Picture Updates

I just emptied my camera, so I thought I'd let y'all see some of the pictures :)

Miss Moira caught trying to climb the stairs again. She'd have more success if she tried the other side- the side she's at is very narrow.

Kaylon will tell you he doesn't need a son, but this picture doesn't support his claim.

This is Liliana trying hard to smile when she was sad.

The tunnels came out this week and Moira had some fun with the girls.

This smile makes Liliana look like her Uncle Stephen

Grace looking beautiful as usual

A week or so ago we took the girls to Grace's school to play on the playground. Daddy pushed Grace a little too hard on the handicapped swings and Grace fell out, hitting her chin on the safety bar first, and then cutting her toe open against the wood chips. That was an emotional night for both Grace and Kaylon, especially when the hydrogen peroxide came out.

Our primary has asked all the primary families to visit the temple and take a picture. We're finally getting around to it. They came out surprisingly good for having 3 kids in them!

Silence is a Warning

I realized a few minutes ago that Moira was being way too quiet. As I peered around the corner I caught sight of her halfway up the first stair. She pulled herself up, balanced a second or two, and then rolled off the step onto her back. No crying. She also had a Barbie shoe in her mouth. And paper. Now she's supporting herself vertically on her knees playing with a toy table.

How did my baby grow up so fast????

Flashback Friday

I know the quality of this picture isn't the best- it's dark, you can't really see our faces, and I had to tape the top of it because it got ripped, but it's one of my favorites of Kaylon and me. This was our Freshman year of college- by the date we had just gotten back to campus after the Christmas break. We were out to eat with friends and a Mariachi band started playing. There was no dance floor, but Kaylon asked me to dance anyway. I was totally embarrassed, but he pulled me up anyway, and I ended up having a good time- mostly because I was dancing with HIM. I mean look at my face- I'm totally smitten. It's nice to remember what 1st love looks like.

Bits and Pieces

The gym isn't working out for me right now. Mornings are too hectic with Moira napping and Grace needing to eat lunch at 11:30 in order to be out of the door by 12:10 to get to school. Kaylon, while he tries to get home on time, is not the boss at work so he rarely gets home before 7:30, and by that time I'm too frazzled to get it together and go to the gym (and I don't really like going late at night). The only class I've managed to get to is my Saturday Advanced Step, which I have loved, but is not worth 33$ for 4 classes/month. Soooo... I am going to give up my membership for the time being, and do TaeBo M/W/F and weight lifting T/Th during naptime. I need to be more productive, and I think this will give me the kick in the pants that I need. Especially with the holidays, and all the yummy food that entails, coming up quickly. Now that I've publicly declared that on my blog and facebook, I'm hoping I'll stay honest.

Grace is doing well in school. As she gets used to her routine she remembers more and more from school. She sings some pretty cute songs for us and randomly tells us about rules. To keep the kids quiet in the halls they do "bubbles and angel wings" which means they fill their cheeks up with air and put their arms behind them like wings. It's really cute. She is making friends, although she only knows two of their names. She has already been invited to TWO birthday parties (which I need to RSVP...).

Liliana is liking her momma time, I think. She likes to push the button at the crosswalk and show me sticks and rocks as we walk home. We usually read a few books or talk about shapes and colors when we get home and then she and Moira go down for naps. Yesterday when we were dropping off Grace at school, Liliana tried to get in like with the other kids. It's was so cute. The assistant teacher let her stand there while the other kids were getting off the bus. Liliana was distressed when I went to collect her. Only two years left till she's be going to. I wonder where we'll live when she does.

The other thing we are going to start is French. We had wanted to enroll Grace in the French classes at school, but they are at 8am Monday mornings which would make my day (with 3 kids) look like this:

7:45 walk/drive to school to drop Grace off
8:10 get home
8:45 walk to school to pick Grace up
8:10 get home
11:10 walk to school
11:40 get home
1:10 walk to school
1:40 get home

I don't even want to try to fit in Moira eating or naps in there. I hate mondays for the shortened schedule as it is- I don't need to complicate it. Anyways, we compromised by buying the Muzzy tapes (BBC foreign language program) in French for 25$ on Ebay. I'm going to pick out a time in the morning for the girls to learn French (ie when Moira is down). Hopefully they enjoy it. I'm excited to brush up on my french, myself.

Moira Videos

Moira's Weird Crying



Moira Crawling

We have crawling!

Moira crawled tonight! She just did it. It was so fun to watch- even with her being my third- these things just don't get old. It's amazing to watch her grow.

Course, now the gates will be up at all times. :D

Yay. Video to come later, as well as one illustrating her bizarre way of crying. :D

Charlotte the Spider

This morning Grace was talking to my while I put away Moira's clothes. I was only catching bits of it, since I was concentrating on what clothes didn't fit her anymore and which did, etc. But I caught her suggesting that we return to our old house to go visit Charlotte the spider to see how she is doing.

Background: Charlotte was a spider (probably many different spiders) that lived in our kitchen window (because it was missing the part that would have kept leaves, insects, and the cold/hot air out). The girls liked watching it spin webs and eat the insects caught in its web. We also think there might have been an egg sac once (which Kaylon got rid of).

Anyways, I turn around and tell Grace that we are never going back to that house- that it's not ours anymore and that someone else lives there. Her face falls, her eyes fill with tears, and she just starts sobbing. I go over and try to comfort her. I think, maybe she's transferring her feelings for all her friends and teachers and experiences onto this spider. So I talk about those things to see if it helps.

Nope. She tells me that she kinda misses those things, but she really just wants to go see Charlotte, because she was her best friend. And she misses her.

So, I try reality. I tell her that Charlotte is probably dead. To soften the blow I say that she probably made an egg sac, just like in the book, and that her children will be born later. I should have thought before I said that, because then she begged me to take her back so that she could get the egg sac and take care of it (a la Wilbur). I told her no and resigned myself to just comforting her instead of talking her out of it.

Moira ended up being her pick-me-up. She was getting into things she wasn't supposed to, which always makes Grace laugh at her. And she's into a lot of things lately. Paper, plastic, little pieces of trash- any tiny little thing that we overlook, she will find it. And shoes- she has a thing for chewing on shoes. And she likes to pull herself up to her knees now- not hands and knees- pulling up on the couch so that she is vertically on her knees. I'm getting scared. And Liliana adds to it by saying things like, "You're not in charge," or "Leave me alone," or "Go away," or "I do it myself." I guess I can never say that life is boring ;)

I love Fall!

My favorite seasons are the in between ones- late spring and early fall. I love the change in the air, and the change in how your cook, but mostly I love the temperature. It's the only time that I truly like to be outside. We took advantage of the beautiful weather last saturday in order to teach Grace how to ride her bike (again) since she has been scared of it all summer. Now that she has the hang of it, it's all she wants to do. Too bad it's supposed to rain the rest of the week...





This picture is to show just how close the playground is- I took it from our front door :)

I knew it was going to happen sometime...

Grace came out of the school today in tears. I hurried over to her to ask her what was wrong, and between sobs she told me that she wasn't allowed to bring a picture home that she had made for daddy. Both of her teachers came over to explain that they were making things for the Parents' Night that she could bring home later, but not today. I told them not to worry- that Grace can be dramatic at times, and that she'd be ok. Her teachers were very kind and tried to cheer her up. Liliana was nice enough to share a PB cracker with Grace- she was genuinely concerned that Grace had come out of school crying.

Self-taken picture

On the way home, Grace asked if Liliana had missed her. I explained what had happened earlier (see my last post). So Grace took it upon herself to tell Liliana that she "had to go to school so that she could learn." To which Liliana replied, "Oohhh."



And then at home I put Moira on the floor for some playtime, left the room for a moment, and then came back to find my baby, whom I had put on her tummy, sitting up supported by one arm. I couldn't believe it. I took a bunch of pictures. She seemed more comfortable on her knees too. She's quite the troublemaker- I'm gonna have to baby proof this weekend!

See Mom?! No Hands!

Here she is caressing the carpet.

After the 1st day of school

Grace is hopefully enjoying her third day of school as I type this. School was a little less 'boring' yesterday, according to her. This might have to do with being able to go to the playground and cut out shapes (Grace LOVES using scissors). She found out the name of the sad girl (Gretel) and said she was her best friend, but that she is still sad. She also got in a little trouble yesterday, which meant that she was told to get back in her seat (on the 1st day she was talking when she wasn't supposed to). All these rules she's learning!

Yesterday was the first day that we got there on time, so we got to see how the drop off routine usually goes. The AM kindergarten is led out by the assistant Kindergarten teachers to their parents or the buses and then the come back with the PM bus kids in line, which the walker kids join. As Grace walked into school, she looked back and yelled, "Bye mom! I love you! And Moira!" And then as a side note, "And Liliana!" hahaha!

Liliana, on the other hand, misses Grace. She and Moira both go down for a nap right after we get home, but as soon as she wakes up she goes downstairs calling for Grace. And today as we were walking home, she asked where Grace was. I told her she was at class and that we would come back and pick her up later, and was that ok? She replied, "No, it's NOT ok." Poor thing. And she is truly excited when we pick up Grace- usually giving her a hug and everything.

It is so bizarre for me to have a written in stone schedule. I used to go to the gym most days, but I could blow that off if something else came up. I can't blow this off, and it feels weird. It's good for all of us though. And hey, I've lost 2 lbs since Grace started school 3 days ago, so that's ok too!

Report on the first day of school

So, the reader's digest on what Grace thought of school: She liked it, but it was boring. Her favorite part of the day was snack time. She liked her teachers and her classmates, but forgot all their names. She didn't get to play with all the toys or on the playground (it rained some this morning), but she did get to do a lot of drawing- one of her family, one of a flower for daddy, one with a rainbow and the word 'dad' surrounded by hearts, and of course, one of an alien in a river of fire (!!!). She also mentioned that one of the girls was sad and so she said some nice words to her to make her happy. She is such a sweetheart!

The best part of my day today was when Grace saw me outside the school and ran and threw her arms around me. I'm not forgotten yet :)

All in all, a good day. Hopefully tomorrow goes just as smoothly. :)

Grace's First Day of School

Well, we all knew that the day would come. I thought about it all last week- how excited I was for her to try new things, but at the same time how scared I was of losing her- of no longer controlling her environment- and of how much I'd miss her. Luckily, she only has half day kindergarten, so it's a better transition for her, since she didn't have preschool.

She was excited all morning. She admired the outfit that she picked out and we decided together how to do her hair. I let her pick out what we'd have for lunch (chicken nuggets) and then we brushed teeth and grabbed shoes, and walked out the door. The walk to school is about 15 minutes (with 3 kids- I imagine Kaylon and I could do it in less). An added bonus is an hour of walking for me every day!

Here are some pictures we took along the way.

Modeling her purple Tinker Bell backpack

Literally running to school she was so excited!

That's the school sign in the back of the picture

Turns out that the folders that they gave us at orientation with all the information for school were misprinted. They say that pm kindergarten starts at 12:40, when in fact it starts at 12:30. So technically Grace was late for her 1st day of school (but just 5 minutes). A nice lady in the office escorted us to her classroom where we barely got hugs and kisses before she ran to find a seat at a table and grabbed a book to start reading. We lingered a second to watch her but she never even looked up at us. We walked away holding hands watching our 2 other princesses. I had a few tears in my eyes, but I didn't cry.

The bonuses to this new situation don't escape me. As soon as we got home, Liliana and Moira went right down for their naps. I cleaned the basement, started a load of laundry, ran an errand (since Kaylon was home) and updated my blog. Not bad for an afternoon. But I'm so excited to go pick her up in an hour (she gets out at 3:55) and see how her day went!

Grace's Fantastic Movie

Grace's new favorite thing is to write stories, so for Family Home Evening we decided to put one of them on camera. Enjoy!

Magic Fire

As we were driving around today Kaylon pretended to use magic to change a light from red to green- he even used some Harry Potter-like words to add to the show. He was making a big deal out of it (believe it or not, mostly for his benefit) when Grace piped up from the back:

"Daddy, can you light that car on fire?"

We busted up laughing. She honestly thought her daddy, who could turn the light green, should also be able to light a car on fire. She requested it numerous times, but Kaylon always came up with an excuse. I also challenged him to turn a light from green to red without the yellow light, but he refused. Some magician ;)

Taking out the trash

We have (had) and nice book of stories that I really enjoyed reading to the girls that they destroyed over the years. The cover is gone and now pages keep falling out, so Kaylon decided that it should go in the trash. In an effort to impress on Grace how not taking care of her things can lead to throwing them out, Kaylon told her what he was doing. She was devastated and hid herself under a blanket. Then she shocked Kaylon by crying out, "Fine, then just throw me in the trash!"

It seems to be her new mantra too, but it's kinda our fault. She is currently throwing a fit, which was started when Liliana accidentally bumped into her, messing up the story that she was drawing. When I told her to go to her room, she came out again with, "Just throw me in the trash." We couldn't help it- we burst out laughing. Since then she has used a litany of similar phrases: Throw me away, send me far away, send me away please, send me to Arizona, and these are your choices, you can throw me away or you can kill me. That last one came out just as I was typing the list.

Can we say dramatic? I'd like to blame it all on her father, but I know that my genes play a part too.

I just explained to her that I love her, daddy loves her, and Heavenly Father loves her, and so we will NEVER throw her away, and talking about killer her is not ok. After she cried through her anger and saw some love from me, the walls fell away and all she wanted was some love. She's reading with Kaylon on the couch now.

And we have lift off!

I am VERY happy to announce that Liliana is now potty trained. She doesn't even have to be reminded anymore. I believe she might be able to wear her Dora panties tomorrow.

It's all about getting past the first 3 days or so and NOT giving in to the desire to put them in diapers until they go to college. Yup, just get over that hump and you're good to go.

It's so nice to have only one in diapers again!