Damon's 7

Happy Birthday to Damon!



Wow, I have a lot of pictures to go through! Let's start with Damon's birthday. He turned seven on July 2, a day he has been looking forward to for many months. He wanted to do something really fun, but we didn't want to spend a lot of money. Our compromise was to use a trade that Jeff has with The Quarry rock climbing place, which worked out really well. He invited 6 cousins to come climb with him, and thankfully, my dad and Wayne were in town to help belay the kids (Jeff and I, along with my Uncle Tom were belaying as well). The kids had a great time. Even the little kids, like Kyla and Tara's twins, got to climb and loved it.

Ready to climb!

Damon and David making their way up the wall

Mama belaying (just because there aren't a lot of pictures of me on here)

Allie giving it a try with my dad belaying

He requested sushi and salmon for dinner, along with corn and cottage cheese. Yummy. Much better than the fish sticks Allie wanted. Unfortunately, the sushi wasn't that great. But I didn't tell him that. Just FYI-don't buy it at Albertson's. Next time I will go to Costco.


All my family was in town for the 4th, so we invited everyone back for cake and ice cream after the party. Here is Damon's cake. Nothing fancy, but he seemed happy with it.



We sure love this kid and are so glad to have him as part of our family!

Traffic School

Thanks so much for all your suggestions about what to do with Allie! You are all full of great ideas and I really appreciate all the input! UPDATE-Allie is doing much better at night. I think part of it was bribery (she will do a lot for a dum-dum), and part of it was her deciding she was going to go to bed without screaming. She still complains about being scared A LOT and it is always a struggle to actually get her in her room with the door shut, but she seems to be managing. A few things that have helped: prayer (although we were trying this from the beginning, I think constant prayers specifically for her have been a good thing), talking with her about how I have overcome some of my own fears, playing "swat the pretend robbers" with fly swatters (read that one online), and encouraging her that it is okay to feel scared, but not okay to scream and cry about it. We plan on having a special FHE where we dedicate the house after we close next week, and I think that will help, too. For now, though, I am relieved that things are going better. They are far from perfect, but they are better.

Back in May I got my first speeding ticket ever. And I was pretty bummed. I was leaving the house in Orem to go back to Mapleton to pick Damon up from school when I got busted for doing 41 in a 25. Dang. I was in a hurry, and I was driving too fast (in my FIL's truck, so I wasn't used to the speed), but I also think the cop who gave me my ticket is a jerk who was laying a speed trap (more on that in a minute). Anywho, instead of paying the fine and having it go on my record, thus upping our insurance, I decided to go to traffic school.

And so I got to spend a glorious 3 hours last night in a room with 24 other offenders, learning about being a safe driver. And also how to get away with speeding. I don't know exactly what I expected, but there were all types of people there. Male, female, old, young, firefighters and texters. But the majority of us were white, which surprised me. Maybe I was picturing something more along the lines of a citizenship class, where most of the participants would be minorities who once worked as a doctor in their home land, but were now forced to be janitors at the local elementary school. Honestly, though, I should have known. It is Orem, Utah, and the only diversity my kids are exposed to is through the Wal-Mart on University Parkway, where all Hispanic people in the city shop. We often take "field trips" there so they remember that there actually are people who speak Spanish besides Dora.

Back to Traffic School. Despite my misconceptions, I fit right in. I felt an instant comraderie with the other participants; my fellow lawbreakers who had been caught, and were also hoping to avoid higher insurance premiums. Our teacher was a young officer, just 3 years out of the academy, who encouraged us to open a discussion to make the class more interesting. As long as we avoided subjects like, "I didn't deserve my ticket because..." So, of course, most of our discussions were why we didn't deserve our tickets. I learned that THREE other people in the class had received their tickets at the same place I got mine, all issued by the same officer. Yes, my friends, Officer V- was most definitely laying a speed trap. Here's how I know: All of us were pulled over at the bottom of a hill, going at least 10 over the speed limit. I have since learned that if you roll down the hill, never applying your break, you will reach the bottom going at least 45 MPH. It takes a LOT of conscious effort, and a lot of breaking, to keep your speed closer to 25 MPH. Also, Officer V was hiding behind a trailer at the bottom of the hill, so of course he couldn't be seen. He had the perfect setup, and I bet he was giving several tickets a day from his little hiding place. Annoying.

But, I will admit, that since my ticket, I have been a different driver. And after completing Traffic School last night, I know I will be a much more conscientious driver. And not just about speeding. I'm not going to text anymore in the car (not that I did a lot while driving, but occasionally I would. All it took was one story of a girl who lost her life, as she ran a red light while texting and was hit directly on her left side to cure me of my desire to text and drive). I learned a lot, and I think everyone should go to traffic school every few years, just to be reminded of things we can do better. I think insurance companies should offer a reduced rate to anyone who will go and sit through a class. I think there would be fewer accidents, and more educated drivers on the road.

So, while it sucks that I got a ticket and had to go to Traffic School, it wasn't all bad. I got to sit for three hours talking about speed limits, and watching video clips of horrendous accidents. I got to learn, again, how important seat belts areand I got to sit hungrily as other participants scarfed down their Panda Express dinners they had bought during the break. Wait, why was it a good thing again? Oh, because I got to do it without children, and never once had to answer the question, "can I have something to eat?" It was a question I had to keep myself from asking, but one I never had to answer.

What would Supernanny do?

It's always interesting, after a move, to witness how the children handle their new environments. And when I say interesting, I mean excruciating. This move is no exception, and we are all trying to adjust.

DAMON-Got his "summer buzz," and is trying to enjoy his summer.


He has always been resistant to change, and will usually stay close by me, no matter where I am. There is a little boy on our street in Damon's primary class, and Damon will go over and see if he wants to play (that is a BIG step for him). Usually, Damon ends up watching him play XBox for an hour or so and then coming home (Kobe is autistic and the boys are still "getting used to each other"). He gets a little bored, especially when I tell him he has watched enough tv, but we always try to get out and do something outside. He really wanted me to take this picture of him on top of the playground.

KYLA-Gets no pictures of her by herself. I guess we haven't taken any of her lately. She didn't get a summer haircut, maybe that's why. She is doing well. She is so friendly and unafraid of people, that she has had no problems with a new ward, new neighbors and new parks (where moms don't yet know what kind of parent I am). This is from Allie's second day of preschool (we forgot to take on yesterday).

ALLIE-Yep, you guessed it. She is having the hardest time adjusting to the new place. She started preschool at BYU for the summer, so we got her haircut on Friday. I have been threatening her with a haircut for months, but I told her that we needed to do it before summer. She agreed (amazingly). She and I both went in and cut our hair off (I am going to send mine in to Beautiful Lengths, a company sponsored by Pantene that makes wigs for cancer patients. Sorry, no pics yet of me. Maybe later.). I think she looks so cute.

Plus, it is much less tangly, which makes us all happy. But she has suddenly developed a crippling fear that someone is going to come into our house. It started about a week ago, when she woke up at 4 am, certain she had seen a face in her closet. For two days, she was terrified of any closets and bathrooms, and made me go in with her when she needed to go potty. And while we have mostly been able to convince her that no one is here, and that she is just seeing shadows, at night she completely freaks out. Jeff and I are really struggling with her, and not knowing what to do. We let her sleep on our floor one night, but don't want her to get into the habit of doing that. We have started our nightly routine earlier, so that we can do stories, talking, telling of things that make us happy, etc. for a good half hour before she gets in bed. We let her have the light on and music playing. We have given her a flashlight so she can check out any shadows. But no matter what we do, she always wants more. She wants me to lay by her until she falls asleep. She wants her door open (which can't happen, because Kyla won't stay in bed). She wants me to tell MORE stories and read MORE books. And when we refuse, she completely melts down, screaming at the top of her lungs that she is scared. Last night she screamed (ear-piercingly) for 20 minutes before finally tiring herself out.

And I just don't know what to do with her. I am trying so hard to be understanding and to help her feel that she is safe and can let go of all the scared feelings before bed. But I feel that she is constantly taking advantage of us and pushing us for more and more. Most nights, she doesn't fall asleep before 9:30 (which means Kyla doesn't fall asleep), even if we start getting in bed at 8:00. She needs sleep (and we need the quiet!), and we don't know what else we can do. I wish we could borrow Supernanny for a night, and see what she would say about it. I don't want to be mean and insensitive, but seriously. The girl just pushes and pushes and pushes until I finally break. And then she ends up alone, in her room, with the door locked. Any suggestions? Did any of your kids have problems with night time fears?

Okay, enough of that. You asked to see my kitchen. I didn't post any pictures of it before because it's hard to get a good angle. It is a very interesting kitchen to say the least. I wasn't crazy about it when we first walked through the house. I thought it was too small and too boxed in, with no place for barstools. It has these interesting windows that I have never seen before (taken from the family room, dining area off to the right).

But since we have been here, I have been pleasantly surprised at how functional everything is. It is much bigger than I thought originally, and there is TONS of storage. I actually really like it. I may eventually have counter tops put over the wood ledges, so that I can have barstools, but for now, I am just enjoying this unique design I would have never picked for myself.

Shutter Story

When we were looking at buying this house, we knew that there were a few things we would have to buy right away, while most everything else would have to wait for a while. The three necessities were:
1. A refrigerator
2. A washer and dryer
3. Window coverings

We solved the first two problems by shopping at the clearance centers in town and getting some good deals there. The window coverings was a bit trickier of a problem to tackle. We had noticed that the house had at one time had plantation shutters installed, but they had all been removed when the couple had been evicted. We were bummed, because we knew that was a big expense, and also knew that we didn't have the funds to put shutters back in every window they had been in. We started watching the KSL classifieds (much more popular site here in Utah County than Craigslist) to see if, by chance, they would be listed there, but had no luck.

That's when I did some detective work. On the public records page, I found the name of the owners of the house (meaning, the ones who SHOULD have been paying taxes for the past 2 years). I also found out that the woman has a blog. By reading through her old posts, I found out that her newly married son and his wife were the ones who were living in the house. And the daughter in law also has a blog. So, though a little bit of stalking, I found out more than I ever wanted to know about the previous owners of the house (including how their little dogs chewed on the cabinets in the laundry room one Sunday). We passed some of this information on to our realtor, and she contacted the owners (mom and dad) to see if they still had the shutters.

They did. Apparently, they hadn't yet paid them off, and they had been taken out of the home by The Blindman. After some great negotiating on the part of our realtor, they agreed to sell them back to us for 40% of the price they paid just a year ago, which included reinstallation by The Blindman. What a sweet deal for us! Within two hours, they were back up in the house (every window, including bathrooms and the garage) and making the house look so much better. Who needs decorating? We have shutters!

One cute pic I forgot I had. We went fishing at Pine Valley when we were in St. George last month with Tara's family. Kyla loved Kenya. Here she is wiping her mouth with her own shirt.


One funny story from Allie. I told her she was going to be going to a new primary class and meeting new friends. She said, "Good! I hate Noel (a boy in her primary class in Springville)." I had never heard her say anything bad about Noel before, so I asked her, "Why do you hate him?" Her answer? "Because he has cavities." Cavity snob.

The one you've been waiting for

No more excuses. Time to post pics and my feelings on week 1 in our forever home. I'm not going to lie, it has been a whirlwind. Emotionally, as well as physically. Actually, it has been more than a whirlwind emotionally. It has been a roller coaster amidst a whirlwind. It's been a rollerwind. Coinciding with the daily thunderstorms that have blown into Utah this week.

Blame it on the stress of moving, but I have felt much more anxious this week than I have in a while. I didn't sleep very well our first night here, but instead kept hearing all kinds of "new" noises that I was not accustom to. Also, because we cannot yet afford a rug (and other furniture), the house is very echoey (as if that's a word), and all noises are amplified (including crying, which has also gotten on my nerves quite quickly). So, all night that first night Jeff and I listened as the ice maker began to work, the floor began settling, and the wind chimes outside announced a slight breeze. Not the best way to start off.


Here we are hours after moving in, the beginning of day one for us. Every day has gotten better and better. Damon only asks where I am and where I'm going six or seven times a day, rather than every 15 minutes. The girls are getting along better and don't need me to be in plain sight to feel at home.

That being said, I love it here. Every morning I wake up and can't believe we actually live here. I know everyone has been dying for pictures (if you haven't, please humor me), so here are a few. These are my favorite things about the house.

THE VIEW. This was taken from my the window in my closet. I did zoom in a little, but isn't that gorgeous?
MY LAUNDRY ROOM. Only a mom could be excited about something like that, but since we have been married, I have never had a laundry room. We had a laundry closet in the bathroom in Ohio, a laundry garage in Florida, and another laundry bathroom at Jeff's parents' house. So, you can imagine that the sight of these two beauties doing their business gets my heart racing.

These are the Whirlpool Cabrios, and I LOVE them! I don't particularly care for front loaders (had them in Ohio) because I could never throw something in after it was started without making a huge mess. So, when we found these at the Sears Outlet for a smoking deal, I was so happy! Come over and do a load. You'll be sold, too.

Funny side note: the other night I left for an hour or so, and when I got home, Allie told me this story. "I was sad that you were gone, but then I went into the laundry room and saw your dryer balls and it made me happy." I guess there's another reason to enjoy the laundry room. It helps you not miss your mom so much.

THE DISHWASHER. Needs no further explanation.



THE SHUTTERS. This is another long story that I will save for another day. I love them, though!


THE MASTER BATHROOM (AKA THE GIANT TUB). The bathroom is incredible. Seriously, it blows me away every day. And I'm thinking about hosting hot tub parties during the winter up there. Any takers?

THE PIANO ROOM. This piano was Jeff's great aunt's (who never had any kids of her own and lived in the basement before us, where she was baptized at the age of 90). We inherited it while we lived at the Trapnell's, and I love having it here in the house. True, the room it is in is rather empty besides the piano, but it sounds so good. It makes me want to practice more so I can wow you with music as you come to my door.


THE ENTRY. This is the view when you come in the front door. I love it. Especially if these three are sitting at the bottom of the stairs.

Most of all, what I love about this place is what is inside it. No, not the floors or the appliances or even the sweetest tub of all. I love the people that are here with me. That has been the other part of my "rollerwind." My heart is so full of love and gratitude for the very fact that we are here together. I know that without doubt, they are the most important, and everything else is meaningless without them here. I told Jeff once that I would live in a cardboard hut with him, if it meant that we could be together. And, while I still mean it, I can't tell you how blessed I feel to have the best of both worlds--a wonderful home and a wonderful family to share it with.


And while I know the storm is far from over (I expect it to continue off and on throughout the rest of my life), today I am grateful for those moments that take your breath away. The rainbows that appear amidst the storms.

(Photo taken by Jeff Thursday night from our deck)

We're Here

After a frantic week of packing, moving and unpacking, we are in. Not completely (Jeff's office is still full of boxes), but we are settling in nicely. It feels great. I have a lot of pics to post, but I'm having difficulties. Blame it on the poorly secured network of an unknowing neighbor that I am currently connected to, but pictures are slow in coming (if at all). So, enjoy this one of our first hour in our home. We were in the middle of bringing 9 years of "stuff" into this house, and the kids were all starving. So, without any furniture, they sat in the middle of the kitchen floor eating peanut butter sandwiches and drinking from glass tumblers.

There will be more to come. MUCH, much more. But for now, we are loving our empty house. It will be a while before we can afford to fill it up, but every night Jeff and I look at each other and say that we can't believe this is really our house. This is the place we have been dreaming about since we got married, and now we are here. In the home we'll raise our family in. Because I sure as heck am not moving again.

Lately

I'm doing this post backwards, since that is the way the pictures loaded. See this cute, innocent face? She is posing here doing her favorite activity, finishing Damon and Allie's breakfast. Hence the 3 bowls and 3 spoons. And doesn't she look thrilled?

Don't be fooled, though. She is trouble. Yesterday she drew all over the leather couch and ottoman with a pen. It's hard to see in this pic, so you may need to click on it to enlarge to see some of her work. All three cushions of the couch, the seat of the love seat look like this ottoman. The pic is shiny because I sprayed hairspray on all the pen to try to get it out. NOTHING worked. Hairspray, hand sanitizer, tooth paste, soft scrub, magic eraser...nothing. Kyla is in BIG trouble. Honestly, I am so bummed out about having to put this furniture in our beautiful new house. I keep reminding myself that we're not taking the couches to heaven, but we are taking KyKy (hopefully). It still hasn't made it any easier. Anyone know any miracle solutions?


This is Damon and his second cousin, James, on the last day of first grade. They were lucky enough to be in the same class this year, and although they didn't know each other when school began, his mom and I were pretty excited about it.

Here is Damon with his teacher, Mrs. Wayment. She has been such a great teacher for him, not letting him get away with decent work, but always pushing him to do better. I am so grateful for that, because I know it would be easy to just let him slide by. I know he's a much better student because of the expectations she had for him this year.

This is Damon's "Horse Group." His friends from school. It took him a long time to admit that most of his friends were girls. I already knew that, but I think he didn't want to disappoint Jeff. I'm not exactly sure why they were the "Horse Group," but I think it had something to do with pretending to be horses. At least, that would explain all the grass stains on his pants throughout the year. I was surprised to see one other boy included. I hadn't heard that any other boys were involved. Jeff is anxious to get him in another school. :)

I love this last pic. Jeff was getting ready for a camping trip last week and was getting all the air out of his sleeping pad. The kids thought he was asking for a dog pile. Don't they look like they are having so much fun?

Two years

Sunday was Kyla's birthday. She is now officially two years old, and can torment her parents legally under the "terrible two" guise. It's strange that my baby is two and I am nowhere near having another baby, but I went through this before with Damon, and I promised myself then that I would fully appreciate the "extra" time I got with him, without having a new baby to worry about. I am making myself the same promise with Kyla. I am going to enjoy her third year and give her all the extra attention I was planning to give a baby.

It shouldn't be too hard. I know parents aren't supposed to have favorites, and I will vehemently deny it if ever asked by my children, but Kyla is just so easy to love. She is friendly, happy and adventurous and I love having her in my life every single day. At two years old, she loves everything that Allie loves, and always wants to look pretty. She tries to count everything (usually skipping 4 and 5) and lets you know what color it is (she knows most colors, but struggles with blue, and mixes up white and black). She still eats a lot, but has slowed down somewhat. She is completely attached to her cow and binky, and I am dreading the day we take them away from her. She is going to be moving into a big girl bed in our new house, and will be sharing a room with Allie. Heaven help us all.

For her birthday, we had a small family celebration. I made her a cake (all she asked for was a pink cake and her Grandma Karen. She got one of the two), which she loved.

She got two Barbie's and a baby doll. Just what she loves. Allie suggested we name one of the Barbie's "Grandma Karen." We'll see if that sticks. She loved being sung to and getting to blow out her candles (we did it twice). Birthdays are so easy when kids are young. I love it.

We took a trip to the cemetery to visit Great-Grandpa and Grandma Trapnell, Great-Grandpa and Grandma Thygerson and Great-Aunt Lo, as we celebrated Memorial Day a little early. The cemetery was gorgeous, and nearly every grave had fresh flowers, which Kyla promptly sniffed.

Here are the kids with Tyson. Three of the four probably have no clue what was going on, but I think Damon understood. That's all that matters.

Quick catch up

The week before I left for San Diego, Kyla was sick. She complained all day that she was "coldy," and cried a lot. Besides having a fever of 102, she also had nasty diarrhea that she was not happy about. She spent most of the week like this:

You know when she doesn't even want to go outside that something is wrong. Swine flu crossed my mind (she did start with a runny nose/respiratory issues), but Jeff told me I was being ridiculous. I'm sure I was. She is now back to her normal self, saving roly-poly's, worms and wasps from the bug eating ants in the backyard.

The other thing that happened before I went to CA was that Damon started baseball. We have been practicing with him for several weeks, and he has improved so much. Which is good, since he didn't even know how to throw a ball when we started working with him. Jeff still gets frustrated because he remembers sports always coming easy to him, and Damon has a tendency to pout when he's not perfect at it. Still, a sight like this always warms my heart.


Ultimately, he may choose acting/singing over sports, but we're not going to give up without letting him experience every sport imaginable before giving in. First grade baseball here in Mapleton is the best, because everyone gets to hit (and gets enough pitches that they DO hit), so he has had nothing but positive experiences so far. He's not the best on his team, but he's also not the worst.

And speaking of baseball, one night Allie was brushing her teeth, and Jeff was instructing her on how to hold the toothbrush. He told her to "choke up" on the toothbrush, which meant nothing at all to her. He then explained, "hold it higher." She then lifted her chin and raised her arm as high as she could, "holding it higher" as she brushed. We got a good laugh out of that.

San Diego

I spent the weekend in San Diego. Originally, my whole family was going to go together to tour my brother's mission, so I bought a plane ticket to meet them down there. But as it turned out, it wasn't the best weekend for my brother, and it was going to cost me $150 to change my ticket, so I knew that I would be going alone. My aunt, who works for Jet Blue and loves any excuse to travel, decided it would be a great opportunity to celebrate my mom's birthday in San Diego and the two of them decided to meet me there.

We had an awesome weekend, full of laughter, relaxation and GREAT food. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if my sisters could have joined us. It would have been a huge party! We spent time at the temple, which was fabulous...

eating at Truluck's (the first REALLY nice restaurant I've ever been to), and being completely pampered...

and lounging on the beach in La Jolla.

It wasn't very warm and sunny on the coast, but that didn't stop us from spending several hours watching the surfers. Just a short distance away from us was a surfer's shack built in the 1960's, and it is obviously a famous location at Windandsea beach. This couple stopped for a few photos before taking five minutes out of their day to get married.

That's right, the lady in the grey suit was the minister. The man with the video camera (we found out later that it was the boy's grandpa) was the videographer/witness. The couple were young (I would guess 18), and the boy was in the Marines, getting ready to ship off to Afghanistan. It made us all a little sad that no one was around to witness it (besides the three strangers from Utah who couldn't stop staring). An hour or so later, another couple got married under the shack, but it was a big wedding, complete with hundreds of guests. Of course we stayed to watch that one, too. It was too much fun.

On Sunday, I didn't fly out until 7:00 pm (and my mom and aunt left at 1:30). I spent some time driving around, checking out the sights in San Diego. I didn't realize how much water I had been drinking until I suddenly realized I needed to pee. And soon! After some driving, I found a Carl's Jr, and hustled inside, only to find that I needed a token to get into the restroom, and the only way to get a token was to purchase something first. Well, I wasn't hungry in the least and didn't think I was THAT desperate, so I kept going. A few blocks later, I found a 711. Now I was really feeling like I might burst and asked quickly where the bathroom was. The cashier informed me that they didn't have one. She thought the restaurant across the street might have one, but she wasn't sure. I couldn't wait, though, and suddenly wished I were a man, and could take care of business in the alley. Instead, I climbed into the backseat of the car and tried to pee inconspicuously into the empty water bottle, only having a little success in actually collecting it. Still, a bit of the pressure was relieved (and I was relieved that the car didn't smell like pee--it was mostly water anyway), and I kept driving. Eventually, by some small miracle, I found a Wal-Mart and waddled inside to finish my business. Phew. I have never loved Wal-Mart more.

Back at the airport, my flight was delayed an hour and a half. And since I was there 3 hours early, that meant more time for me to sit and wait.

Once I finally got home to SLC, it was after midnight, and I made my way to the parking lot, where Jeff's 4Runner was waiting for me, the back door unlocked. I opened it, setting off the alarm, and quickly reached to the front and inserted the key, silencing the alarm. I threw my stuff in the back, shut the door, and went to get in. But all the doors were locked. I didn't know that Jeff's car locked the doors once the engine is running. I was locked out and it was after midnight. I called my mom, who was waiting for me to meet her in Orem, and she helped me find the phone number for the police. Eventually, an officer came out and helped me get the door unlocked. It was late when I made it home, but I made it. And on the drive, I couldn't help but laugh at all the bad luck I had had. What was even more interesting was that I never felt stressed out at all. And that was because I didn't have any kids with me.

It truly was an awesome vacation!

A Day at the Park

This gorgeous spring weather has allowed for many opportunities to play at the park. This is usually how it goes...

We arrive at the park sometime before lunch (anywhere from 10:30-12:00). I will park myself on the best bench I can find. Not necessarily the one closest to the playground, but the one with the best sun. The girls will both instantly proclaim that they are starving and will begin eating the peanut butter sandwiches I have made for them, heading off to the playground with their mouths full of peanut butter. Allie will usually eat all of hers without incident, but Kyla typically drops hers in the sand/mulch/ground up rubber tires at least two or three times before she brings the crusts back to me.

When the sandwiches are gone, both girls will ask to swing. Without fail, I will tell them that swinging is the last thing we are going to do, knowing full well that once they are situated in a swing, I will spend the rest of the park day pushing them. It could go on for hours. I shoo them away with a quick, "Go play!," and they reluctantly head back over to the playground. After 8.5 seconds, Allie is back, announcing that there is nothing fun to do and she sits on the bench next to me. Of course, I ignore her, and continue the conversation I am having on my cell phone. She will eventually get the message, realize that there are 18 slides and 37 other kid friendly toys that she has yet to try, and saunter back to the playground. Meanwhile, I end my fake phone call, and resume the ever important task of people watching, carefully noting just how the other moms at the park are disciplining their kids, telling myself that I would never give into my kids when they are throwing a fit. Which is why the tantrum that Allie is throwing because she can't do the monkey bars by herself will be ignored, because how else will she learn?

After a while, and a little more lunch, I will notice that one of the girls has wandered over to the swings and is looking longingly at the other kids, whose moms are nice enough to push them as soon as they ask. They will try the "belly trick," pretending that they are having fun riding Superman-style. Really, though, they are waiting for one of the "good moms" to offer to push them on the swing, too. I will pry myself from my seat gingerly, because I haven't moved much during the 30 minutes the kids have been playing, and walk over to the swings. Heaven forbid the other moms think that I am neglecting my children (despite the ignoring of the previous tantrum), and will distract the child at the swing by promising that in 5 minutes, after they have finished playing on the playground, I will, in fact, push them on the swing. Usually, this will buy me at least 10-15 more minutes, because thankfully, my girls have no concept of time.

When, at last, I am ready to go, I will announce happily that it is time to get in the swings. Both girls cheer, as though I am the BEST mom in the world, and I will push them for as long as my arms can stand. Usually 2 or 3 minutes. I will removed Kyla from her swing, and tell Allie she needs to find her shoes. She will search the entire playground, and be back in 5.2 seconds, announcing that her shoes are nowhere to be found, and have probably been stolen. I will, of course, check for myself, and will easily locate them under the playground, safe and sound. We will make our way to the van or stroller and go home. As soon as we walk in the house, the girls will announce again that they are starving and need something to eat.

Occasionally, though, things go a little differently. Today, for example, I was sitting on my bench, in full sunlight, actually talking on the phone. I could see Allie from where I was, playing near a statue with some other children, but she was a ways away, and I wasn't giving her my undivided attention. Suddenly, I see her being led toward me by a mom with her young child. The mom asked if Allie was my daughter. Then, she informed me that, "she (Allie) was the one stuck who has been screaming for about five minutes." Apologetically, I told her that I couldn't hear her screaming, and told her thank you for helping her (Allie) out. As she walked away, she gave me some great advice. Rudely, she said, "Maybe you should keep an eye on her."

Yep, it seems like I'm not the only one who watches the other moms and silently judges them. I'm going to try harder not to do that anymore. And we'll be frequenting other parks, where I haven't already earned a reputation as being one of the "bad moms."

THE house

I realize that I haven't said much about the house. I wanted to make sure everything was a go before I started getting all excited and braggy about it. While it's not 100% sure, we feel very confident that all the details will be worked out and we will be moving in shortly. Here's some background info: Jeff found the house on KSL, listed as a foreclosure owned by the bank. We knew it looked too nice for us, but the price was, surprisingly, within our range, so we went to take a look at it. We were there less than 24 hours after the family had been forced out (which still makes me sad to think about), and we instantly fell in love with it. It is all we wanted, and so much more!

Here was our list of things we really wanted:
1. 3 car garage, preferrably on the side of the house--CHECK
2. Office for Jeff, preferrably right off the entrance to the house--CHECK
3. Big family room with two-story ceilings--CHECK
4. Kitchen open to the family room, with the dining area off to the side--CHECK
5. Four bedrooms finished so we can stay in the house for a while without making a lot of changes--CHECK
6. Good size yard, not too big, not too small--CHECK
7. Closer to Jeff's office--CHECK (it is in south Orem, right on the Provo/Orem border)

As a bonus, we got things we hoped for, but didn't have our heart set on. A great view being one of them. I am still in a little bit of shock when I think that this is going to be our home. It's too big, it's too nice, and I feel like we don't deserve it. We were so lucky that we had the luxury to spend this past year looking, being picky, and figuring out what we really wanted in a home. We have been in so many homes this last year, and at times it was really frustrating, as I felt that we would never find what we were looking for. Now that it seems that we have, I am a huge mess of emotions. Mostly, though, I am two things--excited and overwhelmed. Excited because I get to live here, and overwhelmed because I have to try to keep it clean.

Happy Birthday Allie!

Man, pictures are taking FOREVER to load today. Amidst all the craziness with trying to secure THE house (which is another post for another day. It's looking good, though!), Allie turned four. She has been talking about this day for months, and planning the perfect party. It changed daily, of course, as did the guest list. Damon and Kyla have both been uninvited dozens of times, but since she really doesn't have any friends, of course they had to come.

I'm sure you are wondering what she chose to wear for her special day. It was this: a swimsuit and leggings, with a skirt thrown over the top to make me happy. She and Kyla are posing by a poster Maren made for the big day. I love how Kyla is trying to copy Allie.

In Allie's dream scenario, she was going to have a gymnastics party. And only those capable of doing complex gymnastics moves were going to be invited. Right away, she should have realized that she would have been excluding herself, but that thought never seemed to cross her mind. She was positive that her twin cousins, Matt and Miles (who are about 10) would be the perfect fit, and asked me several times whether or not they were coming (they ended up not being able to make it). In way of compromise, I talked her into an afternoon at Jumpin Jacks, where the guests could slide down blow up slides and jump around in bounce houses, thus pretending that they were actually doing gymnastics. She went for it.

We ended up with four cousins (David, Maren, Sam and Connor) and one neighbor girl (a 10 year old) and Damon and Allie as the guests. Allie had to wear this dress, her present from David and Maren, while we were there. Of course, it ripped along the neckline, where the silk meets the see through netting, and will not be worn again until I figure out how to mend it. But I think Allie would do wear it again at Jumpin Jacks, given the chance.

She also requested a gymnastics cake, which was a good idea in theory. But it didn't turn out so well. It stuck to the pan coming out, so it broke in places, making it difficult to frost. The gymnastics girl (who is upside down in a pose on the balance beam, if you can't tell) was free-handed by me, which is why it's so magnificent. I also ran out of frosting with a section the size of a dollar left, and had to smear the frosting on half of the cake to cover the bare spot. All in all, it made for a cake only a child could love (and believe me, she loved it). I guess that's all that matters.


We invited the neighbor kids over to make it seem like she actually had friends, and I think we fooled her. She claimed she had a great birthday. I don't know if something this simple will ever fly again, but it was great for this year.

I have thought a lot about this child of mine, and am SO grateful that her third year was better than her second year. It gives me hope for this year. While I was sitting at Jumpin Jacks, bored out of my mind because the kids were all playing together so nicely (DEFINITELY not complaining), I made a list of the things that best describe Allie. Here they are:

1. Her gold shoes. They were used when she got them, but they instantly became her favorite shoes ever. They are now ratty, and no longer the least bit attractive, but she loves them. Kyla even tries to claim them, saying, "MY goldies!"

2. Crack. It doesn't really matter what pants she is wearing, she almost always is showing crack. Maybe swimsuits aren't so bad.

3. Swimsuits, fancy dresses and princess costumes. Without these three items, she would have been naked most of the year.

4. Pasta. Allie loves any kind of pasta and red sauce. I have thought about serving spaghetti once a week, just to please her.

5. Barbies and princesses. She has just gotten into Barbie movies this year, and has started in with the classics (right now the favorite is Jasmine). It's fun to see her so into it.

6. Music. Allie has always been into music. She knows the artists of most popular songs, and can even identify who sings new songs. She has been known to lock her door and blast Disney songs, primary songs, Jim Brickman, and High School Musical, just to name a few. I'm glad she's branching out.

7. Pillow. Allie loves her pillow more than just about anything. She "wiggles" the corners of the pillowcase, and has ripped all the seams apart. If she ever needs comfort, she will instantly go lie down with her pillow.

8. Lip gloss. It was one of her rules. It has to be included.

9. Small books. She has a thing for books of unusual sizes. She takes a miniature Book of Mormon to bed with her. In the visitor's center at Canyon de Chelly, she asked if she could have a miniature book about birds. I don't think it matters what it is about, she likes any small book she can get her hands on.

10. Not a big dessert fan. I am convinced that she would chose a vitamin C over a piece of chocolate. She always thinks she likes treats, but rarely finishes any. Maybe I should take a lesson from her!

I sure do love Allie, and although we are very different people, I am so glad I get to be her mom. Remind me I said that in 10 years, because I know we are destined to do battle.

Welcome Home!

I have gotten behind with my blogging. Things have been busy (and Facebook has been beckoning). This is the first of the fun things we did this week. On Tuesday, my handsome brother returned from his mission to San Diego, CA. He flew into St. George, but as luck would have it, he had a two hour layover in SLC on his way. My aunt and her four kids wanted to go, and of course I wanted to go, so I grabbed Damon out of school and we made the hour drive up to SLC. Allie, in typical fashion, had only one thing to say when I told her about our trip. "What am I going to wear?" It was good to know she actually thinks of this stuff.

I love this pic of the three kids hanging out in the double stroller while we waited for our missionary.


It was so much fun to watch him walking toward us, and we waited patiently by security until he made it over to hug us. I may not have jumped up and down like my mom did (there's an awesome video clip on Facebook Eric posted of that welcome home), but I was excited inside. Here is the waiting party (minus my aunt and me, who were snapping pics).


The girls were nervous, but Damon immediately dropped down into the straddle splits the second Eric got close to us. We have been telling Damon for a while now that he is "Little Eric," and he wanted to prove the point right there in the airport. Allie and Kyla warmed up a little, but were never overly friendly. I love this one of Damon and Eric, though, and I hope Damon remembers this day forever.

Damon must have been planning his outfit out, too, because he wanted to wear this sweater over a polo with cargo shorts. I guess he thinks he looks nice.

Damon took this one of Eric and me, which is why we look a little "larger than life."

It was a great day, and I know he was welcomed again in St. George to a huge crowd. I am so proud of my brother for his service and am so glad he's home.