Adoption - the second time around

Here's our big news people - we've adopted again!  I have to admit, the second time was much more simple and much quicker.  We got a little fuzzy black 2 month old...kitten!  We got him through the Dumb Friends League on Friday.  He's a very good little boy, litterbox trained, etc.  What should we name him?  The name votes are as follows: Aaron - eunuch, Sydney - Mickey Mouse, Sugar, or Tarzan, and Mady - Mouse, or Poopy.  So far we're leaning toward Frodo.  What do you think?

Mady loves the idea of animals, but is usually really nervous around the ones that aren't restrained behind 10 ft fences like at the zoo.  She's getting better with this little guy, so maybe she'll get over some of her fear and be able to enjoy animals a little more close up.

This little guy likes to play, and he loves to be in your business.  I can't tell you how many times he has come and sat on the keyboard while I'm typing as if to say, "hello! what's this thing?  I'm way more interesting!  Pet me?"  He's staking out a few favorite spots around the house.  If he sticks to those maybe I won't accidentally sit on him anymore.

Here's the main reason we got this particular kitty.  He loves to play, but he's docile enough to let this little munchkin drag him around the house most of the day.  No really, if she's awake, she is all over this little guy.  Poor kitten.  If only we could all be so adored.

She at least is in heaven.  She even told the cashier at the grocery store today that she had a kitty at her house.  Can you tell she's excited?

P.S. Just to clear up any rumors before they start, we're not currently adopting any children.  Just the cat!

Showing Some Love

Aaron was a little offended that I did not include his annual man-cation rafting trip in our travelogue, so I finally got my hands on some pictures and am now posting them.  Last year Aaron pulled my dad's arm hard enough that he came out to go on the trip with him, despite being 100% terrified of the entire experience.  From what the women were told later, it sounds like once they got past their first or second set of rapids, he was hooked.  This year my brother-in-law also came out (he loves rafting and did not need convincing) and the three of them plus a whole bunch of other guys they know went on a 2 day adventure.  Here are some great shots.

 This is JC (BIL) on the left and Aaron on the right.

 Click this one to make it bigger.  It's my favorite since it has a great shot of our friend posing for the camera.  See him in the back?

 In this picture you can see all of them.  On the left side of the boat, front to back, are our friend Todd, Aaron, my Dad, and the guide.  On the right side, front to back are Todd's brother, JC, and our friend James.

Look at these boys.  They were beat but excited when they got back.  So glad they all got to go and that I finally got some pictures to post!

Only Sisters...

They love to do this:

Travelogue

Time for a Travelogue.  Okay, it's actually way past time for it since most of this happened over a month ago, but we've been busy with traveling, summer, and potty training (again).  One day, that part might actually be over, I just can't see an end in sight yet.  On a more pleasant note though, here are pictures from our summer travels.  At the end of June Aaron's sister and her family came to visit.  They mostly just came to see the Red Sox get whupped by the Rockies, but they condescended to stay with us and let us play with Baby Jack.

We went to the zoo and had fun catching up.  Adrianne grew up with all brothers and now has 1 son.  I think she enjoyed her time in our girl house.

We were planning on going to Idaho to visit our families 1 week after Michael and Adrianne left, but the day after they left, Aaron called to say we couldn't go.  We hadn't been out there in almost a year, so we wanted to make it work, but he had to be there the following week for a big presentation.  Our only options were to wait, or go that day.  He called at 1:30.  By 2:00 I was racing home to pack.  At 6:15 we drove away and at 4:30 am we arrived at his parents' house in Idaho.  The whole thing had happened so fast that my family didn't even know we were coming, so I got to surprise them all, even my sister Jessica who was visiting from Boise!  (It was payback for her surprising me here).  While we were there we got to enjoy lots of time with family and friends, a stomach bug (our first time experiencing real vomit), the girls' first ever parade, and the BEST fireworks show ever.  Oh, I've missed those Idaho fireworks show.  Biggest show west of the Mississippi and totally worth the 10-12 hour drive.  The parade was in the town we went to college in, and in typical Rexburg fashion, we ran into some friends of ours at the parade!

The girls had a blast with their cousins (Ikey is above), and loved the fact that the people in the parade threw candy at them.  Best day ever in their lives.  This was Mady for the whole parade.  She's holding a taffy and a plastic spoon (the bag is actually on the ground).  They handed out chocolate milk, otter pops, candy and all sorts of fun stuff, but she just wanted to hold these 2 things.  She figured out that you have to fight for the candy a lot faster than Sydney, who stood next to it and expected it to jump in her bag.  I'm blaming that on birth order.

The girls had a great time playing with Uncle Garth and Aunt Kiery who drove Utah.  We had a blast at the fireworks with both families, did sparklers (provided by Garth & Kiery), made and at this yummy and beautiful cake - it looked just like the one in the picture!

Both girls did great at the fireworks.  Sydney decided halfway through the show that the boom booms were too bright and donned her sunglasses.  Problem Solved.

Mady watched for awhile with me (we were concerned she would get scared) then decided it wasn't interesting enough for her and she decided to run around and play.

The next day we had a very long ride home where we used our snazzy new dual screen DVD player A LOT.  I think I have The Aristocats memorized word for word (Mady's favorite).  They did a little of this too.

We're now home, planning a short vacation closer to home in a little while, and happy to be back in our routine.  To our families - we miss you and loved spending time with you!  Thanks for all the fun and hospitality!

Good Things to Come

I've watched this 3 times and cried every time. Watch it here (http://www.youtube.com/mormonmessages) if it won't work. The motherhood one is good too. Enjoy.

Monday = Laundry Day

Do your kids come running when they hear the washer starting?  Mine both do.  Mady was the fastest this time and grabbed her chair and ran over to help.  We're definitely cultivating this love of laundry.

Also, do you love her fashion statement?  Look at that turquoise necklace.  It goes great with her Halloween PJ's.  ;)  I got it last week and she's totally commandeered it.  She pretty much hasn't taken it off since Sunday morning, so I think it's officially her "pretty."

A Little Help Here?

I'm putting out a call for ideas here.  We're trying to figure out how to teach Sydney to WANT to be good and listen to us.  Sometimes, she's awesome,  but it's usually only when I've convinced her there is mortal danger (like around cars, etc.).  I know that a lot of it is simply the fact that she's only 2 1/2 years old, but really, I feel like a lot of the time we're going backward instead of forward.  So for those of you who've been there, know someone who has, or have some genius ideas, please please please share!

Gems

Sydney came up with a few gems today that I loved.  While out garage saling today, I had given the girls some cereal to snack on.  Out of the blue, Sydney turned to me and said, "Mom, you such a nice mom to bring this cereal for us!"

Then later when I was singing along to Hercules, Sydney said, "You a good job singer Mom!"

She's such a sweet little girl!

Perfect Day

What a gorgeous day we just had.  The weather was supposed to be so hot, so we planned to have some friends over to play in the kiddie pool.  It ended up being perfect; warm, but not hot.  The kids had a blast in the pool and running around our NEWLY FENCED YARD (YAY!!!) and the adults had a great time enjoying the warm fresh air and some great summer fruits and salads.  Perfect.  After that we had naps (except Sydney decided she was not tired and stubbornly refused to sleep).  When the kiddos woke up, it started to rain, but it was still lovely and warm!  We of course ran outside to enjoy it.  Being from Idaho, I am used to very infrequent rain storms accompanied by freezing temperatures, so I love our warm rain storms out here!  Last year Sydney loved puddle jumping, so this year it was time to introduce Mady to it.

She loved it and has so much fun.  Sydney remembered exactly what to do and enjoyed her new rubber boots and rain coat.

They had so much fun jumping, kicking, splashing, sending off leaf "boats," and throwing rocks in the puddles.

I love seizing the moment to play with my girls!

Then we had baths in the sink! (This is a new tradition we've started if the girls are having baths at night.  It reduces the amount of bath water they drink and therefore makes it more likely that their sheets will be dry in the morning).  The girls think it's so fun.  Sydney calls them "little showers."

My baby girl has started posing for the camera and saying "cheese!" when we pull it out.  So darn cute.

Such a perfectly beautiful day.  I love being home with these babies.

Curly Girly

Look at the curls this little girl woke up with after her nap!  I think she's got some wavy hair in her future! 

Getting Sappy

In the "Before Sydney" chapter of my life, I remember how painful it sometimes was to read other people's blogs about how much they loved their kids.  Not the "I love my kids so much" comments, but the ones who could talk of nothing else.  It seemed like they were just twisting the knife in my heart with each word.  (Don't feel bad if you've done those posts, you didn't mean to hurt anyone, you just love your kids.)  So, in the "With Babies" chapter of my life, I've tried not to be overly gushy about them since I know I have blog readers who are in the same situation I was once.  But tonight, I have to write it down.  I have to preserve how I feel, so if you feel like I did, then you might want to skip this one.

I just watched 2012, and like all apocalypse movies, it made me sad, but the worst part is when a child is the main character.  Seeing the little girl in that show made my think of my little girls, and when one of them called, "Mommy!" in her sleep, I ran up.  They were both asleep, so I took a rare moment and just stared at them.  I smelled them, kissed them, and brushed their sweet little cheeks.  I love them so dearly.  I've heard people talk about how they love their children more than life itself.  I've wondered how you know that, and then occasionally, it hits me.  I love them.  Differently, yet equally.  But so much it hurts.  And I decided a few things tonight.  People often wonder what heaven will be like.  I think I know.  Heaven will be the color of Sydney's baby blue eyes.  It will smell like Mady's hair does after a bath and that yummy purple lotion.  It will be as soft as my babies' cheeks and as wispy as Sydney's little curls.  It will sound like their soft breathing when they're deeply asleep and the stars will look like Mady's smiley eyes when she's really pleased.  Her whole face smiles and it's like someone turned another light on in the room.  No one will ever be sad, because how could you not be on cloud 9 with smiles like these to look at?  (Plus get a load of those mad scientist eyebrows on Sydney.  She uses them well and often.  I LOVE them.)

I love my family.  I love my husband.  I love, cherish, and adore my babies.  I have to go peek in on them again.  Goodnight.

So Tired

We played outside today.  For a good long while.  When we finally came in and ate lunch, I realized how hard Mady had played:

Amazingly, she ate an entire sandwich like this.  Then she finally woke up when she put the blackberries in her mouth and realized she'd gotten her second wind.  Then came the fight to get her to actually go to bed.  Such fun.  (She keeps reaching for her head because she strokes her hair when she goes to sleep.)  Welcome summer.

Adventures in Landscaping

For a long time now I have hated our front yard landscaping.  It was done by the builder and the shrubs that were out there were both ugly and poorly arranged.  The sprinkler system didn't work so they hadn't been watered for 3 years, but the dang things refused to die.  Finally on Saturday, my great friend Karen took my kids and we ripped them all out! 

Then we went and bought a lot of rocks to build a front garden!  My family came to visit this week and were good enough to help us out with some manual labor and/or watching our kids.  We built the garden, filled it with happy dirt (not the native clay bricks), ran a working sprinkler line, and planted trees and flowers! 

Here they are building the sprinkler system.

Here's the finished product!  I love it!

Here's the corner flower bed up close.

Hooray!  We have more color and prettiness than before!  Goodbye conformity!  Thanks everyone who helped!

New Pets

A few weeks ago there was a slaughter in our house and a lot of our fish died.  Then all but 1 fish and our frog followed suit.  We've been working on getting the tank all balanced and happy so that we can fill it with fish again.  Rupert is a trooper and has survived the devastation, as has a single nameless fish whom I decided deserved a name after living for so long.  Since he's proven hard to kill, I've dubbed him Rasputin.

Here's the rundown of our new pets and who named them for your amusement:
Rupert the frog - Sydney
Taffy the Beta - Sydney
Mango the male Swordtail fish - Mady
Nefertiti the female Swordtail fish - Sydney
Marty the Vacuum fish - Sydney
4 tiger barb fish who were recently acquired and are currently nameless

Apologies

Sorry to those of you who checked my blog last week and found it missing!  Thanks for being concerned about me!  Turns out my gmail account was hacked and my email, blog, and anything else related to google was disabled.  I freaked out, but am thrilled to have access again.  Let the blogging begin again!

First Piggies

Last Wednesday I successfully got pigtails into Mady's hair for the first time ever.  It's happened since too.  Isn't she a doll?!  I love her face in this picture!  She's so darn cute and grown up!

Speaking of which, I'm like a month late posting about this, but Mady had her 15 month checkup (almost a month ago) and she weighed 29 lbs 6 oz and was 34 1/2 inches long!  She can talk so well now too.  At 15 months she could say almost 150 words and she has added so many more now that I have missed!  I think we're done making word lists for her!  Maybe we should try a list of words she can't say?  It might be easier!  She's so grown up and we love her so much!  Thanks for being our baby Mady!

Addicted

Remember this post about how I like to spoil my kids?  It's bad, I know.  Hopefully I don't end up regretting it when they are older.  For now, it's lots of fun!  I'm still cheap though, and if there's one thing that I love most about summer time, it's Garage Sale Season!  Whoever invented Community Garage Sales is my best friend.  I love them.  We went out last week on Friday and Saturday, and this week on Friday and scored big every day!  What did we come home with you ask?  A train set (we had no space for the train table, so it stayed there) for $10 complete with 2 motorized trains and many additional wooden cars and engines.

A Little Tykes slide for $4!  I looked for one of these all last summer and never found one!  They usually sell first thing in the morning and I never got there quick enough.  I spotted this one after noon and assumed it was either broken or priced too high.  Other than a few spider webs and some dirt there is nothing wrong with it, and the price was perfect, so it now lives on our porch!  Sydney is ELATED.  Mady loves it too but can't figure out how to climb up on her own yet.

The dinosaur tent, tub of Mega Blocks, and large Magna Doodle cost a grand total of $5.

This weekend we scored a Little Tykes rocking chair for $1.50.  We have another one identical to this, so no more fights over outdoor seating!

My crowning glory this weekend was this awesome art easel.  It was marked at $4 or I never would have looked at it.  I offered her $2 and she took it so fast it made me feel like I overpaid!  It has a chalk board on one side and a dry erase magnetic board on the other and clips on both sides to hold paper.  The girls are in heaven and Sydney (who didn't know what an easel was until we brought this home) is constantly asking for chalk to color her "huge magadoodle."  Mady is also thrilled with it and I am still giddy about the low price!  I can't wait to see what else we find this year!

Fashion Statement

Tonight at dinner Sydney decided to use maple syrup as hair gel.  It worked awesome, as you can no doubt tell.

Pardon the yucky picture. I had to capture the moment.

Deep Thoughts for the Day

This morning as I bent over to pull something out of the dishwasher, Sydney surprised me. 
Sydney: Mommy, you have a baby in you tummy?
Me: Umm, I don't think so.  Do know about a baby in my tummy?
Sydney: Mady was in you tummy.
Me: That's right Sydney, Mady was in Mommy's tummy.
Sydney: I in another mommy's tummy.
Me (after a slightly stunned silence): That's right Sydney, you were in another mommy's tummy.
Sydney: Where my mommy go?

Me: I'm you're mommy.  Do you mean where is your birth mommy?

Sydney: Yeah.

Me: She was too little to take care of you (trying to keep this simple for her sweet little 2 year old brain), so she let you come live with us so we could be your mommy and daddy.  Wasn't that nice of her?

Sydney: Yeah.

Me: I love being your mommy.  Do you like me being your mommy Sydney?
Sydney: Yes.  And I love Mady too.

Note: We've had the conversation before that she didn't grow in my tummy, but I never expected her to remember it and it came out of nowhere today!  What a sweet little exchange with my baby.  I love you Sydney Bean and I'm so glad to be your mommy!

Sydney at 2 days old

Sydney at 2 1/2 years old

For Those of You Still Reading...

We're still here.  And our lives have been a little messy lately.  Just like our kids. (This girl is magnetically attracted to dirt.  as soon as she steps outside, she can't resist it.)

But we've shared some laughs and good times too.  And the girls (and I!) bought our first ever ice cream truck purchase.  That's what happens when you grow up in the country! 

We look forward to every sunny day and particularly to every nice Friday since we ditch the house and go garage saling.  Such fun.  Yesterday we went pretty much ALL DAY.  And my kids were angels.  And we came away with some good plunder.  They are both recovering from colds, so I was proud of them and the fact that they each took 2 short naps in the car!  Then we had to get the oil changed in our car.  I was dreading sitting in the waiting room with them.  So we grabbed hamburgers and a shake before they took the car and had a picnic on the grass outside.  We had a blast.  It was a great reminder to me to look for the good in every situation.  I needed that reminder.  It was such a perfect day.  Right up until Aaron started vomiting.  Thank you stomach flu for making an appearance at our house this weekend.  My family was sick last Mother's Day too.  Crappy tradition if you ask me.  I recommend not copying us.  I know it's hard since we're so cool and all, but really, refrain this once.  Go get some ice cream and play in the dirt instead.