Saturday morning was a marathon. We didn’t even have time to eat breakfast. By the time the kids were ready for the day, we had to drive straight to Lydia’s harp recital. She did a great job playing “Goodbye to Winter,” but I forgot to get a picture or video. Sorry, Lydia!! You did really great.
Then we drove to Harmon’s to pick up Mary’s cake, utensils, and juice for her party. I was really stressed out because I always seem to get dates and times wrong. I was terrified the staff at Color Me Mine would have forgotten about the party, and on the way there I basically told the kids we were never having any more parties. Abe reminded me to calm down. When we got there, thank goodness everything was right on track. The staff was SO helpful and wonderful, and everyone had such a great time.
Then we came home and took turns collapsing. Abe napped while I watched the kids play outside in the glorious weather, and then when he woke up I collapsed on the couch. The kids set up on a blanket on the lawn and played with Mary’s presents with the neighbor kids. After we were somewhat rested, we cleaned everything up and piled in the car to go to see our neighbor perform at the Lantern Fest. On the way, I called Ethline to see if we were running late, and thank goodness I did! The festival had been postponed because of wind.
So we ended up just driving through Chick Fil-A and going to Trader Joe’s instead. Then we came home, cleaned everyone and everything, and watched The Good Wife until the wee hours of the morning.
On Friday morning after Lydia’s music lesson we came home and the girls experimented with Mary’s new light board. Mary drew a lot of her signature, happy art:
It was the last day of Abe’s worst quarter. We are so glad it’s behind us.
We spent a lot of time outside in the beautiful weather. I visited with my neighbors, Emily and Matt, quite a bit. It was so fun chatting with them. I also finally convinced Emily to come to book club with me. That was a huge win!
In the evening we went to book club and had such a great time chatting with friends. There was a mouse there, though, and so I did almost die when that appeared. Afterward I also had crazy social anxiety and over-analyzed everything I said and did and felt like I must have been the most obnoxious person ever at book club. Sometimes I wish I didn’t have so many opinions. I wish that the opinions I have weren’t so strong. And I also wish I didn’t share them so freely–it must be so annoying to have to listen to! On the other hand, I love everyone there, so I just feel so darn comfortable that I overshare. On the other hand again, when I overshare, the conversation always gets a lot more juicy. This time around my oversharing prompted Jill to share SO many helpful things about parenting. She has such an awesome perspective, and I love her a lot. I am so grateful for my friends, even if I wish I were less obnoxious when I am around them!
Thursday was Mary’s birthday! She woke up to balloons, presents, and her new hula hoop.
We sang to her over her breakfast plum cake:
She opened presents and went to school. At school she brought Krispy Kreme pink-frosted donuts with sprinkles for everyone, and somehow somewhere someone gave her candy too. So when I picked her up, she was sucking on candy. At that point she had had cake, a donut, and candy. I am not sure she ate much of her lunch. I also snuck a small present in her lunch bag to unwrap. (It wasn’t candy. It was a Hello Kitty nail polish set.)
Then she came home and played with some of her new things with Lydia and Ammon. I had spent the whole day cooking, cleaning, and listening to the Brett Kavanaugh senate trial and was still listening at that point, so I encouraged all of the kids to just play away and forget about homework or music. I could not tear myself away from the trial for a minute, so I was a bit checked out while the kids played.
Then Abe came home and set up the piñata. We invited all of the neighbor kids over and batted that poor seahorse down.
After the piñata we sent home all the kids and ate outside in the GORGEOUS weather. We had exactly what Mary requested: homemade rolls, grilled salmon, peas, and broccoli soup.
Then we cleaned everyone and everything up and headed over to Menchie’s for yet MORE sugar. Mary said on the last daddy-daughter date that she wanted to go to Menchie’s for her birthday, so we obliged.
Then we came home and Mary had another round of unwrapping presents.
right before bed in her new pj’s and slippers.
This girls is so darling and dear to all of our hearts. She is so sweet, so smart, so tender-hearted. Her heart and mind are full of rainbows, unicorns, and every sort of bright color imaginable. One day this past year she was showing her drawings to her Nana and explained that she wanted her drawings to help people feel the love of Jesus. She is just the sweetest. We love our little Mary Berry. Happy birthday, sweet girl!!
The night before Mary’s birthday Lydia insisted on finishing a stuffed animal she was sewing for Mary. Abe promised her the other day that I would help her finish. I really, really wish I had been more gracious about helping Lydia finish this sweet project. Instead, I was a grouchy, snapping person who took over the project and just did it all myself so we could get to bed before midnight. While I sewed I made Lydia practice. I was quite ridiculous.
Abe told me to smile. I was, er, excessively annoyed and this is the very best I could manage. The minute he took the picture I went right back to scowling.Abe wrapped presents and put up the birthday banner.Lydia dutifully practiced while I sewed up her animal.
I am blogging in the middle of the day because we will be up late preparing for Mary’s birthday.
Look what I found in the sink this morning.
Normally I don’t mind snails, but when I found this in the sink, I am afraid I screamed. Several times.
And then I took pictures of the kids. Thank goodness because Clarissa wore this cute outfit for the first time today, and minutes after I took these pics she sat in the middle of a mess of dishwasher detergent and ruined it forever. 🙁
Ammon had a great time playing today. He played by himself A LOT. I had every intention of not neglecting him, but sadly those were not realized. It’s been a busy day.
On Tuesday I noticed a flower in our herb garden. I had noticed it before but assumed it was a weed. Honestly, this is how bad we are at weeding: I noticed it a looong time ago and never actually weeded it until I finally realized yesterday that it is not a weed…it’s a daisy!! Daisies are Mary’s favorite flower. I was so delighted that a daisy had pushed its way up through the herbs and started BLOOMING right in time for Mary’s birthday!
After school, the girls had been perfect about practicing and homework, so when Mary finished all of that I beckoned her outside and showed her the birthday daisy that had grown just for her.
Of course, her little heart almost exploded at the thought of a flower growing just for her. She immediately grabbed a watering can to water it, and Ammon went outside to join her. Unfortunately, his attention was drawn to the daisy and before anyone knew what was happening…he picked it.
Mary was a sobbing, heartbroken mess when she came inside and told me that Ammon had picked her flower. Just the other day Abe told me that I am noticeably easier on Ammon than the girls, and so I took one look at sobbing Mary and one look at Ammon and, against the voice in my head that told me not to, I pulled Ammon over and spanked him–not hard, of course, but still. I did spank him.
Well, I happened to be holding Clarissa at the time, so as soon as Ammon started crying, Clarissa looked at him and started wailing too. So now instead of one crying child there were three children crying at the top of their lungs. Lydia said she couldn’t possibly keep doing her homework with the noise so I crawled under the piano to retrieve Ammon, who had run there to hide from me, all the while sobbing and wailing as hard as he could.
I pulled him out from under the piano and carried him to his room. I told him that when he was done crying he could come out. I KNOW this is terrible parenting, but in the situation it was sadly the best solution I could think of.
So I went back down and comforted Mary. We put her flower in a vase. Thank goodness there was another flower, a “buddy” as Mary called it, growing right next to the blooming one. (I am praying that buddy blooms on Mary’s birthday.) We tended to the picked flower and I gave Mary extra water in her watering can so she could go water the buddy.
The buddy.
It was so chaotic I literally don’t know how Clarissa calmed down. She must have calmed down though because when Abe came home the only child that needed help was Ammon. Abe went to him, calmed him down, and strapped him into his car seat so we could all go get Mary’s birthday piñata. The minute I came to the car, Ammon took one look at me and burst into tears. I felt soooooooooo bad.
Mary did a great job picking the most cheerful piñata in the store–a very colorful seahorse. She carried him proudly around for the rest of the evening.
When I tucked Ammon in at night my eyes filled with tears and I told him I was sorry over and over. “It’s okay, Mommy.” He said. I told him I was sorry I spanked him. “Don’t spank me,” he replied, solemnly. I almost cried and said sorry again. He smiled and said, “Mommy, you sad? It’s okay.”
On Monday morning we were completely out of diapers for Ammon and had had to put him in one of Mary’s pull-ups. We made a massive Target run and I got a cart with space for both kids.
We also washed and vacuumed the car, and then we got groceries. Clarissa fell asleep during the grocery errand, and so when we came home, instead of transitioning to her crib, she woke up. So I cooked a ton with her sleepily sitting in her high chair playing with food and toys.
The Marshalls joined us for dinner and FHE. It was so good to see them! They feel more like family than like friends, but we just haven’t gotten together for so long. It was so great to catch up. I made chicken tikka masala, saag paneer, an eggplant curry, and an apple torte. Then Olivia gave a wonderful FHE lesson on baptism.
After the lesson, we put candles on the torte and sang to Mary and Olivia because they both have September birthdays.
Then we sat around visiting while the kids played together. It was so, so wonderful to be with our friends. We love them so much.
Today Lydia was frustrated because she is trying to sew a stuffed animal for Mary and came up against some problems. She started stomping through the house. Lately my mom nicknamed her “thumper,” which is a euphemistic, sweet way to describe her loud stomps.
Anyway, today we started joking with Lydia about her thumping and she decided to turn it into a game. She made signs that read, “We are the Marching Thumping Band” and recruited Ammon to march and thump with her around the house.
Then we realized Clarissa was napping and so we asked them to be quiet. Lydia disappeared and then came down with two new signs that read, “We are the quite [quiet] tiptoe band.” It was too cute.
After church we had dinner with the Harpers. Annie and Clarissa were so cute playing together:
And then after her bath Clarissa grabbed the brush and started brushing her hair. We were all so wowed.
Also, Relief Society was great today. We had a lesson on how what we see people is all about perception. It was a great reminder to check my own paradigm and notice that it IS a paradigm, always.
Finally, a note on Mary. She has been perfectly behaved for two days. It’s unbelievable, and it is also very intentional. It’s her birthday week and she is trying to be perfect. I am so thrilled she knows how to be good when she puts her mind to it. Every time we ask her to do something she does it right away, happily. It’s a miracle.
Today after the girls got their practice in we headed out to Capitol Reef National Park. We went there because the orchards are bearing fruit and you can pick a pound of fruit for a dollar. Also, this is one of my most favorite parks. After today, I think I could actually say it is my very favorite.
We took a million pictures. Clarissa, when you are grown up and feel sad that we might not have taken enough pictures of you, flag this post! We didn’t even post half of the pictures we took of you. You are so cute and we just love you so much. You make every member of the family smile–all the time.
This first set of pictures we took in the pear orchard across from the historic Mormon schoolhouse. The pears were disgusting but we loved picking them. (Actually, Lydia and Mary obsessed over making sure they each picked the EXACT SAME number of pears, but when we finally moved beyond that, it was fun.)
Then we drove down to an apple orchard. This one had wild turkeys running around!
Abe threw Clarissa high. He has been working out and didn’t realize how far she’d fly. She actually rotated on the way down and Abe had to scramble to catch her without hurting her. She landed on his face and bent his glasses, but we are all just glad she’s alive. Abe put this photo in the delete file on his phone but I retrieved it. It gives him anxiety. But I feel like we went through a lot for the photo, so why not keep the amazing photo since everything turned out just fine?
Then Abe and I both, unbeknownst to each other, took turns taking selfies with Clarissa. I discovered his selfies afterwards. I think we were both just happy to cuddle with her.
Ammon had fun checking out the wild turkeys:
Clarissa had fun walking around the orchard trying to find stuff to eat.
And then we tried to get some planned shots:
Then we drove to the petroglyphs. Ammon has a knack for adopting the grumpiest old men. This time he found one who really wanted nothing to do with him, and Ammon kept saying, “MOMMY! IT’S MY GWANDPA!! LOOK, MOMMY! I FOUND GRANDPA!!!”
…I desperately coaxed him away from Mr. Grumpy, and Ammon only left his new friend with the greatest reluctance.
Clarissa on the boardwalk by the petroglyphs.
Then we went to the schoolhouse and looked around.
We were going to eat dinner at a restaurant in Torrey, but then we decided we would rather get home at 9pm instead of midnight. So we drove straight home. I felt very cared for because I was in the mood for carbs and cheese–pizza–, and I thought my only option in small town Utah was Little Ceaser’s. We drove right by one without realizing, but in Gunnison when we were desperate for food, we found a great DRIVE THROUGH pizza place! And the pizza was amazing. We were all so thankful. I felt that God had given me something better than I imagined, which seems to be a frequent pattern in my life. I know I don’t deserve it, but I am so grateful.
On Friday I spent hours and hours playing with the kids while the cleaners cleaned the house. Ammon discovered a Christmas book we have with paper dolls of Santa and he is now obsessed. He played with this for three hours straight, and it is all he wants to do. His room actually stayed clean because he didn’t play with any other toys (aside from the Elsa cape which he has been using as a blanket).
Then Mary dressed up during scriptures. She got out a bunch of toys and ensured the room did not stay super clean for very long.
After scriptures Abe and I went on a run. He has been really stressed with work so the run was helpful. Work is going better though so that’s good news!
