Batman Obsession

If you'll recall back to Halloween, Claire was Batman.  She LOVED the costume and thought it was great to be a super-hero.

Little did we know that Batman would become her constant companion and obsession.  She wants to wear her costume non-stop, she runs around "flying" with Batman and trapping bad people.  After she uses the potty she says, "Okay, Batman, your turn" and stands there for a couple minutes waiting before she flushes the toilet and washes her hands.  If I sit on the couch she says, "Hey, don't sit on Batman!  Can you sit on your chair please so you don't sit on Batman?"  And most recently she has taken to calling her bed her "Bat-Cave".

So what is a girl supposed to do when she has an accident resulting in her costume being dirty?

Wear all the accessories instead.  And yes...that is her "scary Batman face" that she uses all day.  It's great fun...particularly when she does it to people at the store.

The obsession went one step further during Claire's prayer the other night: 

"Heavenly Father, thank you for this day....(slight pause)....thank you for Batman."

Yep, she was more thankful for Batman than she was for her own flesh and blood!

She knows what she likes I guess.  And at least now we know where we stand on her list of priorities.

Oh, and did you know that Batman lives in Moab and drives a scary Jeep? 

Well, now you do.

What a difference...

What a difference 8 weeks makes!

Addison coming home from the hospital 8 weeks ago.

8 weeks old - coming home from an appointment with mommy.

Addison is a happy little baby.  She is smiling much more and starting to coo here and there. 

We all love her to pieces and can't wait to see how her personality emerges.

Saying Yes a little more often

Let's just get the ugly truth out of the way real quick now, shall we?  I'm in a major rut. 

I feel run down, beat up, stressed out, frazzled and any other assortment of adjectives that would basically describe motherhood at times.  I feel like the daily "to-do's" are growing out of control and I have no idea how to keep up with it all.  My house is a mess - except for the 1 time a week when we invite someone over to play.  My dirty and clean clothes are all in baskets laying on the floor because I can't seem to get around to folding the clean or putting the dirty in the washing machine.  But the most tragic consequence of the way I have been feeling is that I am taking it out on my sweet little girls.  They are getting much more "No", "Don't do that!", "Don't touch that!", "Go play in the other room.", "Why are you making such a mess?!", "PLEASE just be quiet!" and they are getting almost ZERO "Yes's". 

Then I came across this post and it got me thinking.  What if I said yes to one small thing instead of grumbling and being annoyed by requests and demands?  How would the mood of the house change, how would MY mood change?

So I began the experiment yesterday morning.  The first request was from Claire while Brielle was at preschool.  "Mommy, will you play the hippo game with me?"  I really didn't want to at the time.  I hate the little marbles and how loud the game gets.  But I said, "Yes, I will."  Claire was THRILLED that I sat on the floor and played Hungry Hungry Hippo's with her - even though she only wanted to play for 10 minutes.  She had my attention and I noticed an immediate improvement in her attitude.

The next request was from Brielle.  I asked the girls to go outside and bring their bikes in off the grass.  She said she wanted to play out there, which I was totally for.  She then paused and said, "Mommy, will you come out and play with us?"  Frankly I was surprised she even asked because I normally send them out there to play while I fold laundry, catch up on blogs or any number of other things.  My initial reaction was to say no and tell her to go play with Claire.  But the baby was asleep and I had nothing urgent to take care of.  So I said, "Yes, I will."  She LIT up and was beside herself with excitement.  I spent the next 45 minutes running around playing soccer, "I Spy with My Little Eye", pushing Claire around on her bike so she could go "super fast" and laughing with them. 

I would say my experiment was a HUGE success.  The whole mood of the house improved.  I felt happier, I had more patience, and the girls weren't fighting - as much - which helped me feel more relaxed. 

I would be EXTREMELY embarrassed if someone were to come over and see the state of my house - because I have not touched a thing.  There are wrappers, clothes, toys, books, crackers, pillows, blankets, game pieces, shoes etc. laying all over the place.  But the day seemed to go more smoothly. 

All because of a simple YES.

I will be trying to say yes more often...even when it seems a little tiresome.

The Majestic Wichita Mountains...kind of.

This Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day...just in case you missed it.  Lucky for me this meant that Marty had the day off from his regular Army duties.

Growing up we - as a family - were always busy with projects, day trips or camping on weekends.  I loved it!  The problem now is that I don't know how to just chillax on the weekends and if we sit around all day I find myself slowly slipping in to the depths of insanity...known as boredom.  I can sit around and do nothing with the best of them all week long...but come the weekend and my mind and body ache for something to do, something adventurous, dirty (like playing in the mud people...come on now) or fun. 

This has been a bit of an obstacle in our marriage as Marty wants to use his weekends to catch up on all the sitting around that he is deprived of throughout the week.  And I want to use the weekend to get away from all the sitting around and being stuck in the house that I have been subject to all week.

So I let him have his Saturday and Sunday this weekend but put down my foot come Monday morning.  Yeah, I realize that was a ridiculously long amount of build up to get to what we did to celebrate MLK Jr. day, so sue me.

I had overheard (or secretly read on a blog) someone talk about going to the "Wichita Mountains" nearby and thought maybe that would be a fun adventure. Silly me, I thought that seeing as the name of the mountains is the same as the city we live in, they would be close.  Nope, they are about an hour and a half away in a different city.  Actually, in a different state altogether.  But hey, whatever.  I looked them up online and they looked great.  So I kindly asked my husband (with a little begging, whining and possibly with tears in my eyes) if we could PLEASE go do something - and by something I meant could we venture off to these majestic mountains, known as Wichita??

He agreed.  We went.  We saw buffalo, long horns, prairie dogs, lakes, rivers, the "Holy City" (which was a bit odd)...and a "mountain".  It was actually very pretty.  My visiting teachers were over today and when I told them where we went, one said "Oh, the hill?" and laughed.  I guess that about sums it up.  When compared with Utah's mountains, it really was just a hill. But when compared with the flat nothingness surrounding us here, it was HUGE.

The girls had a great time, I didn't go crazy and we were able to get a TINY little taste of Utah.  Me and Marty were both so glad that we went, it was a great family activity.  A place we actually plan on visiting again because it was fun and most importantly FREE! (Minus the half a tank of gas it took to get there and back).  So here are a few pictures of our adventure. 

This is the only picture of Addison "enjoying" the view (from inside her covered car seat...I'm sure she felt the change in elevation though.)

The "Holy City".  It is some sort of outdoor set for a production of the life of Christ (we think).  It was neat...but felt a little odd at the same time with all the buildings being labeled things from Christ's life (i.e. Gethsemane, Resurrection Tomb, Road to Jerusalem etc.).

The girls LOVED climbing to the top of all the "castles" (as they referred to them) and looking out over the side.

Inside the "Resurrection Tomb"...it got a little uncomfortable as Claire went running towards it shouting "It's my batman cave!  My friend batman lives in there!"

Back in the visitors center Marty couldn't help but take this photo op.  He also had Claire stand in front of it and yell, "Swiper, no swiping!" 

It was a fun little outing...one I'm SURE you all would LOVE to enjoy as well.  So, come on down and visit us and we'll be sure to take you to the Wichita Mountains.  Please.  Anybody??

Sorting out the feelings

I am starting to wonder when I am really going to feel like we are 'home' here in Texas.  There is the old saying "home is where the heart is" and when I am in my house with my kids and husband all together I have the feeling of home.  It's just that when I look out the windows, THAT still does not feel like home to me.  It doesn't feel as shocking to my system as it used to but there are many things that I really miss from Utah.

I miss driving a few minutes to spend the afternoon with my sister.
I miss the smell of my dad's garage.
I miss pizza night.
I miss the chaos of family get together's (never thought I'd say that).
I miss the D.I.
I miss Sunday family dinners.
I miss the mountains.
I miss Cutler's.
I miss having baby-sitters!
I miss going to Deseret Book or Seagull Book.
...this list can go on and on, and in my head it is. 

I wish I could say that I'm adjusting more to being here.  But really I just try to fill our schedules full of activities so that we stay really busy.  Busy means we don't have too much time to feel sad...we = me of course.  Because I am feeling particularly homesick today, I am going to make an "I Like" list of the pro's to living here, the things that I like about being in Texas.

I like that the high will reach 70 degrees next week (yes, I'm rubbing it in).
I like having no inversion.
I like that the humidity has kept my cold's from turning in to bronchitis.
I like that the general population is SUPER friendly.
I like that there is no "Keeping up with the Jones's" going on here.  It's fantastic!  
I like that I've personally grown up a lot
I like that my homemaking and baking skills have improved a LOT.
I like that the fast-food restaurants aren't super close.  Eating out takes more effort.
I like that stores are further away as well, shopping to "waste time" isn't so tempting.
           (Marty's wallet seems to appreciate this the most.)

That list could also go on and on as well...which was more therapeutic than I expected.  :)

So maybe we are adjusting a little bit...I guess I need to just give the opportunity more of a chance and change my mindset in to treating it as an adventure rather than focusing on anything I don't like.

Maybe THAT will be my New Years resolution (it's not too late, right?)

Random Ramblings

I got all energized and excited about doing a "healthy living competition"...then I got sick.  I don't think I'll win this week because drinking 8 cups of water a day with a sore throat is more torture than refreshment, and 20 minutes of cardio a day when you have body aches and feel a cough coming on sounds as fun as a colonoscopy.  I've never had a colonoscopy...but I've also never died, and I prefer not to do either unless necessary.

Some people just have all the luck!  (Some people = me)

************************************

I invited myself and Brielle in to a co-op preschool.  Basically I was like, "Hi, you will be my friend and you will like it...and then you will let Brielle be in your preschool!" 

They seem really excited about the new friendship.

*************************************

I made the MAJOR mistake of bragging about Addison sleeping so good at night.  She has since reverted back to waking every 2 1/2 to 3 hours throughout the night as punishment for me talking about her behind her back. 

Some girls are so sensitive!

**************************************

Why has it taken me three kids to realize that if the baby has a blowout I can take her shirts off down over her legs instead of putting her in horribly uncomfortable positions in order to avoid dragging poop in her hair while getting the mess over her head?? 

I feel as though a more experienced - or smart - person should have told me about this.

**************************************

Claire has had a green goopy nose and cough for a little over 2 weeks, and yesterday she had a fever.  I had been "waiting it out" until someone called me to set up a play date for Friday!!  Since I'm not willing to let a social opportunity pass NO MATTER WHAT - because they are hard to come by since moving - Claire will be going to the doctor tomorrow.

I'm anxiously awaiting my mother of the year award.

****************************************

I'm out of OxyClean...the miracle stain remover.  For reals...it is! 

I'm worried about the stains that will go untreated today.

******************************************

Marty often wonders how in the world I am capable of being so random...is it my fault if my brain functions at such a high frequency that thoughts are spinning around in there like a food processor?  He's just the lucky beneficiary of all the randomness...today I decided to spare him by sharing the randomness with the blog world instead. 

You're welcome.

A Sister's Instincts?

Brielle is absolutely obsessed with Addison and spends about 99.2% of her day rubbing, touching, hugging, kissing, squishing, squealing at, begging to hold, and in many other ways bothering loving the baby.

This also means that I spend 99.2% of my day telling her to stop, back it up a little, let the baby sleep, let the baby eat, let the baby breathe, etc.

It is D-lightful.

 

Addison was eating and finally getting a little break from Brielle as I turned on Nick Jr. and told her that while I fed the baby, she needed to leave us alone...something I am sure I tell her at least 337 times a day (I have to tell her repeatedly...even when the baby isn't eating.)

 Her show went to commercial and she happened to hear a commercial that said, "Always trust your instincts". 

Her first question: 
"Who stinks?"

Love it!

Anyway, I explained that it wasn't someone that stinks, but the word was INSTINCT.

She - of course - asked what instinct meant.

In my best 4 year old vocabulary, I tried to explain that instinct is basically what you feel like you should do.  Or what you feel is the right thing to do. 

To further illustrate this concept to her I said, "For instance, my instincts were telling me that the baby was crying because she was hungry and needed to eat."

Without skipping a beat, Brielle said, "Well, my instincts are telling me that I need to keep bugging Addison."

Touché.

The reality of being a mom

I usually try to look on the bright side of things.  I try to find the glamorous things in my life and try to focus on how wonderful my kids are.

But sometimes reality slaps you in the face so hard that you really can't think about the glamorous side of it to save your life.

Tuesday morning I decided to kick off my new year - a few days late - by getting up before the kids so that I could actually shower and be ready before 1 in the afternoon.  However, my desire to do so of course meant that throughout the previous night, I was up 6 times between the 3 kids.  They have a momdar (mom radar) alerting them to anything mom may do that is out of the ordinary and they do all they can to ruin it. 

Proof of this momdar can be found in many different situations.  For instance as soon as I sat down to write this post, my previously slumbering baby awoke screaming for nourishment NOW, and my two older kids who were previously enjoying quiet time began fighting and screaming, requiring my attention. 

One may ask, "How can you give 3 kids your attention at once?"  Answer:  You can't, and you don't.  Inevitably one or more children will be left screaming for their needs as you assess who really needs you the most at the moment.  As of now...baby wins.  A couple days ago - pee soaked toddler and couch wins.

Another example of this momdar would be whenever I sit down to eat or grab a quick snack.  Suddenly I am as popular as a crumb of cake in an ant hill.  What the devil!?  These little people wanted nothing to do with me a couple minutes ago.

To add to the joy that is motherhood, I decided it was high time to potty train Claire.  Basically I should have kept her in diapers and bought a puppy, because that's about how successful she was for the entire first day and a half.

After at least 10 pairs of panties (or underwear if you're my husband and hate the word panties) and many, many Clorox wipes we are FINALLY making progress...however she is now running to the potty every 30 minutes...because she knows she will get a treat if she tinkles in there. 

Who's idea was it to make kids so darn smart?


I'm pretty sure I'll never be able to leave the house again.  We're now knee deep in that terrible in-between phase of potty training where they are doing pretty good but you really can't trust that they'll hold it in public. 


Another reason for our hermit tendencies is because I only have 2 hands and with 3 kids it takes a lot of time, planning, energy and patience - which I am lacking a bit of lately - to go anywhere.  I will get to the point where emerging from our hole of insanity will happen...but for now I am just trying to make the most of it.  Hey, look on the bright side, I don't have to do my hair or makeup or really even get out of my pajamas!  The savings alone in laundry soap and cosmetics is worth it...right?


Lucky Marty gets to come home to such a beautiful sight each night.

Then there is the phenomenon known as mother's Murphy's law, which states, "if you want to get something accomplished, something else will definitely go wrong ruining your chances"...or something like that.  I was managing the stresses of potty training, having a newborn, being lonely, having mountains of cleaning, dishes and laundry to do pretty decently.  Then I put in my first - of about 500 - loads of laundry for the morning.

Soon the sound of a waterfall was flowing through our house.  I knew I hadn't installed such a beautiful feature and began searching out the noise.  I was lead to my washing machine where I found water was spilling out the back by the hose.  I quickly turned off the washing machine and stood there...not sure what to do. 

I felt as though this may be the straw to break the camel's back.  I weighed my options:

1. Cry.


2.  Call my dad and cry.


3. Put Claire back in diapers and undo any progress as to avoid unnecessary dirty clothes.


4. Do all the above and wait for Marty to get home so I could cry and make him fix it. 


5. Investigate and try to fix the washer myself and continue on with the day.

I decided to put my OWN big girl panties on and fix the washer.  Basically - in all my technical knowledge - the drain hose wasn't keeping up with the water and was spilling out the excess. There's probably a clog or something but I chose to just stop the washer long enough for it to drain and turn it back on...with a towel underneath just in case.  Problem solved! (kind of) 

Okay...I may have cried too.

So the washing machine is running, the dishes are done (for now), the kids are fed (even if it is their 4th pack of fruit snacks today), clothed (in dress up clothes), and they're happy (because they're watching TV)...but most importantly, mommy is not crying (anymore).  For now that's all I hope for! 

On the agenda for tomorrow - try to find the glamour again.

They LIED!

Coming home from Utah was particularly painful for Brielle as she wasn't done playing in the snow.  The further we drove away, the more she said things like, "I want to go back to Utah NOW to play in the snow!  Texas doesn't have snow!  Let's go back!  Turn around!" 

In all honesty I was just about to take her up on the offer, because I too wasn't quite sure I was ready to leave Utah behind again.  I thought maybe it'd be easier this time around...I was wrong.

The drive home was full of bad weather everywhere we went.  The closer we got to Texas, however, it got more and more clear.  We literally were leaving the snow in our dust.  I was feeling sad as I thought of how disappointed Brielle was going to be that we weren't able to play in the snow again this winter.

Imagine our surprise and Brielle's EXTREME joy as we pulled in to our little community and saw remnants of snow on the ground!  We had been told that Wichita Falls may get one small skiff of snow each year but that it never sticks.  What we were seeing was just slightly more than a skiff however.  We could tell people had shoveled their driveways and plowed the streets as there were some snow piles that were at least a foot tall. (Remember, this is Texas...not Utah, a one foot snow drift is HUGE!)  There were even a couple yards with snow men still standing...even though the snow around them had nearly melted.

As we pulled in to our driveway, Brielle squealed with delight, "Look!  We have two puddles of snow in our front yard!"  Meager as they were, it was still snow.

The next morning Brielle promptly ate breakfast and got dressed.  She then got some "snow clothes" on and begged to go outside.  As she was heading outside she said, "Wow, I can't believe we have snow in our yard!  Someone lied to me, because they DO have snow in Texas!"

She was in absolute heaven as she played in our "puddles of snow". 

Thank you Mother Nature for making Brielle the happiest girl alive!!

Jam Packed Christmas Post...because I know you have an hour to spend reading this...and I'm too lazy to split it up in to multiple posts.

So much to cover...so little desire to make it organized.  A few of the events could probably warrant a post dedicated solely to them...however I am lazy and just need to get these memories down so that some day - when I'm feeling nostalgic - I can read back on all we did. 

So, let's get this party started shall we?

The journey from Texas to Utah was long...20 hours to be exact. Within the first 5 hours, Addison had thrown up (not to be confused with a little bit of baby spit up) 4 times, requiring 3 outfit changes for her and 1 for me.  To make things even MORE exciting, Brielle then joined the band wagon and threw up in the back seat of the van...in a traffic jam...with people driving really slowly by watching Marty dry heave while holding a vomit covered child trying to get her cleaned up on the shoulder of the road.  I would have helped him, however I was dealing with the vomit covered newborn on the inside of the van. 

It would seem that my meager attempt at being prepared by bringing 4 grocery bags for garbage etc. was not going to cut it.  We ended up with all 4 of those bags completely stuffed with vomit clothes and blankets riding in the back for the remainder of the 15 hours...leaving us ZERO bags for poopy diapers, dirty tissues, wrappers etc.  And did you know that baby wipes - no matter how hard you try - will NOT get the smell of throw up out of upholstery?  It was going very smoothly indeed.

We managed to go the rest of the 15 hours with minimal problems, however, and pulled safely in to the welcoming driveway of my parent's home at about 2:30 a.m.  The positive to all that...Claire didn't throw up.

The first few days of the trip are a blur of visiting family members we had missed, playing with cousins, eating...a lot...and soaking in all the wonderfulness of being home for the holidays (Cheesy?  Yes. But it's the truth.)  I forgot to take any pictures of the first few days...and even MORE terrible, I forgot to take my camera when we visited the Davis' at all!!  I still feel bad about this.

Christmas came and went FAR too fast...as always.  A few highlights:

Christmas Eve pajamas by the Christmas tree

Christmas morning...the traditional "rolled out of bed" picture coming up the stairs.

3 of the 6 Granddaughter's with their purses and glasses from Grandma and Grandpa R.  Participation was not on the 4th granddaughter's agenda....that's her purple shirt on the bottom left.

*****

We also had the pleasure of introducing Addison to her cousin Brooklyn (exactly 2 months older) for the first time....which also means I had the pleasure of meeting Brooklyn for the first time.  What a CUTE little girl she is!

(In case you wondered, Addison's shirt says "One Tuff Army Cookie")

*****

We were able to bless Addison in my parent's ward on Sunday while there.  We were originally planning to just do it at their house but found out the bishopric had too many conflicts, so doing it in their ward was the only option.  Marty made me tear up after he finished the blessing by walking across the front of the chapel holding Addison and gently leaning down and kissing her on the forehead.  Don't ask me why it got me choked up...but it did.  It was so sweet.

(Addison is wearing the same blessing dress that me and my 2 sisters, Brielle, Claire and 2 other granddaughters have all worn.  Such a fun tradition!)

Following the blessing, Claire fell head first off the bench hitting her head on the one in front leaving her with a LARGE goose egg on her forehead.  After finding some ice in the freezer at the church, she recovered quickly and within a couple hours it was hardly noticeable.

*****

The kids were in HEAVEN with the snow. 

Nothing quite like cheap labor.

*****

Addison turned 1 month old on our trip.  It has gone fast and she is just the happiest, sweetest little baby and is actually starting to get a little chub on her.

(Pictures were actually taken in Texas...it didn't dawn on me that she was 1 month old until we were back.)

*****

And finally - a couple of my favorite outcomes of our attempted "cousins" photo shoot.  I don't have any that turned out of all the cousins...because I didn't happen to capture any with my camera.  But at least we tried and have those memories!

It was SO great to be in Utah with family for the holidays, I couldn't have survived this Christmas otherwise.