Just Dance

Katie Anne and Jane had their winter dance recital on Saturday.  While rehearsals are a necessary annoyance, it's sure worth it the next day to see their little personalities come through. 

It's even more fun to have their cousin Alyson there...

Of course I thought these girls were the bomb, but you can decide for yourself...

The camera bonked out during Jane's 'real' dance but we were happy to get her 'finale' dance.

Grandma and Grandpa Morrill came to watch (the other set went to Cali for the week).  We went to Peach City after for burgers and fries.  Yum!  The kids enjoyed sitting at the counter and picking out songs at the table juke boxes.  When we got home we were still in the mood and turned on Just Dance for a while...I'll have to get a video of John playing this game...he's good!

Four is Fun

Four is fun...that is what I told Katie Anne today when she asked how many sleeps until she turns five.  We measure everything in sleeps, you see, we have 9 sleeps until Christmas and so on.  But you must know that her birthday to turn 4 was only 2 sleeps ago, so to have her already look forward to being 5 is a little much.  When I told her she had about 364 sleeps until then (leap year!), I counseled her to just have fun being four, because 

FOUR is FUN!

Highlights of Katie Anne's Birthday:

* Playdough in the morning

*Lunch at McDonald's with her friend Hallie who gave her a My Little Pony toy.  Tack on happy meals (few and far between in this house), unlimited play time in play land, and ice cream and you have two happy girls!

*Grocery store trip to pick out ice cream to go with the cake later.  She went wild and picked vanilla.

*Rest time.  Even four year olds need rest time.

*Dinner request: homemade pizza!

*Surprise guests: Aunt Stacy, Uncle Mark, Grandma and Grandpa Hicken.

*Presents! A princess cash register, ballerina barbie doll, polly pockets, puzzle, and new dance clothes.

*Cupcakes!  Don't be too jealous of my amazing use of sprinkles.  

*After the surprise guests left we went bowling!  Katie Anne, Jane, and Jeffrey used the bumper lanes.  Jack, John and I took it the hard way.  John and I tied (113 if you must know!)

We love our Katie Anne.  She is such a sweetheart and smart to beat the band.  She is such a joy to have around and while I am THRILLED that she is happy and healthy and growing up so nicely, I am sad to not really have a baby anymore.  For reasons I feel no obligation to share on my blog she is our baby!  And I am going to miss her babyness as she grows and grows.  

But, in the words of my niece's boyfriend, I need some grand nieces and nephews now.  Hmm.. That is a good idea...

(Aren't you glad I updated my blog Miss A?)

Rats.

What happens when you are 4 and you try to brush your hair with a round brush all by yourself...

 Oopsie!  Katie Anne got this brush stuck in her hair.  Jack tried so hard to help her get it out, but only mom could solve this problem.  Well, mom, a comb, and a gallon of Infusium leave in conditioner. 

  I just combed it off the brush into this lovely mess. You can see we are watching tv to distract her. It was quite tangled, as you can imagine!

Sorry!  No after pictures...we did get her all cleaned up and looking nice again.  Though it did give me some ideas for Halloween!

Bribery

Last night Katie Anne was up and down from 2-4.  That's A.M. people.  Not happy.  I usually tell my kids to go to the bathroom then I hug them, take them back and tuck them in bed.  USUALLY, this works.  Most bad dreams, in my opinion, come on by a real bad need to pee.  But, this was not the case with Katie Anne.  I figured she had the drill down because everytime she came in, and it was a lot, she went straight to the bathroom.  Enter another anti-vote for mother of the year. 

This morning when she went potty she yelled, "Owie!"  I went in and sure enough, what is usually yellow was not.  Urinary Tract Infection.  I knew it immediately and wanted to cry for her.  I did.  I know how bad they hurt!  I got her a doctor's appointment and gave her all the sympathy I could until we got there.  Once there they of course wanted a, ahem, sample.  She looked at me real funny when I explained what needed to happen, and then I said, "But I bet they'll give you a sucker if you do it!"  Wah lah!

Next bribe came just after she was given said sucker.  The doctor needed to check her ears and tummy and she was not all that co-operative.  "Let's just get this done and I bet you can pick a prize out of the box!"  The doctor agreed, got what he needed, she got her prize and away we went to Wal-Mart for a perscription for what I myself had diagnosed correctly.

Only problem, Wal-Mart pharmacy isn't open between 1:30 and 2:00.  We had 15 minutes for them to get open, and another 15 (hopefully) to get it filled.  The bribe this time?  Let's get a few things and then "You can look at toys!!!"  She knows the drill, just asks for everything for her birthday in a mere 6 months, and she's a happy camper. 

Here things got a little choppy.  The doctor, who must have really needed a nap even worse than me, wrote her a perscription for PILLS!  What 3 year old is going to take a pill.  Not any I know.  So we had to wait, then wait some more for the pharmacist to get a new perscription from the doctor, then give up and head to Stacy's where she had been hanging with my other 3 kids for going on almost 4 hours. 

Finally, the pharmacist called, I went and got it, went back and picked up the kids, and headed home.  When we got here, I whipped out Katie Anne's next bribe and she took her first dose of medicine.  To make it all go as smoothly as today, I even made a little bribe chart.  It's also a good reminder for me to actually get that medicine in her...

 The only problem...she absolutely HAS to drink water.  So I can keep it a little more under control, we have this cup...drink to the line and get a penny.  Hopefully she'll get enough to earn a trip to the dollar store (how's she even going to know!  She's only 3!  Of course we're going to the dollar store!).

All I can say is, BRIBERY WORKS!

Where is that girl?

I haven't been feeling that great this week.  That means, I attempt to do some small job and find my way to the couch for a break.  Today I felt a little better and did a big job (kitchen!) then wanted to check on Katie Anne before heading to the couch...I couldn't find her anywhere!  She finally made a little peep and here she was, in one of her favorite spots.  I should have looked there first for sure!  More evidence of my brain not really working correctly.

She is such a little trooper.  I am already dreading the day she leaves me for bigger and better things, like Kindergarten.  Thankfully that's a couple more years away.



Meet Sally

I would love to show you a picture here of Sally, but as much as she's a part of our life, I don't have one single picture of her.  You see, Sally is imaginary.  All of the kids have had an imaginary friend at one time or another, but only for an afternoon here and there.  Katie Anne, on the other hand, has had Sally for more than a month.  Sally is amazing.  She is almost 6 and has been through so much in her life.  One day when we were driving by the cemetery, Jane commented that driving by made her feel sad for her Grandma who died in February.  Katie Anne was sad, too, because Sally had died when the monsters came and poked her.  Luckily, we found out later that Sally was alive and well, and yesterday when we were in the mountains near Honeyville, she told us that Sally just lived up that road a little farther.  Another time we heard that Sally had only one arm, that the other one had been smashed.  We were all sad for Sally.  Luckily, Sally can still be an example to Katie Anne on how to hold her crayon.

Let me explain.  Katie Anne has not been holding her crayon right and I know she's only 3 but bad habits die hard so I have been trying to help her get it right.  One day when we were at library class she said that Sally held her crayon like she did  and that it was just fine.  I replied that Sally had learned how to do it the right way, and that Sally's mother had called to tell me how happy she was that Sally could hold her crayon right.  Think of it as playing along, and not an outright lie.  Anyway, Katie Anne just stared at me for a minute, trying to arrange things in her brain, switched her fingers around to holding the crayon how I taught her, and that was that.

Sally comes up a lot.  If anyone has anything to say about anyone, Katie Anne pipes in with a similar experience for Sally. Sally was sick last week, the same day Jack came down with an ear infection.Then, the other day we were at Walmart letting Jane pick out a birthday present for a party she had coming up.  Once she had the doll in hand, Katie Anne suddenly remembered that it was Sally's birthday.  She would NOT let up and Sally had to have a present.  It was getting pretty out of control until I finally told her that when we got home she could make Sally a card and pick out one of her own toys to give her.  Oh my.

Sally is not alone.  Sometimes MariOn (pronounced Merry On) comes to play and most recently Theehay Theehor came to play.  I am surprised sometimes at how real Sally seems to Katie Anne.  I haven't done any research on imaginary friends, but to me it seems that it's just her way of making sense of the world around her, and at the least it is very cute.  So, for now, Sally is a welcome guest in our home!

And just for fun...

Three years ago today...

Katie Anne joined our family and life has been good ever since!  She is such a fun girl...on Friday I let her pick out her flavor of cupcakes at the grocery store, and when we got home she carried the box around with her everywhere.  On Saturday we could NOT find the box anywhere, so she started calling, "Cupcakes, Cupcakes, where are you cupcakes."  They did not answer, so we had lemon ones instead which turned out great, since yellow is her favorite color, as in she HAS to eat lunch on a yellow plate, eat her cereal out of the yellow bowl, and drink out of the yellow cup.  I know, spoiled. 

Today we had homemade pizza for her birthday dinner then let her open her presents.  Do you think she likes this part?

After her 'nap' (trying not to phase these out!) we had cupcakes with a little treat for her on the top...

Too Many Movies?

Or just a smarty pants...

When I went in to get Katie Anne up from her nap she had a nice little package in her diaper to change.  When I was um, cleaning her up, she said she had a dream.  I said, Oh yeah?  What was it?  She replied...It was a poopie dream!  A big Poopie dream! 

So, when I was getting her changed for bed and John walked in I told Katie Anne to tell Daddy about her dream at naptime.  You could see the little wheels turning and she couldn't remember but came up with this reply:

"I had the noodle dream!"

So, that is a movie line from Kung Fu Panda that we had watched a few days earlier!  We all cracked up...and yet are so proud, as it is a REALLY big deal to have the noodle dream!

And remember, THERE IS NO CHARGE FOR AWESOMENESS!

Mother's Day is coming...

And I am feeling like this will be a good year.  Some years, I have let the guilt of un-done motherly things drive me to the brink of despair.  But this year, I think I'm going to be o.k. (though in typing it I fear a jinx...).
Anyway, last night when I went to tuck my babies in before I turned in myself, I found 4 beautiful kids and I thought to myself, I am happy.  Here is what I saw:

My baby snuggling her baby.  Jane received this baby doll the year Katie Anne was born.  I used to stumble on this baby laying in the middle of the floor and panic (albeit briefly) that someone had left my own newborn just anywhere.

Then I turned to her sister and saw cute little Strawberry peeking out at me.  When Jack turned 5 we had a party with his little friend Jasmine.  Jack's half of the party was "The Incredible's" and Jasmine's was "Strawberry Shortcake" so when I found this little doll at a garage sale I picked it up.  Who knew it would be THE DOLL for Jane to snuggle with and cling to when nights are long.

But the fun doesn't end there...Jeffrey's other hand is a top a bear and 2 bunnies, but the prize is there next to his heart.  Many Easter's ago we visited my brother and his fabulous wife, Elaine, who bought little bunnies for all the kids.  Jeffrey quickly took them for his own, and this one hardly has any stuffing left, but is the favorite forever.

Jack was never really attached to anything until Jeffrey took over the bunnies.  He now has a variety of 'buddies'.  The three you see in the picture were picked up at the annual Christmas parades in Ridgecrest.  The Salvation Army handed out stuffed animals and these are 3 of our lucky ones. The rest have found better homes somewhere! (donated to Good Will...hope they don't mind!)

I didn't get a picture of my snuggler...he was still at basketball. 

Anyway, I couldn't help thinking of Robert Munch's Love You Forever book (2 seperate links).  I won't re-tell the story here because you either know it or you SHOULD know it so go and get it.  The thing is, the story feels a little truer every time I read it, and I'm glad to be a mom.  When they're asleep, and awake!

The Shining

So, Katie Anne had a bit of an accident on Saturday. She was running in my room, tripped, and slid right into the corner of the bedframe. She had a pretty decent cut so I took her to Dr. John who superglued it shut. Her eye progressively turned purple and swelled up after we got her fixed up until she finally ended up with this beauty.

As if all of this wasn't bad enough, Jeffrey had just hit Jane in the head with an 8 pound weight so I was comforting both of them when Katie Anne went in for her shining. It wasn't a hard hit, and he didn't mean to do it, but it made for a lot of crying. Jack, not wanting to be left out, had his own excitement at his basketball game. He got a little mixed up in all the excitement and ran the ball down the court to the opponent's basket! Luckily that one didn't go in. The very next possession by his team, Jack was passed the ball by his teammate, and he scored! In the right basket! Yippee! At least that one turned out good. Overall I'm pleased with the progress he's made at basketball. He's a good guard and he doesn't shoot haphazardly like most of the other boys. but who's comparing!

Sunday was a little calmer. I taught my RS lesson and Jane spoke in primary. We made sugar cookies and played a little ping pong. Now on to another busy week!

How to...

Fall asleep in your high chair...

(demonstration by Katie Anne)

What do they know anyway!

So, I have been waiting for March 9th for a while now, expecting my life to change for a few weeks while I flew my cute daughter to Regis and Kelly for our photo shoots and a free stay in a nice hotel and hopefully a visit to wardrobe for both of us. They announced the finalists in their cutest baby contest that day, and, well, that’s where the title of this post comes in. We, I mean she, wasn’t picked, but it doesn’t mean that I can’t think it! She is one cutie patootie! Look at her in those fancy pajamas and Snow White dress-up shoes. Then, at lunchtime, I asked her where her chicken was, “What?” she replied, “You mean all this chicken that I stuffed in my pocket? That chicken? Oh, yeah, I wanted to save it for later.” And then, she has discovered babies. She can even say ‘baby’. It’s so fun to watch her hug them, before tossing them carelessly behind her! Anyway, there you have it. No 4-year-tuition-paid prize for us. At least WE know better!

(Wow! That was really more sappy than I wanted it to be...)

Then there was Jane. She was more than a little excited to be chosen as student of the month in her dance class. The prize was this little shirt, which she was not about to take off at bedtime until I told her it was clean enough to wear the next day! I will have to try and figure out how to post some video of her dancing...it's hilarious!

So, we got home from St. George and I wasn't feeling well so I did kind of bare bones last week, so this week is catch up. Wednesday night I was asked if our kids could sing in Sacrament meeting on Sunday and I said yes. At our first practice Thursday afternoon it became clear that maybe it would be better if I just played a piano solo. I began practicing immediately. By church I felt pretty good about my piece. And it went pretty good unless you count that my left hand started on the wrong note, I played way, way too fast, I missed all my carefully planned dynamics, and I was shaking worse than a California earthquake! I had hoped/thought I was over my fear of playing in public. I can accompany people singing just fine! Darn solos. Someday...

I was also asked to substitute teach the Marriage Enrichment class. It was on the role of mothers, and I really appreciated the lesson. The main talk I used was by President Benson, and can be found here (scroll down). I also made a list of mothers in the scriptures, and jotted some notes down about each of them. Like, did Sarah know what Abraham was planning when he and Isaac left? Would she have let her husband take her son? What did Sariah do when Laman and Lemuel were torturing Nephi? How do you show love to all of them? Think about it, it's a fun and humbling exercise. (and my class went a little better than my solo, thank heavens!)

The house is coming along. It would go faster if they came and worked. We did get the windows in so that's a good thing. This week we had a major snow storm on Monday...about 15 inches. I thought we were done with that! Man, it's been a long time since I lived in Utah to be that duped! But, as my BIL says, snow+spring=flowers!

So, have a happy week!

Happy Birthday to...

Katie Anne! She is all of one year today! One year ago last night I had all the Christmas presents wrapped, all the neighbor gifts ready, and had a good nights sleep before heading to the hospital the next day to be induced. The day went pretty normal until John went out to the car to get something. By the time he came back in I was ready to go. It was at this point that no one paid any attention to me.

"Shut the door!" I wailed, not wanting my good friend Rachel to hear me, for she had given birth just the day before to little Matthew (that's him in the blessing picture). I think the door got shut, Katie Anne made a fantastic entrance, and all was right with the world.

Katie Anne (with an E!) has been such a joy to our family. She is almost always smiling, has always known just what she wanted, and has been a good sport about being ignored while her mom takes care of other people and their needs. She broke her leg and kept right on moving! She can blow kisses, bubbles with her spit (very inventive), and wave bye-bye. She also can say "Mom" and "Da" and sometimes a whole string of other things too sophisticated for us to understand. AND!!! She took a step, just one, the other night. Wow.

I am thankful for my Katie Anne.

Katie Anne's Cast Experience!

Here's another one! Katie Anne got her straight leg cast on August 29, then crawled out of it and had a new one put on September 4 that bent her leg at a 90 degree angle. She was such a good sport about it and as you can see from the pictures she did not let it get her down in any way! She got the cast off September 30th. She had a nickel sized hole in the back of her knee where the cast rubbed her wrong. It was very gross and made me so sad, almost worse than the broken leg itself! She is healing nicely, though, and puts weight on it again and crawls normal for the most part. I found some pants that would fit over her cast so she was warm on cold days, and can now wear her really warm p.j.'s at night, which is good because in case you hadn't heard, we live in Utah now!

Lots of Lovin'

I took these pictures before we left and downloaded them to post a blog so here you go! She gets her cast off next week! YEAH! We are just hanging out here waiting to see if our house will really close today. It still feels like we're on a trip so we'll see what happens when it feels real. Of course on trips the boys are not in school and John's not at work but whatever...

Some weird things lately...every time I see a car that looks like a car of a friend from RC I check to see if it's them. There are a lot of white suburbans and vans so I think I see Merry and Arlene a lot! I also am not used to not having a green arrow at stop lights! It's also been chilly...when I dropped the kids off at school it was less than 50. It's been fun to live with my nephews who are 12, nearly 16, and 21 (recently returned missionary). Everything is done with enthusiasm! My 8 year old neice is a perfect playmate for ALL of my kids, which is also nice. They will be very bored soon. I also like saying to my sister, will you watch the kids while I run to the store/bank/etc. We also make meals together and zonk out while Jane watches Dora, though I can sleep through "Swiper, no swiping!" better than she can :).

Sweet Pea

Here's our little sweet pea! The name of Katie Anne's dress is actually Sweet Pea so it fit very nicely! (I found the dress at ldscatalog.com) I had so much fun doing a photo shoot with her! She seemed to like it too, so we just kept on taking pictures, almost 50 of them! Thank heavens for digital cameras. Here are a few of my favorites. First, the dress...

6 Weeks and Lovin' It!

Here's our sweet Katie Anne at 6 weeks. She's "Absolutely Adorable"!

I also miraculously got this picture of her smiling. Her smiles are slow in coming but worth the wait!