Bridgett and Abby Spend the Weekend

A few days after we got back into town from Utah, we met Kim and Bridgett at the Children's Museum. This year has been hard to get together because Bridgett has preschool on MWF mornings and Willa has it on TTH, then you add in extracurricular activities like dance between the two of them, my teaching schedule, and we were left with not a lot of time to hang out. Wednesday afternoons always worked, though. Willa's Wednesday starts with piano lessons at 8:30 a.m., from there we go straight to our park play group where we play for a few hours until it's almost time for Bridgett to get out of preschool. Then, we get in the car and drive to Thalman's house or the Children's Museum (or sometimes they come to our house), and the girls play hard together for several hours until it's time to come home around 4:00 pm. It's a long hard day full of play, play, playing and I love it! It's exhausting and I have to hustle in the morning to get all our lunches and snacks prepped, but it's so worth it. Kids have so much energy and I love days when I can supply them with opportunities to expend the energy and do creative play with friends.

 Park with friends in the morning:

 

Museum with Bridgett in the afternoon:

 So, we met them at the Children's Museum and had a great time. As we were leaving, Kim mentioned that they were going to go to Utah the coming weekend for a wedding. They have been gone several weekends in a row for various funeral/wedding/baby blessings. I felt bad that the girls would have to do that drive for such a short trip and suddenly had the thought that they could stay with us. Kim said she would talk to Robert and the girls about it. After they all talked it through, they decided to let Bridgett and Abby spend the weekend with us while they drove with baby Toby up to Utah. I'll admit, I volunteered out of the goodness and spontaneity of my heart, but when it came down to it, I was a little scared of what was to come.

Happily, the girls are two very good girls and they were very excited. They came over as soon as Abby got out of school on Friday. That night was pretty low-key. I was interested to see how Willa would do sharing a room and being somewhat off her routine, she loved it.

Four princess nightgowns and ice cream sandwich faces:

Storytime:

On Saturday the Springs Preserve was having an ice-cream festival. All you can eat ice-cream, root beer floats, and more. I really wanted to go and we decided to brave it with the four girls. Britt mainly wore Willa's dresses the whole time, having all the girls in little dresses made it a (little) easier to keep track of them. Thank goodness Aunt Rebecca decided to come along, a third adult was very helpful.

 The activity ended up being kind of a bust. The ice cream wasn't anything special, I thought there were going to be specialty flavors, but really there were just the basics and they came from the Kroger gallon tubs - no Blue Bell, that's for sure. The girls made it through two cones, and Britt tried for a third. It was hot and VERY crowded. Supposedly, they were capping the entrance at a certain number, but I don't believe that they did. There were people everywhere. We were all happy when we decided to head home.

June had a nap while the girls watched a movie and decompressed. Since we still had the afternoon left, we decided to take the girls with us to WetnWild. We live about a quarter of a mile away and have season passes, which allow for you to bring free guests each month. We had a great time, but Willa had been coming down with a nasty cold all weekend. She last about thirty minutes at the water park and then begged to go home, poor thing. I sent Ryan home with her and June in the car. I stayed with Britt and Abby until the park closed (about two hours total), then we walked home together. That night Willa slept 13 hours and almost missed church! Thankfully, she felt much better and we spent a nice day at church (Willa and Bridgett absolutely thrilled to go to Primary together) and then the girls played together until Kim got mid-afternoon. It was a great weekend and turned out much better than I had hoped. It's always dicey putting kids together for extended periods of time. I thought Willa would need some alone time at some point because she is a bit of an introvert like her parents, but she did really well. We kept everyone busy enough that I actually can't recall any fights or disagreements between any of the girls. A success!

Scott and Aubrey's Wedding and Our Anniversary

The reason we went to Utah in May was for Scott's wedding. Scott was at USC and in law school with Ryan. He was one of the three amigos, the other two being Ryan and Peter. My memory is hazy, but it seems like we had a standing dinner every Thursday night where those two bachelors would come for dinner and we would watch the Thursday night NBC comedy line up together, which in those days included The Office and 30 Rock, and was probably the highlight of my week. I remember moving to Texas and the season premier came and it all felt so anticlimactic to not be having friends over to watch and laugh with us. Also, I think I was chasing around a crawling baby so my nights weren't so free and all about me. Ah, I miss those days.

That old bachelor Scott finally decided to tie the knot to a beautiful girl from our USC ward named Aubrey. Ever since they were engaged, Ryan and I started daydreaming about a trip to Los Angeles for the wedding and how nice it would be. Behold our surprise when the invitation came and they were getting married in Salt Lake! We were happy to travel, though, and especially honored to be invited to the sealing and luncheon too. It happened to fall on our anniversary so we joked about how this would be the best anniversary ever: leave the girls for the day, attend a sealing and remember our own wedding day and covenants, have a nice lunch, and finally end the day with dancing that evening. It was a joke, but actually it was a very, very nice way to spend our anniversary. The sealing was beautiful. I love weddings and felt emotional and grateful to be married to Ryan. Hard to believe it was EIGHT years ago. Between the luncheon and the reception, we snuck out to see a movie, which was fun too. 

Scott and Aubrey looked beautiful and happy and of course I didn't get any pictures. It was a little funny because I had known and liked Aubrey a lot back in the day, but we weren't close enough to have received a wedding announcement let alone an invitation to the sealing. But, we were very close with Scott. It was a little strange to have the imbalance that way. Almost like we were crashing her wedding, but not Scott's wedding, if that makes any sense. Not that she ever made us feel that way. One of the best things about the day was seeing our USC friends. Again, there was that division of USC friends who were there for Scott and friends who were there for Aubrey. A mixing of social groups, albeit friendly ones. Here's a photo of Scott's side. Andrew and Rob had picked up wives along the way! 

I was ecstatic to see Chris and Tina Harns there too. We spent a good chunk of time laughing together in the temple lobby as we waited for the newlyweds to come out of the temple. It was funny because before we saw each other, Tina saw Ryan and my shoes in the coat room and knew we were there - an anecdote that was hilarious and awesome at the moment and is not translating well to the written page right now! So good to see them and all our friends, and so incredibly good to be invited to share this day with Scott and Aubrey.

Sisters gotta hug

The girls have been playing so well together lately, it's like a dream. There are still fights, but lots of the day they are good playmates. I see why having children closer together can be nice - provided you survive the first two or three years first. We ran to get a few groceries and Willa wanted me to take a picture of her hugging June. June ALWAYS wants to hug, so when Willa reciprocates, it's very fun for her. I hope they always love having a sissy.

Willa loves finding ants and potato bugs when we play outside. Usually the ants don't survive her handling. I like to think about it from the ant's perspective. Their just scurrying about their work when out of the sky, like a Greek god, this hand and fingers swoop to pick them up (and then squish them on accident). She often shows me the crushed ant in her palm and asks if he is sleeping. She let June in on the action and at one point June had five or six dead ants and one or two live ones on her hand. We were outside another day after that and June started crying that she wanted two ants for her hand!

At the zoo, Willa wanted to put her arm around June.

Doing things together without being annoyed at each other. It makes me so happy.

Willa's NEW new haircut

We went up to Utah last week for a wedding of a USC friend. I drove up to my brother's in St. George after church on Mother's Day. My parents were there and we had a nice evening, then we all drove up to Centerville together on Monday. It was very nice to split the trip up and especially to have grandma with us for the long leg of the journey! I also recommend Scipio as a rest stop on the way up. There is a little petting zoo and a Dairy Queen attached to the gas station. Get some gas, pet some animals, and then get a little ice cream cone as you get back into the car (after washing your hands). It's also a little more than 2/3rds of the way to Centerville (if you're coming from Vegas). Two-thirds is a magic number, they've done studies about how work days or meetings seem shorter if you break closer to the two-thirds mark instead of half-way.

I spent the week in Utah with the girls and then Ryan flew in on Friday night for the wedding on Saturday. One of the first things on my list was to get us all haircuts. Willa came with me to our curly salon. I can't recommend enough getting your hair cut by someone who actually knows how to cut it. He took some inches off of mine and gave Willa a cute bob. There are a few holes in hers because some of the hair was quite short in some places. She did a great job of sitting still and only needed a few pep talks and reminders that it wouldn't hurt.

The next day, I took June into my mom's regular salon for a trim. I would have liked to take her to my place, but since I was planning to leave it long, and just wanted a little trim, and her curl hasn't really settled in since she still has a lot of fine baby hair, I decided to save a few bucks. The cut is okay, but it really reminded me of why I love curly cuts so much. I just hate when people wet your hair down to cut it. You never go out with wet hair, that's not the "done" look, so why would you cut it that way? You should cut it while it's dry so you can see how it hangs and falls. So, June's hair is totally even on the bottom now whenever she's all wet and in the bathtub, but during the other 23 hours of the day it still looks a little scatty-wompus because some of the hair curls and waves differently when it's dry. I'm not sure where I'll go for her next haircut.

She did look adorable sitting in the chair, though, and Willa worked hard giving her encouraging words and sometimes bossing her around to keep her head in a certain place.

She started out very brave, but started to get a little nervous towards the end. It was a little confusing to her. Still, it's a lot more even on the end and thicker since we got rid of some scraggles. Here's to new haircuts, I think all three of us are looking pretty good.

 

 

Willa cuts her hair

Willa came out of quiet time this past Thursday pleased as could be and very proud of herself. I believe her words were something like, "Mommy, I cut my hair short like Bridgett's!!" I honestly can't remember my exact reaction, but it probably involved some shock and disbelief. Sure enough, she had taken scissors and whacked the heck out of her hair on both sides of her face. There were long locks of hair falling off and if I pulled my fingers through her hair then handfuls of cut hair came along with them.

But, she was SO pleased and excited. How could I be annoyed or angry or mad? The only thing I felt a little sad about is that she has wanted long hair for quite a while and has vehemently refused any suggestions of getting it cut. We went swimming with Bridgett about a week ago, and she had cut her hair to shoulder-length. I had even suggested since then to Willa that it would be nice to cut her hair short like Bridgett's, but she was adamantly opposed. I guess children can change their minds quite quickly!

Her pleasure and reactions were so hilarious that all I could do was laugh. We went up to her room to see the damage and of course the floor was covered in hair. She then told me that her map to China had instructions on it to cut her hair. She's been very into adventures lately, especially going to China, and will pack a bag to go on her trip. She has this piece of paper that she was practicing her letters on a few days ago that she has taken special care of and put in a special place each night, and this is her map to China. I asked her if she would read the instructions for me. I hope you'll enjoy this as much as I did.

I called Ryan at work and told him the story and we couldn't help ourselves, we just laughed and laughed into the phone for quite a while.

I'm glad I was able to keep my cool, because what's really the problem if she wants shorter hair? It's also a childhood milestone that we've now passed through. Now that the excitement has passed, I've talked to her and said that if she wants short hair, she should always tell mommy so that we can go to someone who has bigger scissors (one of her complaints is that her safety scissors were pretty small for cutting hair). I also told her not to ever cut June's hair - we'll see if that one sticks. She gave me a weird look and almost acted like, "Hey, thanks for the good idea, I hadn't thought of that yet!"

Honestly, I felt a little sad throwing away this soft, thick, beautiful hair that she had wanted long for such a long time, but on the other hand I'm excited for her to have a really cute and short bob for the summertime. It's hard to see the haircut in the pictures, but it's very short - probably around her ears on both sides, long in the back, and also long on top where it was pulled up in a little braid! Since it's curly it blends a lot, but it still looks like a pretty terrible haircut. We're going up to Utah next week for a wedding and I already had an appointment for my hair, so I called and he is going to cut Willa's too. I'm debating about chopping hers myself just a little bit so it's not quite so uneven, but I also just want to wait for the experts. My curly cut person did a great job on Willa's hair last summer and cut it dry.  Another big positive out of this is that she isn't afraid of haircuts anymore. She told me several times that it didn't hurt when she cut it. Getting her haircut has been a major fear for the past few years, so I suppose the lesson is, if your child is scared of something, just let her do it to herself.

June's 2nd Birthday Party

I'm only two months late posting about June's birthday party! Really, it was pretty low-key, we had Rebecca and Brandon over and the Thalmans. Though, whenever you add a few extra people to our small house it quickly feels very boisterous. June loved the attention and having other kids to play with. She really loves Abby Thalman, who's seven and the perfect age to give June absolute attention and control and enjoy herself while doing it.

We had spaghetti for dinner because it's easy to make, a pretty standard crowd pleaser, and I can't remember what else. I made this amazing chocolate cake that my friend introduced me to. It is definitely the best chocolate cake in the history of chocolate cakes. She brought it over to our house when Willa had surgery and I got the recipe and have been making it ever since. The density, the moisture, the chocolate-yness. It's perfection. It's also super easy. It's a Betty Crocker cake mix that contains pudding in the mix, an additional box of chocolate pudding mix, 1 1/2 c sour cream, four eggs, 1/2 c oil and 1/2 c water, and 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (I do half semi-sweet and half milk). It's sooo easy and it's extremely delicious. For the frosting, I use the recipe on the back of the Hershey's cocoa powder box, which is so fudgy and good. I made it for a baby shower at Ryan's work and it's been the talk of the office ever since.

So, the cake was delicious and June knew just when to blow out the candles. She's such a different personality from Willa and not shy at all! In this picture, she's wearing a dress-up dress because all the girls were doing it and she wanted to too, which explains most of her life (wanting to do what the older kids are doing).

I should add that we already had a little mini-birthday for her at my mom's house the week before. We flew to Utah to take advantage one last time of the under two years old lap sitting policy. My mom made a cute butterfly cake.

Here's a short little clip of June getting into her new rocking chair. It's super short because I actually meant to be taking a picture, but it shows her exuberance for life!

Here's another short video of her singing "Happy Birthday" the next week in the car. She's pretty good at singing it now after her birthday and watching the Elmo's World birthday episode over and over.

June is just growing and changing so much. I feel like I always want to write about something new that she is doing, but it feels like she does something new almost every day. She is a big two-year old and yesterday after the closing prayer in Sacrament meeting, instead of wailing in dread about upcoming nursery like she normally does, she gave a half-hearted whimper and then allowed Ryan to lead her away.

She says so many words and speaks in sentences and thinks she's the biggest girl on the block, except when she's interested in being the baby. Several weeks ago she had a major level ten freakout, on a scale of 1-10, when baby Toby was visiting and was using her bouncy chair. She got the most upset that she ever gets for quite a while. I took her upstairs for a lot of the dramatics but finally, she passed through the fire of adversity and came through stronger and more mature. When we came back downstairs she noticed that Toby had gotten out, so she climbed in and wanted to be bounced in it for the next several days. Since then, we have had Toby and some other babies come to visit and they have all had to use the bouncy chair and she hasn't fussed about it once. She's always quick to point out when they leave so that she can climb in and get bounced, but she's resigned herself. She LOVES to have me tell her that she is my baby and to play rock-a-bye baby with her.

June really loves her pacifier and it is becoming a bit of a problem when she wants to have it around the house all day instead of just in bed. Sometimes I'm really strict with her and sometimes on hard days a baby just needs her comfort. She also very much loves her softies and her pillow and reading books together before bed.

June loves Willa and often tries to hug and kiss her when Willa is upset and crying. She has a zero track record of this ever working and mostly she makes Willa more upset, but I think it's adorable to see her trying to hug and kiss her. Willa sees it as a gross invasion of personal space and privacy when she is most vulnerable.

June is doing better at eating food when we sit all down together as a family and she does try most things now. We still go through a lot of cold cereal, but I've noticed it slowing down. She has a big sweet tooth and always notices when Ryan is trying to sneak a little treat out of the pantry. She runs over to him and tries to pry his fingers open. We're currently using jellybeans as our bribe treat of choice. Small, not messy, and once of them makes her happy. Willa has even started calling them "reverent jellybeans" because I offered her one during family prayers if she would fold her arms and participate.

A sweet moment of sister cooperation, Willa is tracing June's hands.

One day after preschool drop off, I ran into another preschool mom at the store. She was trying to navigate with a three week baby and this little boy who is June's age. I plopped Mason down in our cart with June and the two of them had a grand time through the entire store.