been consumed with dishwasher research. I think I almost picked one.)
10. Yesterday was another busy one with church, home teaching, visiting teaching, then people over for dinner and games. Always my favorite Sunday activity. The last few days of this week I've spent with either no voice or a very manly, scratchy voice. Not sure what happened, but it's getting old! It was quite funny watching my little primary class trying to figure out what I was trying to say to them.

Phew. Busy week. I was glad to look at the calender this morning and see nothing written down but preschool. I definitely need to get some stuff done around the house now!

Sunday 10 -- Ten Reasons I'm Excited for Fall

1. Weather change. Duh.
2. I spent Friday at the Park City outlets with Mary, and got tons of cute Fall clothes for my kids. Three cute girls. Three sets of cute Fall clothes. Love.
3. I also picked up a couple cute sweaters for myself which I look forward to wearing when it gets cooler.
4. We can start leaving windows open around our house. There is nothing like fresh air to make a person happy.
5. I can go running later in the morning without worrying about getting too hot.
6. Sleeping with blankets!! I love to sleep with blankets up to my chin every night, but hot summers make that rather uncomfortable.
7. On the way to Park City, we saw so many patches of fall colors on the mountains. A couple weeks from now it will be even better, and I can't wait for that!
8. Tucking my kids in at night. There is something so fulfilling about getting my kids all snuggled up and cozy in their beds.
9. Candy corn. I love candy corn. And I eat way too much of it!
10. At Alex's request, I made pumpkin pie today. It's baking right now, and it smells AMAZING! I foresee an Autumn with pumpkin pie a-plenty.

Midweek Confessional

I can't stand not knowing what time it is. I especially hate waking up in a room without a clock and not knowing if I've been asleep for 1 hour or 6 hours. So annoying.

I pondered this one the other day as I was cleaning my kitchen: How do silverware trays get dirty? I only put clean silverware in them, so how do crumbs end up mixed in with the silverware? Thank goodness they're easy to clean.

Sometimes by the end of the day, I am all touched out. With three kids pulling on me, playing with my hair, and using me as a launching pad or a step stool, I can't wait until they all go to bed and I get to sit down and not get bruises on my legs from being crawled on. But, of course, by the time they all wake up I'm ready to resume my role of resident jungle gym.

Sunday 10

1. Monday and Tuesday were busy, busy days as I tried to use every last peach that came off of our peach trees. I canned 5 jars of peaches on Monday (thank you, internet, for teaching me how!) and made freezer jam and a fresh peach cobbler on Tuesday.
2. Debbie, Carl, Chelsea, and Derek came over Tuesday night to enjoy the peach cobbler with us. I liked the from-scratch version of the cobbler, but there is something about a cake mix peach cobbler that is just delicious!
3. On Monday night, Alex and I got a sitter for the older girls and took Brynne to a party at his boss' house. We had tasty pizza and way too many m&m's, and played a few sweat-filled rounds of Around the World: Ping Pong. So fun.
4. To celebrate having finished the half marathon, I ran approximately ZERO times this week. And I loved it. Now I just need to get back into a schedule again this week.
5. We finally got our kitchen window replaced this week! It had some condensation in between panes, and I've been waiting for a few weeks for someone to fix it. Seeing such a new, clear window made me want to thoroughly clean all my windows. It looks so pretty!
6. On Wednesday night, Mary and I had a little girls night. We saw a movie that could quite possibly be the stupidest movie ever. . . and shall remain a secret . . . and then went to Target for the fastest Target shopping trip ever. I love girls night out.
7. On Friday morning I took Brynne to the doctor, then came home for a few hours before we left to get my mom from the airport. After we picked her up, we met up with some of my Salt Lake family at the zoo and spent a couple hours there.
8. After the zoo we went to our niece's 4th birthday party. It was a bike party, and all the kids rode around in a church parking lot and loved it.
9. Saturday morning while Alex was golfing, my mom and I took the kids down to Provo to my sister's apartment. My mom went with the guys to the BYU game (go cougs!) and my sister and I went to a nephew's birthday party at ChuckECheese's. It was so cute watching the girls walk around with their token cups and figuring out what they wanted to do all on their own. They are getting so old!
10. Today we're having the Salt Lake family over for dinner. My Grandma is bringing her potato salad. I love her potato salad. I am so excited.

6 month checkup

We had Brynne's 6 month checkup this morning. She is 27 inches and weighs barely under 15 pounds, which means she hasn't gained any weight since her 4 month checkup. The doctor wasn't really worried, just said I need to make sure to feed her solids 2-3 times a day to help her "pack on a couple pounds". I don't love doing solids right now. It's so much faster to sit down and let her nurse for 10 minutes than spend 20 minutes and make a huge mess trying to get her to eat applesauce or oatmeal. But I guess that's not enough for her, so 2-3 times a day it is!

Midweek Confessional

This is a huge confession. Major. I only just started admitting it to myself, so to admit it to other people is a pretty big step. Are you ready?

I like living in Utah.

Did you catch that? Don't tell anyone.

Growing up in Northern California, I thought I lived in the greatest place in America. I loved it. It was beautiful. It had perfect weather all year long (namely, it didn't snow. I still hate the snow). I had a great group of friends. There were plenty of other LDS youth, but plenty of other types of people as well, and I loved it. I had my life planned out. I was going to go to BYU after high school, get married somewhere during my college years (didn't anticipate how fast that would happen!) and convince my new husband that Northern California was the place to be. My mom teases me that I only had two real goals: Never marry a Utah boy, and never give birth to my kids in Utah. Can't check either one of those off.

So here I am, 7 years after graduating from high school. I'm sitting in my home in Utah County. My Utah husband is at his Utah job, while I'm home with our three kids born in Provo, Logan, and American Fork. That's right: Utah, Utah, and Utah. I shop at Utah stores and I've made my Utah friends and I watch Utah news. And guess what? I like it. That's right. I really do.

I might be biased, but...

isn't she the cutest baby you've ever seen?

Sunday 10

1. We started off the week with a fun Labor Day. Alex went golfing with some friends, and I took the kids to Chelsea's to help her get her pictures up in their new place. Have I mentioned how excited I am to have the Marshalls back? I think so. After Alex and Derek came back, we took off so the kids could sleep. Later that day we headed down to Orem to have pizza with the Gardners, and so I could take advantage of the buy one, get one sale on lamps going on at Shopko. I got some really cute lamps for our nightstands. Love it.

2. On Tuesday Alli started preschool. She's going to the same one as her friend from across the street. She and Alayna play together all the time, so I thought it was only fitting to sign Alli up for the same class. She absolutely loves preschool. She wishes it was everyday! When I picked her up on the first day and asked her what they did, the first thing she said was "We jumped on the trampoline". The second day she said "We got 2 big marshmallows for snack". And I think they might be learning in there somewhere, too... :) Here's Alli before the first day!

3. On Wednesday Alex's sister Betsy came over with her kids for the morning. We don't get to play with them very often, so it was fun to have them here and watch them all play together.

4. Thursday was the 2nd installment of Pleasant Grove roommate breakfast. I love doing this, and I love it even more when it's not my turn to cook!

5. After I picked up Alli and Alayna from preschool Thursday, Mary and I decided to take them all to Arctic Circle for lunch. We had fun chatting while the kids ran around and wore themselves out.

6. Thursday night we went with our friends from our ward, Mike and Ashlee, to the Owlz game in Orem. We sat on the grass and brought dinner with us. It was such a fun night just eating and talking (I don't think Ashlee and I saw any of the game. Seriously) and the kids did a really good job, even though the playground was all locked up. We're so grateful for so many good friends in our neighborhood!

7. On Friday I spent the day cleaning my house and trying to get us packed for the weekend. I even got a pile of D.I. stuff ready. Oh, how I love to purge!

8. My saga of Friday night was already posted. It was exhausting, yet I somehow managed to survive through the half-marathon! I'm really proud of myself for doing it, because way back in May when I decided I wanted to, I wasn't really positive I would actually make it to this point. Around mile 6 or 7 I decided that I would rather give birth without an epidural again than run another half marathon. Around mile 10 I was thinking "what, 10 miles isn't good enough? I have to run 3 more?" As I hit mile marker 12 and my legs were losing feeling, I was so excited that I only had one more mile. It was really awesome running in and seeing Alex, his parents, all my kids, my sister, and her husband. This picture is right after I ran in. I barely had the strength to hold Brynne for this!

And now that I'm a day removed from it and not nearly as sore as I anticipated, I do think I'd like to do another race. Probably not a half marathon, but maybe a 10k. That seems like a more managable length.
9. Immediately after the race I went back to Alex's parents and showered, and then we headed up to Lindsay's family cabin. It ended up being us, Gardners, Morris' and Marshalls. I always make fun of Alex for never moving on from his high school friends, but I really love how close they are still. And they all chose great people to marry, too, so everyone loves to spend time together. The best part was sitting around the campfire telling some of the funniest stories I've ever heard (mom, I told the story of Cami's bus driver needing to use the bathroom and leaving a little treat behind...) and then moving in for a hilarious game of Balderdash. We had a blast.

The couples

The babies
The big girls

10. As we settled down for dinner tonight I was feeling really tired. Two nights of an unhappy teething baby and a lot of running will do that, I guess. Alex told me he'd take care of the kids so I could go lie down. I told myself a half hour would be enough, but an hour and 45 minutes later Alex came in to ask me where the Orajel was, because he had gotten Brynne all ready for bed. Great husband. I probably could have slept the whole night, but I felt a little guilty, so I rolled out of bed and played with Alli and Holly for awhile before getting them in bed. Now I'm ready to go crash on the couch and cross my fingers for a happy baby and a full night's sleep...

Teeth Schmeeth

Brynne is cutting her first tooth, and it couldn't be worse timing.  We spent the night at Alex's parents house in Spanish Fork.  I am running my half marathon this morning in Spanish Fork, and we decided to stay the night here so we could all get the most sleep possible.  I went to bed at 10 with Brynne, who usually is a great sleeper and gets herself to go to sleep within just a couple minutes.  She finally settled down around 10:45 and I went to sleep after that.  I don't know how long she slept after that, but I know it wasn't more than an hour and a half.  And we've been trying to get her to sleep since then.  Luckily Alex's mom is prepared with baby Tylenol and Orajel, but we didn't discover that until a couple hours into the crying.  The medicine finally helped her get to sleep, and I managed to slip in about a half hour of shut-eye after that.  Amazingly the lack of sleep still helped me get rid of the headache that I had all day yesterday.  That is a miracle.

Poor little baby.  It can't feel good to be getting teeth.