So easy!

I don't know what changed in the last 4 months (other than Londyn getting 4 months older) but it is like night and day taking her picture lately.  Before, I could not bribe her for anything to face the camera.  As soon as she saw me pull it out she ran away (something Jacey still does, therefore no picture of Jacey today.)  But now she is old enough to think it's cool to see herself on the little preview screen on the back of the camera.  Vanity?  Perhaps.  Or maybe just curiosity.  After I took her picture this morning and showed it to her, I asked "Do you want to take another one?"  She said yes, so I said "Okay - sit down and look at me."  And she did!  Can it really be that easy?  (I really hope I'm not jinxing myself here.)  How can I get Jacey to follow suit?  Or William for that matter?  He looks annoyed in every picture I take of him.

Do you see that yellow spot on her forehead?  Poor bean took a tumble on Saturday and had a goose-egg like nothing I've ever seen before.  I thought about cloning it out, but it is what it is.

I'm trying to think what we've been up to lately and it must not have been much because I'm stumped.  Will's been working with Jacey on trying to sound out simple words (dog, cat, . . . you get the point) and she is getting pretty good at it.  She is so excited about learning new things right now - it's really fun to see.  Also a little scary for me as her mom - the whole mommy guilt thing kicks in.  You know, the "these are her formative years where she absorbs knowledge like a sponge so I better not waste them" sort of mommy guilt.  I really loved Elder Ballard's talk this past conference.  I'll admit that when I first heard it, it actually made me feel really guilty.  But I've read it again since then and I don't think that's the spirit it was given in.  Although I realize that if I feel guilty it's probably because I do need to make some changes and adjustments.  One of my favorite parts of that talk was when he quoted Anna Quindlen :

"The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. . . . I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.”

I love that.  I've seen that quote floating around in different places but for some reason it really hit me differently coming from an Apostle.  And while we're on the subject of quotes, let me share another one.  First, a little background.  I am scared of the world.  I am terrified that someday the influence of the world may be stronger over my children than the influence of their mother.  I feel that pressure.  Every single day.  And it doesn't help that that worldly influence gets more and more evil as the years go by.  I've had this conversation with my mom, my sister, and just about every other mom I know.  How do I keep them safe from this evil, screwed up world?  Well on Saturday we went over to Marie and Ky's for Mason's birthday.  After the kids had cake and ice cream, I hung behind to help clean up in the kitchen.  As I went to throw some paper plates in the trash can, I glanced at the fridge and saw that Marie had put this quote up on it. 

"You have a choice. You can wring your hands and be consumed with concern for the future or choose to use the counsel the Lord has given to live with peace and happiness in a world awash with evil. If you choose to concentrate on the dark side, this is what you will see.  Despite pockets of evil, the world overall is majestically beautiful, filled with many good and sincere people. God has provided a way to live in this world and not be contaminated by the degrading pressures evil agents spread throughout it. You can live a virtuous, productive, righteous life by following the plan of protection created by your Father in Heaven: His plan of happiness."  - Elder Richard G. Scott

It stopped me in my tracks.  And without going into too much detail or making this post any longer than it already is, I'll simply say that know this is a true statement.  And I think it really answered my question in a way that made sense to my spirit.  Which probably sounds weird, but I don't know how else to describe it.

I really had no intention of going here with this post.  But, alas, here we are.  Still, I think that's enough deep thought for one day.  Let's end with this quote instead.

Q:  How do you shoot a blue elephant?
A:  With a blue elephant gun, of course.
Q:  How do you shoot a red elephant?
A:  You strangle him until he turns blue, and then shoot him with a blue elephant gun.

Happy Wednesday. :)

Photos from last week

On Thursday Jacey had preschool at Caitlin's house. I've mentioned before what a craft goddess Emily is. Well she sent home some extra crafts that Jacey couldn't wait to paint. She broke down in tears when I told her I couldn't find the paint brushes. Luckily, we found them in Londyn's room and peace & harmony was restored to the world. They did "Z" for Zoo, and check out these cool finger puppet zoo animals Emily did. Craft goddess I tell you.

Will came home around lunch time on Friday and worked the rest of the day from home while I listened to a vacuum salesman for 2 1/2 hours. A small price to pay for a free carpet cleaning that my front room desperately needed. And hey, if I had an extra 2K sitting around, I might just have bought his monster NASA-designed vacuum cleaner. I digress. My point was that Will was home when the girls woke up from their naps, so we went to the park to fly his kite and play. The 75 mph winds didnt' get here until Saturday, so it was a perfect day for it. Jacey apparently finds kite-flying quite relaxing. (Actually, she had seen me doing this about 5 minutes before. Will came over and took the kite away from me because he thought I was going to fall asleep and lose it. Meanie. )

On Saturday we packed a picnic and went to this park in Pleasant Grove that Will had been telling me about. He'd played tennis there before and he said they had this cool castle play area that he thought the girls would dig. Right about the time we got there was when the winds started picking up, but not terribly bad yet. Just windy. So we had our windy picnic and then played on the toys. It is a pretty awesome play area, but man were there a lot of kids there. I think we'll have to go back sometime when school is in session and see if it's not so crowded.

They had these little Beehives with chairs inside them which the girls thought were cool. There were 3 I think, one said Queen Bee and one said Worker Bee, and I didn't look in the third to see what it said.

Londyn didn't do so well in nursery again yesterday. I really think she'd do better if it wasn't right smack dab in the middle of nap time. So I stayed in there for the first hour and Will went in with her during the second hour. I think she'll do fine once she gets comfortable, and if we can get her to nap during Sacrament meeting. (Fingers crossed.)

Apostles song

When my folks were here for General Conference, we were talking about how the Prophets song is getting a little outdated and/or cumbersome. (You know the primary song . . . Latter-day Prophets are number one . . . Joseph Smith then Brigham Young . . .) I remember it ending "Our latter-day prophet is loved by all, he's Spencer W. Kimball", but they've added on so many times now that I don't even know how it ends. Anyway, that's not really relevant at all. But we were saying that somebody needs to write a whole new song. This isn't the same thing, but that's why my My mom sent me this. I thought it was cute.

Tag

Jobs I've Had:

1. Party hostess at Pistol Pete's Pizza.  Yup. 
2. File clerk for an insurance office, a job given me by my friend Kim, and then given to my friend Emily.  Who got it then, Emily?
3. I worked in the Heritage Halls central building at BYU.  I don't know what to call my job, because I didn't really do anything.  I'm pretty sure it was a made-up job.
4. Student Receptionist at the Dean's office in the College of Engineering at BYU. 
5. Human Resources at the MTC.  (I did the payroll, mostly.)
6. Mom. 

All the Places I've Lived:

1. Provo, UT (birth-9 months)
2. Kansas City, MO (9 months - 9 years)
3. Las Vegas, NV (9 - 18)
4. Provo, UT/South Jordan, UT/Lehi, UT (18 - now)

4 Favorite Movies:

1. A River Runs Through It
2. Dead Poet's Society
3. Charly (I know, I know . . . but it gets me every time.  Still, I like it better as a book.)
4. I can't think of another.  There are a lot of movies I like, but it's hard to choose ones that I love.  I'll come back to this one if I think of something.

4 Favorite Foods:

1. Pizza
2. Pastries & bakery treats (just about any)
3. Nacho cheese Doritos
4. Heath bar, especially in chocolate ice cream

4 Weird Things About Me:

1. I hate birds.  A lot.  If Jacey looks out of her window while we're driving and sees a bird, she says "Mom are you scared of that bird?  It's really far away though, so it will be okay."  (I once explained to her that I'm only scared of birds when they're too close.) Corby's experience just about made me puke.
2. I can't fall asleep if Will's already asleep.  I have to wake him up and then I can fall asleep.  Rude, I know.
3. I have an Uncle who is 6 days younger than me.  When I would go to his primary class with him and he'd introduce me as his niece, the teacher would always say "You mean your cousin?"  No, I mean my niece.
4. I don't like to go to bed with a messy house.  But I don't think that's weird.  It's just nice to wake up to a clean house.  Even though it doesn't last past breakfast.

4 Favorite TV Shows:

1. American Idol
2. The Office
3. House.  I know, those of you who know my tendency to faint are surprised by this.  I have to close my eyes a lot during this show.  I just dig Hugh Laurie's sense of humor.
4. Just For Laughs

4 Places I'd Love To Go:

1. London
2. New York
3. San Diego (I've never been there.  Can you believe that?)
4. Hawaii

And now, I tag . . .

MARIE!  Who has a blog but has yet to post.  So get crackin'!

The Date Day

I can't really give much of a recap on Daddy-Jacey Day, because I wasn't there. But the first thing that Will said when I asked him how it went was "It was so nice to not have to rush her, and to just be able to let her take her time and do what she wanted." Does that sound familiar?

Here's the rundown as reported to me by Jacey: First they went to Mimi's Cafe and ate a HUGE breakfast. Then they went to the park and flew Daddy's kite for a while. Then they went to see Horton Hears a Who (Will gives it 2.5 stars; Jacey liked it). Oh, and I can't forget the popcorn and drinks at the movies - Jacey was far more excited about that than the movie, I think. After the movie they went roller skating. Will said that was a waste of money -- that the skates were just too much for her to handle. But Jacey said she was getting pretty good at it, so who knows. I kind of felt bad that the skating didn't work out because it was my idea. Sorry guys. Anyway, after the skating fiasco they picked up some Cafe Rio (Jacey's favorite) and took it to a park to eat. Then they came home and Jacey had a nap, and after that they ended the day with a Jamba Juice. Phew! Just typing all of that out has made me tired.

Mommy-Londyn Day was much more low-key. I had planned on taking her to the park, but I still wasn't sure if she was still carrying around Hand Foot & Mouth, so I thought it best if we stayed away from other kids for the time being. We ran some errands, did a little shopping, and got some lunch at Paradise Bakery. (Yes, it's as good as everybody says it is.) Londyn was less-than-specific in her requests for the day, so I had to interpret. I'm pretty sure she said shopping.

I love our date days. Definitely something we're going to do as long as these girls are interested.

PS, I cut my hair. Jury's still out.

Lost Photo

So, remember how I said I needed to find my old camera for Will and Jacey to use tomorrow? Well, I found it. And lo and behold, there were still pictures on the memory stick. Not very many, but a couple. Which, you know, is kind of like finding a 20 in your coat pocket at the beginning of winter.

Intense.

I'm pretty sure this was the day after Easter, because we haven't done her big country hair since then. Yes, she is always this serious when she colors. No, she isn't always wearing a princess gown, but occasionally. Coloring is a big pastime for her right now. She loves to have Will or me color with her, although she has informed me that daddy is a better at it than I am. (I didn't argue - he is.) Right now we have about an hour or so alone together most days after her nap, before Londyn wakes up. It's technically still "quiet time", so we spend our time coloring or reading books or playing with dolls.

I'm realizing just how quickly her years at home all day with me are going to end. I've signed her up for preschool next year which means she will be gone 3 mornings every week. Then comes Kindergarten, and next thing I know she will be at school all day and I am having a hard time even thinking about that right now as I type it. The only good thing I can see about preschool next year (for me) is the one-on-one time with Londyn. I don't have much alone time with her.

However, this coming Saturday is Daddy-Jacey Day & Mommy-Londyn Day. I'm excited! Londyn's biggest love right now is being outside, so hopefully it will be nice enough to go to the park. Other than that I don't have plans set. But Will and Jacey have big plans. She wants to go to Kangaroo Zoo, go roller skating, eat lunch at a resturant, see a movie with popcorn, go miniature golfing, and go swimming. How they plan to pack that all into 12 hours is beyond me. But more power to them. I'll have to find my old camera so we'll have some pictures of their day.

Dear Will,

The house is clean. I'm really sorry you missed it.
Love,
Me

Two conversations, overheard

So this morning Natalyn and Jacey were playing in Londyn's room. I was putting laundry away in the next room, and I ovearheard this debate in progress:

N: "Heaven is in the sky. It's where Heavenly Father and Jesus are."

J: "No, heaven's not in the sky. Heaven is right here in our tummies."

N, perplexed: "That's not right Jacey."

J, defiant: "Yes it is! Remember, before a baby pops out it is in heaven!"

I chuckled to myself and thought I guess we need an FHE lesson on the plan of salvation. On my next trip back to the bedrooms with my arms full of laundry I hear Jacey shouting these instructions:

"Okay, so we need 2 pieces of wood like this, and 2 pieces of wood like this, and we need 5 pieces of cardboard. Then we'll just make it into a nice rectangle. Oh no! We forgot our safety glasses!"

It was the safety glasses remark that triggered comprehension -- they were playing New Yankee Workshop. Which if you know my husband at all, you will know that New Yankee Workshop is akin to church services at our house on Saturday mornings. Silly girl. Daddy will be so proud.

Blake and Londyn were there too. Witnesses.