Creche Display

We went to see the creche display in Midway and got to dress up and take a picture. Anna wanted to be a sheep, but we coaxed her with the baby doll. I think my kids are cute. And funny. Elizabeth at family home evening yesterday whispered in my ear, "mommy, daddy is losing his hair." She is concerned about this. A couple of weeks ago while Elizabeth was riding on Jeff's shoulders, she said, "Daddy, do you sometimes miss your hair." He told her that mommy does.

Why do I try this?

I thought it would be fun to make candy cane cookies to take to our neighbors. My mistake, I guess. The kids had fun helping me so it wasn't a complete failure. Elizabeth cracked an egg and quite a bit of egg shell into the dough, which I couldn't get all out. We had to borrow red food coloring because my supply and Walmart's supply was gone. The cookies were trickier to roll out than I anticipated and when I finally did get some cooked I accidentally used the spatuala I was cooking fajitas with and got green pepper and onion on the cookies. We ended up with three plates to take to neighbors, one of which Anna dropped in the middle of the street. Anna ate so much cookie dough during this process, that she wouldn't eat dinner and when we put her to bed she threw up all over herself and the bed. So don't expect any cookies from me. If I can get my act together, maybe I will buy you a candy bar.

Where in the World?!

Just today: What is the capital of Vermont? How long is Tennesee? What is a plateau? What is the largest city in Minnesota? What is the smallest city in America? Why is Hawaii a state if it is just a bunch of islands? What is the capital of South Dakota? What continent has the most ice?

All of the questions make my head spin, mostly because I can't answer very many. I am getting very good at the capitals, though. I can name most of them.

Andrew is very much into the atlas and world maps. He drew a picture of the earth and can name all of the continents and most of the states. He also knows quite a few of the major rivers and mountains and asks me constantly when we can see different places. He really wants to go to Indianapolis and Alaska. Perhaps Brian and Dana can help us with this. He is very excited to move to Colorado and tells me that after a year there we should move to another state. "We should just move to every state, mom." Life is very simple when you are six. While we were in Colorado Springs, Andrew called us every couple of hours to see what city we were in. And, as you can see from the picture, he lost another tooth while we were gone. The tooth fairy is richer at Grandma and Grandpa's house and now Andrew thinks the way to get more money is to lose more teeth. We'll just send the teeth to Grandma's house.

Charlie

The kids all fight over who gets to sleep with Charlie, though the decision is always made by Charlie. He usually chooses to sleep with us, which gets him put in his kennel. His second choice is Elizabeth and we always find him wrapped up in her blankets, sleeping on a pillow. She has very motherly instincts. Occassionally Charlie will come walking into our room after Elizabeth has fallen to sleep with one of her blankets balancing on his back. It makes us laugh.

Beautiful Anna

" Look mom, I beautiful." This is how I found Anna right before church. I should have assumed she was getting into trouble because she shut herself in Elizabeth's room and was very quiet. She loves makeup and she loves the word beautiful. Anna's arms match now too, which is very exciting--no more cast or brace--she loves to hold up her arms and say, "look mom, they match." Anna has been getting into trouble lately and she is getting sneaky. She asked me if she could have gum before bed and I told her no. She went into her room, shut the door, and told me I couldn't go in. When I finally did go in, of course she was chewing gum. It is hard for me to get upset at her because she is a ridiculously cute 2 1/2 year old. And I was so appalled at her sneaky act that I didn't know how to respond.

Scriptures

Andrew's obsession with the scriptures is as strong as ever. Jeff found his Preach My Gospel manual and Andrew reads a section and looks up the scriptures. I feel some guilt with this obsession--"stop reading your scriptures and go to bed," and "no, I don't know any good scriptures about that topic..." are some things I have actually had to say to Andrew. He likes to quiz me and ask me to tell him "good scriptures" to look up in the Acts, for example. He loves the scriptures and could easily beat me in a scripture chase. He has all the books in the Old and New Testament, Book of Mormon and Pearl of Great Price memorized in order. His primary teacher loves him. I try to tell him that all of the scriptures are good, but he doesn't buy it. He likes the ones about prophets and asks me about every name he reads. I love when he asks me because he sounds out the names phonetically--who is Moseees? Andrew was so excited because he found a movie at the library about Esther. He watched it intently when we got home and then sat in the van in the garage and read Esther for over an hour. And then last week he taught me about fasting. Needless to say, he has been a good influence in our home.

Piano

Piano practicing has taken over. But it is always worth it when I see Andrew and Elizabeth enjoying the piano so much. Since Elizabeth has started taking lessons, I've had to use the same reminder I had with Andrew--Self-esteem is more important than playing the piano. I don't want to forget that.
Andrew loves playing his songs all staccato or with his hands crossed over so his right hand is playing the left hand part, and vice versa. He also improvises and makes up songs all the time. Elizabeth is learning her songs really fast and loves showing off to anyone who will listen. It has been a little trickier teaching her because her hands aren't big enough to reach some simple chords.
Anna just loves playing with the metronome and Charlie has learned to sleep under the piano bench. We are hoping we can find a good piano teacher when/if? we move.

Home at last!

From Class to Class:
After two weeks of training in Athens, GA I am finally home. Usually, when I get home from traveling Anna won't have anything to do with me. When I got home this time she was happy to see me. I think I was gone so long she got over being mad at me and she missed me. Unfortunately, I am now enrolled in a tax course through H&R Block. I have class three nights a week from 6 until 9. I sleep in my bed but I still don't get to see my kids much. In fact, Andrew has had to wait a couple of days to tune his new guitar, play with his new X Trek race course, and make rocks because I haven't been home enough to help him.

Where will we be?:
Prior to going to Athens I had two options for opening an accounting practice--Kaysville, UT or Fort Collins, CO. Now there is a good chance we could end up in Colorado Springs. I should have more details about Colorado Springs in the near future.

Andrew's Birthday:
The celebration of Andrew's birthday started as soon as he woke up. Melanie and I put 20 or so balloons in Andrews room to surprise him and then Melanie made him two huge pancakes, put candles in them and sang him happy birthday. I was at work but Andrew called me so I could sing Happy Birthday over the phone. After breakfast he opened presents and Melanie took him to Krispy Kreme so he could have his favorite treat.

I left work early so Melanie and I could take Andrew to the IMAX to see Deep Sea 3D. He loved it! Several times he tried to touch the fish and other sea creatures. After the movie we perused the planetarium toy store for about an hour. Andrew enjoyed looking at the science toys so much that we wouldn't even go to the bathroom. I eventually had to drag him to the restroom.

Andrew's favorite food is pizza so after we had our fill of science toys we headed to California Pizza Kitchen. Andrew was tempted by the noodles on the menu but his love for pizza won and he settled on a cheese pizza. He was so hungry he ate all but one slice of a medium pizza.

After dinner we took Andrew to Toys R Us. He got a coupon in the mail so we thought it would be fun to let him pick out a toy. I tried to pursuade him to get a Star Wars lego kit, but once he saw a magic rock making kit I didn't stand a chance. In fact, Melanie and I took him to see scooters and other really cool things but he wasn't interested. He had his rock kit and we couldn't distract him from it.

Finally, we went to Melanie's parents house and had the formal celebration with his grandparents and cousins. We sang happy birthday and then his cousins gave him gifts--all of which were science related. The most intriguing of which, was a pair of noise magnents. You throw them in the air and they bounce against each other very rapidly. Andrew played with them all evening.

Fall Festival:

Today we went to a "Fall Festival" near our home. It was a lot of fun! We rode in a wagon to a pumpkin patch and the kids got to pick out their own pumpkins. Andrew picked the biggest one in the patch and then gave it to me. It was a little too big for him to carry. Then all three of the kids rode on a horse. Each of them had the biggest smiles! I was nervous about Anna because of her arm but when it was her turn she walked right to the horse, let a stranger put her on the horse and then rode around. After the horse ride we played some games including a sack race. Andrew is so proud of himself because he beat Elizabeth and I. Afterwards we got to ride in a hot air balloon. It was a very short ride but really cool! Tonight the kids cleaned out their pumpkins and designed the faces for the Jack-O-Lanterns.

What a Week!

I haven't sent an update forever. As usual. This week, though, is well worth documenting. It all started with getting our new puppy Cavachon, named Charlie on Friday night. And then with Anna breaking her arm Saturday morning. She was holding onto the railing while walking down the stairs when Andrew climbed over the banister and slid down, knocking her over. She broke both bones in her forearm and they were at an angle. The doctor at the instacare told us to go to the ER to have her sedated to set the bone, but the doctor on call at the ER decided that it didn't really need to be set. So we waited until Wednesday to see an Orthopedist and the first thing he told me after looking at the x-rays was that she needed to go to the ER to have her arm set. I explained to him what had happened, which he thought was very strange and then he set the bones straight in his office with an x-ray machine on so we could see her bones. It would have been cool except for that Anna and I were both crying. And the nurse told me that Elizabeth and Andrew couldn't be in the room with us--they would have to wait in the waiting room. When I explained to her that they are 5 and 4, she told me I would have to choose who I wanted to be with. I chose Anna and went into the radiology room and saw a small corner behind a wall and convinced the nurse that Andrew and Elizabeth had small enough butts to sit there. Luckily, she obliged. Now Anna has a hot pink cast. The doctor had to take his saw and slit open one side to allow for more swelling from setting the bones. She gets a new cast Monday. She hasn't been sleeping well and talks about her "big owey." My favorite question is to ask her what color her cast is, because she always says green. She loves the color green.

On Tuesday my piano teacher forgot piano lessons and I got a speeding ticket on the way home. When I finally got home, I ran over Andrew's bike in the garage. Elizabeth called me from preschool crying because she wanted to go home and the dog peed on my carpet for the first time. Thursday my babysitter forgot to come and I couldn't ever get a hold of her. Friday my garage door fell off the tracks and bent. And my garbage diposal stopped working. And I broke the needle off of my sewing machine and I needed to finish my quilt block by Saturday. And Jeff has been out of town all week. Today I have been waiting for something to happen and I have been driving very carefully and watching my kids carefully when we are outside. Nothing terrible has happened today. We did have 3 people come to look at our house.

The kids, though, are doing okay, Anna excepted. Andrew did well in his soccer game today. He was running around strongly for the first half but the second half he was walking around not really paying attention. He got to play goalie, which he enjoys, and his team won 2 to nothing. Andrew is very much into Monoploy and we play almost every day. His math skills are getting very good. Tonight he bought Water Works for 150, so he gave me a 500 and said, "mom, now you have to give me 350 back." I think that is pretty good math for a 5-year old! He still plays the piano all day and makes up songs and asks me which one I like best. Today he was playing all the left hand parts to Elizabeth's songs. She has mastered her twinkles, Honeybee, Cukoo, and Lightly Row. I am proud of her. Anna sings all the Suzuki songs as well and loves to sit up to the piano and push buttons on the metronome.

Elizabeth still does tricks all day. Her new favorite is to do headstands on the stairs and kick her legs up to the stairs above her. And then she yells to me to help her get down. She plays all day with Anna, with her crafts, with Andrew and with her friend Elise. She amazes me everyday with how sweet and kind she is and how willing she is to help me out. I tell her every night that she has a very special part in our family.

Anna is Anna. She giggles and laughs and asks me to tickle her. She still loves Dora and we are planning her half birthday party for next week. She picked out the cake mix and frosting today. She will do anything Elizabeth wants her to, so Elizabeth guided all the decisions. Anna loves Charlie and talks to him like he is a baby. She loves talking about our dog. And holding his leash and filling up his water bowl and holding him on her lap. Luckily, Charlie doesn't mind.

That was a long update. Luckily, I have managed to keep my wits about me. I do find myself turning in circles sometimes, but I have had people help me. My neighbor has been a life saver, and I have felt so blessed to have her as a good friend. And my parents and Melissa and Michelle have helped a ton too just by talking to me on the phone.

Athens Part II

Week one is almost over. Yesterday and today I came home tired from sitting down all day. I am more tired after sitting down for 8 hours then I am after running 3 miles.

I've learned how to set up clients, process monthly paperwork, and price services. I know it sounds boring, but there is some complexity in it that makes it enjoyable.

My Run:
After I got home I went for a run. I ran east through downtown and looped around U of G campus. I ran by the stadium and was impressed by the size of it. It seats over 90,000.

Charlie:
The amazing Charlie is no longer that amazing. He had a couple of accidents in the house. Melanie was not happy with him. The kids still love him all the same.

The Varsity:
The varsity is a local hamburger place in Athens. I was told that if you come to Athens you should experience the Varsity. I was extremely disappointed. The lady in front of us bought several cheeseburgers. They were all very small so I figured they were the small cheeseburgers for her kids. I thought my $6 burger would be much bigger. I was very disappointed to see a tiny burger on my plate. I felt robbed!

Anna's Arm:
Melanie took Anna to the doctor yesterday and was informed that the ER should have set her arm on Saturday. Anna's arm was angled at 18 degrees and it should have been under 10. Consequently, the doctor had to set Anna's arm yesterday. He put a hard cast on her and then squeezed her arm while the cast was still soft. Anna screamed! I felt horrible when Melanie told me. I wish I could have been there to help.

New Blog

We have decided to use this "Conley Family Blog" instead of the tumblog we were using before. For those of you who missed the posts to the tumblog you can go to http://conley.tumblr.com to view them.

If you would like to see the slideshow of our recent pictures you can click on the "Our Recent Pictures" link to the right and it will take you to the slideshow.

I like this blog because it will allow you the viewer to make comments and it allows me to put links and information to the side of posts--e.g. "Our Recent Pictures."

August 7th Update

My dad informed me that it has been 6 weeks since my last update. I thought it was longer than that, so I am happy.

We have had an eventful few weeks. We went camping in the Uintahs with some friends, went to Lagoon a couple of times with cousins and Grandma and Grandpa, and took a trip to visit Michelle in Colorado Springs. This past weekend Jeff's parents were here for my niece's baptism, which was really nice. We enjoy having family stuff to keep us busy. It makes us feel like we can compete with the never ending family activities of our neighbors. I am running the Provo half-marathon on Saturday and Jeff and I are training for the Ogden triathlon in September. I tried swimming laps on Monday morning, and I am nervous I am going to drown in Pineview. Perhaps I will wear a life jacket. We are getting lots of exercise around here. I ran 6 miles, biked 15, and did an hour of yoga on Saturday. And yesterday I swam laps, ran a few miles, and did more yoga. Today I am tired. Jeff ran and biked yesterday as well.

Our kids are doing well. We went to Cherry Hill yesterday and today and it wears them out. They are watching movies now to wind down a little before gymnastics this afternoon. Andrew is currently obsessed with his next birthday party--he will tell you it is in about 11 weeks and then he asks me what 7 times 11 is to figure out how many days. 11 weeks sounds shorter to him than 77 days, so he usually sticks with that. He is planning the games he wants to play and he told me he has to have a Batman cake, so that I had better borrow a cake pan. I guess he doesn't assume I might buy one. He asks me how much money he would have if he got 10,000 pennies and if that would be enough to buy a pogo stick. His friend has one, and he wants one badly. We found a BMX track when we were driving to CO and Andrew rode his bike up and down the dirt hills like a pro. We were proud parents.

Elizabeth loves gymnastics and she is good at it. My neighbor asked me if Elizabeth had been working out because her legs look so muscley and defined. She just does gymnastics. She is good at doing backwards somersaults and backbends over our exercise ball. She loves it. I started practicing the piano with her and she has learned all of her Twinkles and part of Honey Bee. We are going to start her in piano lessons in a couple of months. She is also an excellent swimmer and likes to jump off the side of the pool over and over again. She is still our cuddly girl and will sit next to me and stroke my arm. I love her.


Anna is a pest right now. She likes to whine and throw tantrums. When she isn't doing those things, she is really sweet and mellow. She is talking in full sentences all the time now and it makes her seem so grown up. She wishes so badly that she could do gymnastics and swim by herself like Andrew and Elizabeth, but she also enjoys being the baby and knows how to get her way in everything.


Our big news is that Jeff is planning to quit his job at the end of September and start his own franchise that does taxes and accounting for small businesses. We are deliberating doing the franchise in Davis County or moving to Fort Collins, CO. Anybody been there? We are both stressed at even the thought of having to put all of our stuff in boxes and move it, so we will see what happens.

We are new at this blogging thing so the pictures are poorly placed. We'll get better.

Take care,

Melanie

June 14th Update

It has been way too long since I have written an update. I am feeling guilty because the kids are reading their baby books and journal entries and the entries have gotten shorter and shorter the last few years. We are so much busier and life is happier and more complicated and wonderful and I have no excuses.

So here goes. I ran the Salt Lake half marathon in April and got 1:39, for which I was so proud despite the entire run from mile 1 on being completely miserable. I did yoga 2 days later at the gym I work at and was standing in a simple tree pose when I felt my right foot snap. I had to limp out and limped for the next week before seeing an orthopedist. I fractured my os perineum, a bone which only 15 percent of the population even has. I had to wear a boot for a little over 3 weeks and now my foot is healed and I am running again. One benefit to the fracture was that Jeff and I both bought road bikes, which we are thoroughly enjoying. Jeff has been riding to work a couple of times a week--it takes him 30 minutes to drive or an hour to bike. He is still working out the kinks of showering, packing clean clothes and walking into work in tight bike clothing. Jeff started a new job at the Flying J about 3 weeks ago in their IT department. He is excited for the change and the best part, he tells me, is that he gets to grow a beard.

The kids are doing great. We had everyone's preschool graduations and then went to Park City for a weekend with some friends over Memorial Day. The following week we went to Lake Tahoe with my mom and dad, which was beautiful and fun. Now we are looking forward to Michelle coming, Elizabeth's birthday and our week at Bear Lake with all of our cousins at the end of June.

The kids are growing and learning. They are very busy and keep me moving. By the end of the day I feel exhausted most of the time. Andrew is almost done with T-ball, which Jeff has coached. When I ask him if he is ready for T-ball, he says "No way." He gets bored when he is in the field, but he really likes hitting the ball and running around the bases. Every time Andrew bats, he chooses the pink bat, much to Jeff's dismay. Andrew graduated from Suzuki Book 1 and we are almost done with Book 2. He learns a couple of hymns from the simplified hymn book a week and he loves playing them. I love listening to him playing and singing the hymns. I am always impressed with his sight-reading and word-reading abilities. I heard him play a really high note and then in his falsetto sing, "Love" at the top of his lungs. I need to get it on video camera. A couple of months ago he came home from preschool and told me that he needed to teach me a new song, so he sat at the craft table and wrote me the music--he drew the staff and notes. I played the song and it was the Clean up, Clean up, song. He had the music right on. Andrew still lives for caterpillar season in the fall. He collects bugs and leaves and keeps them in a shoebox for when he can catch a caterpillar. He takes very good care of his pet dog Droozy and would very much like an animal.

Elizabeth turns 4 next week! I can't believe it. She is still a socialite and it isn't uncommon for her to play with friends for 6 or more hours a day. I prefer it in smaller doses, but she is lucky to have 4 year old girls next door and across the street from us. They ride their bikes around the neighborhood in their princess dresses and can play house for hours. My biggest job is keeping her fed. She is very hungry and particular. Her favorite food as of late\n is snap peas, which makes me feel like an excellent mother. We went to a friend's house yesterday to run through the sprinklers and she told me she was hungry and our friend offered her some animal crackers, and she said, "no, I want snap peas." I had to smile. Elizabeth is brave at Cherry Hill this year and will go down the water slides by herself. She likes to swim around the lazy river without any floaties and tubes and I spend my time chasing after Andrew and Elizabeth making sure they don't drown. Elizabeth has no fear in the water.

Anna has grown up so much. She is talking all the time. She answers all of my questions. We switched her to a big bed and she loves it. She comes running into my room in the morning and gives me a big hug. I ask her how she slept and she always says, "good." She is very attached to her black lab stuffed puppy, Ally and carries her everywhere. When we need to go somewhere, she says, "Ally come, okay?" She used to say "fanks" for thank you every time I did something for her, but now she says, "hank you." We went to see some baby kittens today, and the whole time Anna was holding one, she said, "He likes me!" with a big grin on her face. She greets Jeff at the door with a jumping dance and a big hug. She loves Dora and she loves singing. She brings lots of smiles to our house.

Elizabeth turns 4 next week! I can't believe it. She is still a socialite and it isn't uncommon for her to play with friends for 6 or more hours a day. I prefer it in smaller doses, but she is lucky to have 4 year old girls next door and across the street from us. They ride their bikes around the neighborhood in their princess dresses and can play house for hours. My biggest job is keeping her fed. She is very hungry and particular. Her favorite food as of late is snap peas, which makes me feel like an excellent mother. We went to a friend's house yesterday to run through the sprinklers and she told me she was hungry and our friend offered her some animal crackers, and she said, "no, I want snap peas." I had to smile. Elizabeth is brave at Cherry Hill this year and will go down the water slides by herself. She likes to swim around the lazy river without any floaties and tubes and I spend my time chasing after Andrew and Elizabeth making sure they don't drown. Elizabeth has no fear in the water.

Anna has grown up so much. She is talking all the time. She answers all of my questions. We switched her to a big bed and she loves it. She comes running into my room in the morning and gives me a big hug. I ask her how she slept and she always says, "good." She is very attached to her black lab stuffed puppy, Ally and carries her everywhere. When we need to go somewhere, she says, "Ally come, okay?" She used to say "fanks" for thank you every time I did something for her, but now she says, "hank you." We went to see some baby kittens today, and the whole time Anna was holding one, she said, "He likes me!" with a big grin on her face. She greets Jeff at the door with a jumping dance and a big hug. She loves Dora and she loves singing. She brings lots of smiles to our house.

I will send pictures later.
Hope you are well,

Melanie