The big 5!

Yesterday shaped up to be a pretty chaotic day, although it was better than it could have been. I ended up taking off early because of all the things we had to accomplish, in addition to all the festivities for Alyssa's birthday.

Since the "Check Engine" light came on in the Jeep (again), we were going to take it back in to the shop. But apparently they are really short handed this week so taking out the entire transmission (again) and replacing the torque converter (again) is not something they have time to finish before we need it back. Alas, we will have to work that out next week. Hopefully we can find a car to borrow (again). (Broken record? Yup.)

Matt's FOP meeting went well. They had some good information for them that (we are hoping!) will improve his work opportunities and our family situation related to his work. We are keeping our fingers crossed for that one.

While he was at his meeting, I went to my presidency meeting (thanks to Wendy and Jen letting me reschedule). We were able to make some good progress on the Primary program.

Once all those things were out of the way, we baked the cake and headed out to finally celebrate the big day.

Usually for the kids' birthdays we let them pick a place to go as a family and then what they want for dinner. This time Alyssa wanted to go to the aquarium to see the new penguin exhibit. We discovered that the middle of the day on a Wednesday is an awesome time to go. There was hardly anyone there and we could let the kids run and look at everything without having to worry about people in front or behind us getting annoyed.

The kids had a great time checking out all the tanks and exhibits. (Liam especially likes pushing all the buttons to hear the sounds the different animals make). They have added a few things like a sea turtle in the shark tank (Lyss loves turtles) and an electric eel exhibit that converts the current the eel is giving out into noise coming through a speaker. (That whole thing was very upsetting to Liam who kept wandering around saying, "What's going on?" over and over.)

BUT - the penguins are the best by far! They are incredibly active and seemed to be just as curious about us as we were about them. The girls had a great time watching them swim and dive through the tank. Several times they would stop and float right in front of the girls' faces and watch them back. I think we'll have to go back and see them again when Liam is in a more congenial mood.

Lyssa's next birthday wish was to go to McDonald's for dinner, so we stopped at one with a big play area on the way home. (Apparently a germy play-place is my kids' idea of birthday heaven.) Kenna was the only one who made a real attempt at eating her food, the other two kids could not be bothered to sit down long enough to eat more than 1 chicken (?) nugget. *Note to self: just take them to the play-place and don't bother buying dinner next time.*

We followed our usual birthday tradition of having cake and ice cream with grandma and grandpa, but this time we took the party to Grandpa Y. He hasn't been feeling so hot lately and Lyssa wanted him there so we hauled our mess to my mom's spotless kitchen. Alyssa poured about 3 pounds of sprinkles on her little cake and Kenna used the rest on the cupcakes we had for everyone else. And, like the fabulous mom I am, I forgot to grab the candles when I packed up the stuff we hauled over there so we had to make do with a match in the middle of the cake.

All in all, it was a busy (but very fun) day. When I tucked the kids in for bed last night, Lyss told me she had a great birthday and gave me a big hug.

She's an awesome kid and we love her guts. Thanks for being such a little sweetie Miss Lyss. We love you!

New wheels!

My dear Miss Alyssa turned a whopping four years old today. Oh my, where has the time gone! Seems like only yesterday I was sitting in the hospital reminding the hospital staff that I had a GIRL* and that - No, even though we didn't already have a name picked out we were NOT naming her Katrina**.

Daddy took the day off so we could celebrate as a family and boy what a celebration it was!


According to our family tradition, she got to decorate her own birthday cake. (Minus the chocolate frosting and the writing...)

We're not big party people around our house so we generally just have the Grandmas and Grandpas from both sides come over for a little cake and ice cream. My Aunt and Uncle arrived at my parents' house just as they were leaving for the party, so they piled in car and came over to join in the festivities.


Kenna just couldn't resist trying to help Lyssa blow those candles out!


Liam certainly enjoyed his piece of cake. It was gone in a flash! I think the cake part ended up (mostly) in his stomach, but I'm pretty sure the majority of the frosting was on his face.


He was also eager to help Alyssa with the presents. He managed to snatch a bow before she could shoo him away.


Reading the fun card the Aunt Tanya sent. There was an audible gasp when she saw that there was money inside...and stickers too! What more could a girl want?


And the finale of the presents - Mom and Dad finally broke down and got the kid some wheels. For some reason we have been reluctant (or too lazy...whatever) to get the kids bikes, so we decided that a scooter might be the way to get both the parents and the kids used to some extra mobility.


Liam immediately made a grab for the scooter while Lyssa was trying on her helmet. Looks like more than one kid might be getting wheels this year since they are already fighting over it. (SIGH.) I forsee many hours of enduring his screams while watching her ride it around.

After everyone left and we ran a quick errand, we let Alyssa pick where she wanted to go for dinner. She picked Arctic Circle based on the fact that they have a playground (and the fact that McKenna kept encouraging her to go there). Mom and dad were less than thrilled with the choice, but the kids enjoyed it.

After we read her new book and got snuggled into bed for the night, she told me that she had a really fun birthday.

Here's wishing you many more my sweet girl...


*There was another baby with the same last name born on the same day as Lyssa in our hospital. The other family had a boy. Somehow they thought that OUR baby was the boy. They had a blue card in her bassinet and one of the pediatricians even showed up for a pre-circumcision check-up. (That was disturbing in and of itself since we certainly didn't request the procedure.) We had to convince every doctor and nurse that came to check on us during our stay that we actually had a girl.

**Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans the day after Alyssa was born. Way too many people suggested we should name her after the storm. Like I want my child to have that kind of a namesake...

Arguments

This was the argument at our house after we got out of the car last night.

Kenna: "Dad, I think that bright star by the moon is Venus."
Alyssa: "No it's not."
Kenna: "Yes, it is. Right there. That one."
Alyssa: "No, it's NOT. That's a satellite."
Kenna: "No, satellites MOVE. That's not a satellite."
Alyssa: "Some satellites stay still. It's a satellite."
Kenna: "No it's not. It's VENUS. It's a planet."

They went back and forth, louder and louder. It felt a little like watching the Monty Python sketch about the African and European Swallows.

Matt leaned over to me as we finished getting all the stuff out of the car and said, "Do you think other parents have problems with their 5 and 3 year olds arguing about stuff like this?"

If they do...I pity them.

Easter Bunny

Apparently my family has a tradition of doing the Easter Bunny part of Easter on the Saturday before the actual Easter holiday. Somehow I did not remember this and was reminded of it by my mother on Thursday night.

After she told me about it I thought, Wow! My parents are so smart! That makes it so much easier to "enjoy" the whole Easter basket-egg finding-gorging on candy thing and still reserve Sunday for the celebration of the religious type Easter (and not have hyper kids during Church!).

So...this year we picked up an (apparently forgotten!) Easter tradition from my family and celebrated the Easter Bunny on Saturday morning. I am now a big advocate of this approach. It was much more relaxed and fun for every one.



Some Easter basket treasures....


The Easter Bunny was cheap this year. $1 bubbles were a big hit though.


We had a little egg hunt in the backyard since I have not been able to bring myself to brave one of the city sponsored ones. I have nightmares of my children getting trampled and then coming home empty handed to boot.


Intense concentration is required when peeling an egg you are going to complain about eating about 10 minutes later.


Liam attempted to eat the egg before we had taken the shell off and managed to give himself a good schmear of blue lipstick for the rest of the day.

It was a wee tad cold outside, but so nice to have a relaxing morning to enjoy the time with the kids.

Pre-Easter Preparations

Decorating Easter eggs is one of those things that strikes fear into my heart. Multi-colored dye with the potential of staining anything it touches, hanging around in liquid form, and actually meant for child participation. Scary! I feel the need to go break out the spot remover just thinking about it.

Apparently it scares Liam too.

We took precautions (note the large field of while in the photo – hooray for white plastic garbage bags!) and managed to escape without incident.

Matt got involved and made a very interesting rainbow spotted egg using the wax from a candle and soaking the egg in increasingly darker colors. Apparently the process required intense concentration…

We've been busy...

We ran to the park.

While we were there, we were treated to a new 5 year old phenomenon - POUTING. Kenna is using this new tool at every opportunity.

I am not amused.

Lyssa played while Kenna sulked.

She finally cheered up long enough to chase a remote control airplane around with about 500 other neighborhood kids that were taking advantage of the weather.

Lyssa ran her little heart out. She really wanted to catch the plane.

We had sandwiches...big ones. Lyssa showed proper etiquette by raising that dainty pinky finger every time she took a bite.

Liam played with Mom while Dad tried to get the external flash on the camera up and running. (He finally found it after several years of being hidden in a box.)

We tried out a yummy new donut place. I fell in love with the green one. I think Key Lime is one of my new favorite flavors.

We raced paper airplanes. (Bad picture of me. Yuck. But you can see the shorter hair. I was having a hard time getting the remote picture taking timed just right. Also note the amount of sincere effort the girls put into throwing those planes.) We got a chance to try out our new tripod with this picture. Yay for more camera equipment!

And we got girly. Liam escaped sans curlers, but only because his hair isn't long enough for the girls to put one in it.

St. Patrick would be proud...

Oh boy did we celebrate! I was feeling bad that the girls didn't get to go to school and partake of all the activities today...so we decided to liven things up a little at home.

We made green pancakes for dinner (I couldn't think of anything Irish and that was the best bet for food coloring).

To be followed by green cupcakes with green frosting and green sprinkles.

I'm sure we had waaaaaay too much food coloring.

But, it had the great side effect of making Kenna forget about being sick for a couple of hours. Which means, I think she's feeling better, she's just stringing it out in order to get more "green drink". ("green drink" = Sprite - since it comes in the green bottles they think it's green, even though we've pointed out it is not green once you pour it out.)

I really hope no one else comes down with this one. I can do colds, but Sunday night was a LONG one and I have no desire to do more throw up laundry. Yuck. Plus Kenna insisting that she has to carry a bowl around everywhere is embarrassing. It's awkward to explain that at the grocery store.

Also, did I mention that Liam is tall enough to get an open yogurt container off the kitchen table?


Awesome. I love cleaning up after these munchkins.

See, this is why I don't do well with journals...

So I guess I've proven that, once again, I cannot be trusted to write on a regular basis.

When I get busy, writing goes out the window.

Boo.

I suck.

It turns out that when you leave on a week long vacation with only three days notice,

things pile up while you're gone and the kids seem to want extra attention when you get home.

Who'd 'a thunk?

A recap of the vacation (with photos!) is coming. In the meantime,

here's a little of what we have been up to this week.

On Sunday morning, Liam and McKenna woke up with colds.

Blast.

Matt wasn't feeling all that hot either so he stayed home with the sickly ones

while Alyssa and I went to Church.

Monday was better. McKenna magically got over the cold in a day just in time for her best neighborhood pal Rachel, to come over and play.

They disappeared into the toy room for an hour.

It was heavenly. I actually got to cook dinner in relative peace.

Bless you Heidi for letting her stay.

Tuesday ended up being doctor day. Liam had cried all night.

(I have no idea how the girls slept through it because Matt and I sure didn't.)

He was wheezing and rattling and generally sounding terrible that morning.

Since I was going in to work late because of my own appointment anyway,

I ended up just calling in sick and then taking Liam to the doctor.

Double ear infections and RSV do not make for a happy baby.

The nebulizer treatment at the doctors office worked wonders

(WONDERS I tell you!)

though and we are now the proud owners of this fancy set up to help at home:

Albuterol inhaler and children's mask

Liam HATES it but we are finally getting sleep and wondering how we have managed so far without this. Someone finally decided that when the kid is constantly getting bad colds that go straight to his chest, he might have some asthma issues like his older sister.
Hallelujah!

Wednesday was haircut day for most of us. My sweet niece Shannon got her license a week or two ago and we were privileged to be the first in line for family haircut night.

McKenna (surprisingly) volunteered to go first.
Her request was that her hair stay long enough to still be considered princess hair (even though she knows it probably won't get as long as Rapunzel's).

Then Alyssa (not a fan of the spray bottle).

I went next, leaving about 5-6 inches on the floor, in the hopes that shorter hair would induce the beginning of spring. (No pictures until my cold sore goes away.) I'll let you know how that spring thing works out.

And Liam was last.
It took three people and a dog to get him finished.
Shannon did a phenomenal job in spite of the fact that he wouldn't hold still for more than 5 seconds at a time. (Not exaggerating.)

Thursday was date night. We actually went out to a MOVIE. And then dinner, with FRIENDS.
I wasn't sure either of those activities could still be done!

So we are sick again, but on the mend, no doubt thanks to the new fabu haircuts from Shannon. I'm getting spring fever so I hope the magic haircut works!

Ranting and Rambling...(might want to skip this post)

Yesterday was not my favorite day.

My morning prayers started out asking for help to understand and complete some things I had for a big deadline at work. Let's just say, I wasn't specific enough when I asked for understanding.

I meant "please give me a light bulb moment in which everything becomes clear and I magically get all this really hard stuff done."

I got "here, let me show you how you have been doing this wrong all along and you will understand how you need to do this in the future because you will be redoing everything from the whole last year."

So my prayer was answered, but totally not what I meant.

I was tired.

The inversion made me grumpy.

And I was really mad at myself for not seeing the problem sooner.

But, at least I had a date with my hubby to look forward to.

When I got home, Liam seemed like he was breathing kind of shallow and fast. I didn't think too much of it, but I thought I ought to call the doctor anyway, just to make sure. The nurse was busy, so I made an appointment for the next day and asked that she call me back when she could.

Matt and I got ready to go out. He picked up my niece to baby-sit for us and we left.

Halfway to the restaurant, I got a call from the doctor's office. I briefly explained what was going on with Liam and they told me I had to get him checked out that night.

We ended up in the doctor's office at 7:45. (Who knew they were open so late?) Turns out the poor kid had an ear infection and fever of 102.5 by the time we got him all checked out.

Next stop - Walgreens for the prescription. I've never been to a Walgreens before. I don't know that I'll go back. They kind of scare me.

Matt took my niece home while I got the kids medicated and in bed. (Lyssa still has a cough and Liam needed to take his prescription for the ear.)

Little did we know, the night was just starting. Between Alyssa and Liam, we were making trips upstairs about every 10 minutes. Liam was fussing and coughing. At one point, he threw up all over everything, completely covering himself and me. Lyssa was whimpering and crying all night. How is that not supposed to break your heart? I hate it when they are sick.

After another doctor's visit this morning, we found out Alyssa's ears are both infected.

We have so much medication in our fridge.

I have had enough. SERIOUSLY.

Also, I want a do-over on the date night. Doctor's offices are not fun places for dates.

Inversion Fun!

Here in Utah, we have this really fun thing called an Inversion. It's awesome. Here's what it looks like outside right now.


See that haze? It's so bad, it looks like fog. Let's think about that for a second - SMOG that is thick enough to look like FOG.

Lovely.

A friend and I walked about 2 blocks to lunch yesterday. By the time we got back, my head was pounding, I was dizzy and my lungs burned.

Apparently it's so bad, that it is "now unhealthy for the general public." NICE.

If I didn't I have funny kids to keep me entertained while we're cooped up in the house I might be even more disturbed by this.

The other day, Alyssa and I were in the kitchen making some Aebelskivers for breakfast. We were talking about what we were putting into the bowls, what happens when you beat egg whites, etc. when out of the blue she says, "Mom, I only kiss boys I love."

So I said, "Oh really? Have you kissed anyone?"

She tilted her head to the side, thought about it for a second and said, "Yes."

Okay, for starters, this came totally out of the blue. Smack in the middle of the egg white conversation we were having. Also, she's three. I thought we wouldn't be having this discussion until at least 14.

"Oh? Who have you kissed?"

She scrunched up her face and thought for another second, "Well....a rebel storm trooper....and...Luke. Luke Skywalker."

I think we're going to be telling Daddy, no more Star Wars movies for a while.

Weekend projects and picture blow-out

Whew! It was so nice to have a good long weekend at home to work on some projects. I could have used a few more days, but it's amazing how much of a difference even one extra day at home can make with my motivation to undertake a project.

I bought some letters for the kids rooms waaaaay back in October and they have been sitting in the basement bugging me to finish them ever since. Saturday morning I gave in and hauled them out of their hiding place.

Here is what the girls' names look like all finished and hanging on the wall:

Detail on the letters.
Here are the planets we made a while back, hung up on the ceiling.

I did get Liam's done as well, but it was late in the evening and the sick kiddies wanted snuggles instead of pictures.

Yes...sick again. Seriously. My mom even commented the other day that it seems like we have been sick for the last 6 months straight. I am on a campaign to rid the house of whatever germs are at the root of it. I have been busting out the bleach at every opportunity. I will win eventually!

The weekend also brought a new tooth for Liam (FINALLY!). He's up to 3, all on the bottom, and only two weeks shy of his first birthday. He almost did as well as I did...I didn't get my first tooth until 13 months.

Here he is showing off some of his amazing new skills:

(Check out the very sick sister in the background.

Asthma + bad chest cold = miserable Lyssa)

And since I finally found my camera cable, here a few more pictures from happier and less sick days.

Matt's Birthday

Playing with the dress-ups they got for Christmas. Check out the pirate hook on Lyssa's hand.

The tutus I made them for Christmas are a big hit.

Happy Lyssa

Liam making faces.

Kenna being a ballerina.

Goofing off with the camera, making faces.

Liam attacked us while we were playing.

Tired McKenna, still snuggling with Hippo.

(Hippo has been her best friend and constant companion since she could hold on to her.)