What a month!

So much going on.

I have no idea how single mom's do it. Kudos to you!

I would seriously just give up and hide in a hole.

This is going to be a long post, but I don't know when I'll have another free moment. I paid Emma to play with Olivia so I can blog :)

So...my smart, talented, and hard-working husband has been working 80+ hours a week (and traveling) for the last month trying to meet a deadline. We are hoping this is coming to an end next week and we can once again be a two-parent family.

Landon's school work is a lot more aggressive this year. There is very little room for error, and the teacher seems a lot more strict than past years. I don't know if it's the new school administration or just the way 3rd grade is structured, but I'm happy he's being challenged and he's doing really well. I guess I just wasn't mentally prepared for the amount of effort we would need to put in.

We are also working really hard in Scouts to earn his Wolf badge. He needs to earn it by his 9th birthday, which is in 2 weeks. So, needless to say, he and I have been working really aggressively on that. Meanwhile, they decided to throw in the Pinewood Derby. That deserves a post of it's own. Do you know how hard it is to be a girl (with no power tools) trying to compete with all the dads out there? Well, I went for it. Landon just finished painting it and we put the last wheel on a few minutes ago. The paint has bubbles and the wheels are out of alignment, but we did it together, and I'm proud of his hard work!

Also, Landon has decided to run for Student Council. He had to create a speech and a poster. He gives his speech tomorrow and then elections will be right after. I told him to write his speech and it was two pages long. He is so comfortable speaking in public. He never gets nervous. He will also sing a solo in front of anyone with no fear. I admire him so much for that. Anyway, after cutting his speech down to a paragraph, we made his poster. He has such a great sense of humor too...


Emma is also working hard at school, but since I've been through the 1st grade program with Landon, I'm fairly well prepared for her school work. Emma is very well liked at school and soccer and so she tends to get invited to at least one birthday party each week. With my time constraints this month, I've only allowed her to go to two of them, and I'm just the 'meanest mom ever'.

Aside from the basic drama of being a girl, my biggest challenge with Emma right now is that she is sleepwalking. It's been going on for years, but would only occur once a month. It's been every single night for the past month. I feel like I have a newborn again since I can't sleep through the night. She never has recollection of these events, even though we have a full conversation and sometimes I even take her picture. This is her (totally asleep) after she came into my room and just laid on my bed.


I don't know what to do for this. For now, all I can do is make sure she's safe and that the house alarm is always on. Until she magically out grows this, I will just continue to be sleep-deprived!

There's much more to update, but I think Emma has earned her dollar, so time to get back to being a single parent. Although it hasn't been easy, I do want to say that I'm definitely not complaining...I know we are so fortunate that my husband has a job he loves and that it's doing well enough that it requires so many hours. I'm definitely blessed, but also humbled as to how difficult it is to keep it all together without a lot of help.

Wish us luck at the Derby :)

Labor Day Adventure

I didn't have any plans for Labor Day, other than relaxing and enjoying time off of school. However, Friday afternoon, Jeremy informed me that he would be working all weekend. I was bummed that we wouldn't be able to hang out with him and definitely didn't want to just stay home all weekend. So, I decided I would check the kids out of school and head to sunny St. George. My Mom just had double knee replacement surgery, so I thought it would be a good time to visit her. Plus, what better way to spend a weekend then swimming, playing and no cleaning for me!

I've never checked the kids out early before, so they were absolutely shocked and a little worried that something was wrong. They were so surprised when I told them we were taking a quick vacation. We headed out right from school and made it just in time for dinner.



I didn't tell my parents we were coming, so we decided to just stop by and surprise them in the morning. The next morning we woke up and the kids picked out some flowers for Grandma. We knocked on their door and definitely surprised them. It was such a beautiful day. We spent most of the morning outside feeding the swans and visiting.




Grandma had two boo-boos on her knees and Livi wanted to show Grandma her boo-boos too.

Emma was just happy having 'cuddle time' with Grandma.


The rest of the time was spent playing at various parks and lots of swimming. We also had a few home cooked meals and a BYU game, both courtesy of my Dad.










It was so much fun and reminded me that I really need to be spontaneous more often. I just love spending time with these kids!

Little Livi Goes to School

Livi has been in speech therapy for the last six months. Now we are adding a toddler class to her in-home sessions. I was really worried that she would throw a fit without me, like she did at the gym daycare (where I was called to come get her after only five minutes).

I told her she was going to school, and that mommy can't stay there, and that she can't cry at school. I wasn't sure how much of that would resonate with a two-year old. She picked out her shirt and we got her ready, and of course, took pictures.


Then I took her to class and introduced her to her teachers. It was nice to see there were only eight kids and three teachers. She instantly gravitated to the toys and said, "Bye Mommy".
I left the room and stayed by the door to wait for her to realize that I actually left.

Um, yeah, she didn't care.

That was bitter-sweet. Okay, it was mostly sweet. I was so proud of her and happy to know that I can leave her in a classroom environment and not have her go nuts. Saweet.

When I picked her up, they said that she was quite the "Leader".

Translation: She is BOSSY!

Glad to see she was being herself in class.

The other good news...she ate the snack.

With her eating issues, I was nervous that she might not eat, but when I got there, she was shoving her face.

On the way home, she said, "no kye at tool mommy. no kye"

Translation: no cry at school mommy. no cry.

I guess she understood a lot more than I gave her credit for.

I love you Liv Liv!