Mother's Day

Sam and I were talking last night, and we decided that we should start celebrating my Mother's Day on the Saturday before. Having it on Sunday just isn't working for me. Sam has been in a bishopric four out of the five years that we've had children to celebrate with, so there's never a nice Sunday morning with breakfast in bed, him getting the kids ready, etc. He's gone before the kids are even awake most Sundays, and he's there long after church is over taking care of business. Yesterday morning was so stressful for me that I was in tears when Sam was leaving for his meetings. Emmitt has been up half the night for the last few nights so I was just going back to sleep when the sun came up Sunday morning. I should have stayed awake and gotten in the shower but I was too tired since this has been happening for the last few nights. The kids and I were embarrassingly late for church. I think it was the latest I've ever been. Other stressful things happened at church that I was just too tired to take in stride. Once church was over and I was at my parent's house things felt so much better. My dad made us dinner and Emmitt took a nap. I took Emmitt to the Dr. this morning, and just as I suspected, he has a double ear infection again. Hopefully he'll be feeling better soon. I need the sleep.

I love being a mother because children remind us how exciting the world is. They are great at showing us how to forgive and forget. The children are always happy to see me in the morning and they love me even when I am impatient and don't feel deserving of such love. I'm so thankful that these two are mine!

The best picture I got with my two little sweeties. Obviously, Em wasn't having it.  

I've been trying to get into running again so Sam got me a new Nike watch that tracks how far you've gone and other stuff. It's a joint Mother's/Father's Day gift since we both wanted it and they're expensive. It will be nice to not have to drive around anymore trying to calculate new routes.

Emmitt made this for me in Nursery. I'm surprised he laid down long enough for them to trace him! Emmitt keeps us busy, but he has an infectious smile and endless curiosity about the world around him. He is such a tease and loves to pester Mila.

This was Mila's present to me. She told me on Friday she wanted to get me some flowers for Mother's Day. I bought these on Saturday, and then on Sunday morning I showed them to her and said, "Oh, Mila, thank you for the flowers!" She looked at me kind of confused since this was the first time she had seen them, then she covered so well and said, "They're for you Mom. Happy Mother's Day!" I love little Mila so much! My journey as a mother started with her, and she has been so patient with me as I've been learning on the job. She is the most encouraging child. She loves to tell people what a good job they are doing. Even me. Thanks Mila!

Life at Dandelion Manor

My family has a bit of an obsession with British old-timey shows like Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, etc. Our recent favorite has been Downton Abbey. All the houses in these shows have fancy names. So why not ours?  

Dandelion Manor is the nickname I gave our little house because our yard looked like this...

 Thankfully, the dandies have died down and our yard doesn't look so trashy anymore.

On this particular day at the Manor I was watching a friend's kids and we were having some fun. I found this idea for sidewalk paint on Pinterest from here. I love Pinterest! It's equal parts water and cornstarch with some food coloring. The kids had a blast with it!

Then they made me some bowls of delicious "soup". Mila kept saying, "This soup needs lots more weed. Let me find some more weed for our soup." She just meant more plants of course :)

They climbed trees. When Mila stepped down the few inches from the tree root to the ground she excitedly told me, "Mom, that was the highest I've ever been!"

Life at Dandelion Manor is good!

Read on to see all the stuff I've been too lazy to post about till now.

My Little Superheroes

They found some x-ray glasses...

some super capes...

some liquid power...

and some super helmets.

Now they are all ready to save my day! 

I can't get over how funny Mila's face is in this picture! Hilarious!

The Zoo!

Mila had been asking to go to the zoo since October. At least weekly I had to explain why we weren't going to the zoo. Finally, spring rolled around and we went.

 They were so excited!

 When Mila saw the leopard, she ran over squealing, "Ohhhh, Mom, it's so beautiful."

 We had recently bought the movie Tarzan so the kids were particularly excited about seeing the gorillas, but the cage was empty.

The monkeys sufficed and were definitely the favorite of the day.

We ended up getting a zoo pass since it will pay for itself in two visits. I told Mila that we will now be able to go any time we want. So the next morning Mila woke up and said, "Let's go to the zoo again TODAY!"

Easter

We had a very lovely Easter weekend. The weather was nice, the kids had a good time, and Mila learned that we don't celebrate Easter because of eggs. We had to work on that one for a while. We colored eggs and had an egg hunt on Saturday. Sunday we went to a wonderful church meeting, had a nice dinner with family, then went home and gave the kids their baskets.

 This was the first time Emmitt had hunted eggs. He was a pro.

 But then he took his eggs and dumped them in the garden. I had to convince him that he wanted to keep them.

 Mila had been looking forward to the egg hunt for some time and could hardly wait.

 Around this time she had been particularly obsessed with giving and getting pony rides. She asked me if I wanted a ride, but for safety reasons I had to decline. A few moments later I saw this out the window.

 How is this the best picture I have of them in their Easter clothes? They aren't even looking at me, and Mila doesn't have shoes on. 

 This "hat" is actually a toy dog's bed. He thought this was so funny.

 Mila was so careful and took things out one at a time to enjoy them. Emmitt just kept grabbing things and tossing them out until he got to this...

That was all he really cared about.

Mud Puddle Thoughts

I love being a mother, but there are moments when I absolutely love being a mother. My conversation with Mila on the way home from church today was one of them. It went like this...

MILA: (wearing new Easter sandals) Mom, I don't want to take the jewels off my sandals because they would be ruined. We shouldn't jump in mud puddles with our sandals because that will make our moms mad.

ME: I am your mom.

MILA: Well, what if it's an accident?

ME: Let's talk about what an accident would be. If I told you to stay out of the mud puddle, and then you went and jumped in, that would not be an accident. That would be being disobedient. If I told you to stay out of the mud puddle, and then you slipped and fell in, that would be an accident. I would not be mad about that. So do you understand what I'm saying?

MILA: YES! Mud puddles are slippery!

Not quite the message I was trying to get across. I love these conversations SO much!

Utah Trip

So, it's taken a little longer to catch up than I thought it would. Usually does. It just feels like we've had a lot going on. A couple of weeks ago Mila was sick and just as soon as she was feeling a little better, Emmitt got sick. He just was so cranky and he wasn't sleeping well at night so I was up with him a lot. We went to an activity at church and he'd been coughing earlier in the day when he got up from his nap but nothing too bad. He was running around at the church and got to coughing so bad that he threw up. He woke up the next morning and he was burning up. I took him to the Dr. later in the morning and he had a double ear infection. I spent the next few days holding him all day while I did everything. He got over that and everyone was healthy again. Then Conference weekend came, and we got home a little late on Saturday night after spending the day watching it at my parents. I got the kids bathed and we were getting ready to get into bed and Mila said her head was itchy. I felt immediate dread because I knew exactly what it was. Mila had lice! My nieces had it and it made its way through the cousins. There wasn't anything I could do about it then so I just put her to bed and texted Sam to pick up some Nix on his way home. So I spent Sunday doing a lice treatment then picking out nits while I listened to Conference. Luckily, I don't think she had had it too long, and even luckier, I didn't have it either. That was a serious relief! But I still had to spend the next few days making sure we didn't have lice in our house. I washed just about anything that could be put into the washer and dryer and vacuumed everything else. It was a lot of work! So after that long story, we are all healthy and lice-free again and I'm ready to work on catching up.

The first week of March we took a trip to Utah. This trip had two purposes: to see Sam's family, and for Sam to play in the alumni basketball tournament for his high school. Sam is so funny because he gets SO excited about this tournament. I think he just really misses having sports be an everyday part of his life. It was a great trip! Emmitt didn't travel very well, and he was obsessed with Sam the whole time, so Sam had to deal with most of our Emmitt troubles.

 We were at the mall and they were walking around together like this. These two are such good little friends :)

We went to the Dinosaur Museum:

 Our cute dino explorers.

 The star tunnel was really cool. It was a huge black tunnel with tiny lights all over. It was pretty dark so Mila was wouldn't go in at first.

 Soon she didn't want me to go in with her at all!

 The kids made their own dino. They have a bunch of different dino parts and you add them to the trunk of the dino. Notice that Mila is wearing different clothes? Well since she has been potty trained, she NEVER has accidents and has never had one in public. She just waited too long, and we had to get all the way back to the beginning of the museum to the bathroom. We got to the bathroom, she was getting her pants down, and I turned to hang our jackets on the door when I heard pee hitting the floor. Luckily, Sam's parent live just a few minutes away so we were able to quickly clean up and come back. Poor Mila, she was so shook up by her accident.

 They had a fun water table. Emmitt spent his time taking the sand and throwing it on the floor. This kid is crazy.

 He looked so cute in his little waterproof apron.

 We really struggled to keep Emmitt out of the exhibits. I'm telling you, I have yet to meet Emmitt's match as far as energy and exploratory nature goes. He just has to touch things and know how they work.

 This is as close as Mila would get to the shark. It was really big.

Nothing unexpected. Just Emmitt climbing the wall.

 He was killing me with this mirror! He was making funny faces at himself and laughing. Then he made a grumpy face at himself and stormed off mad.

 This is what they kept wanting to go back to. The dinosaur figurines. The funny thing is that we can do this at home! 

We went to lots of basketball games:

 Emmitt wants to be just like Sam. He always wants to be where Sam is, and he loves to wear his hats. He cried and cried for Sam during the first half of most of the games.

 Sam making a shot. 

 This is how much Mila cared about watching a basketball game.

One morning we couldn't find Emmitt anywhere. We were calling his name, and then we heard a little voice. He was hiding in the display case. Sam's dad is a taxidermist so there are lots of animals around. I thought Emmitt would ruin something for sure. I was quite surprised by how gentle he was with them.

We had such a fun visit! It was so great to see family and friends that we don't get to see very often. I really like Utah, too. It is so clean there, people are cleaner, and there is so much to do with kids either for free or really cheap. I have a bit of a romanticized view of Utah. It's where I fell in love, where I got married, and where my first child was born. I really miss the mountains too. They are so beautiful! I wish we could go more than once a year, but it is so expensive to fly now, and soon we'll have to pay for Emmitt, too! I wish we would have been able to see more people, but we were only there for six days, and we had the tournament every night, plus I got some stomach bug and was horribly sick the last day so there just was not enough time. Anyways, we'll miss everyone till we get to go back.