Author: lilydarais

Ammon was a little sad on his birthday. I think he’s going through a growth spurt, so he wants to eat all of the time AND he’s tired a lot. On his birthday, as the videos show, he woke up screaming and sobbing, “FOOD!!!”

He cheered up a little bit upon sight of his pancakes and candles. He knew right what to do with those candles and didn’t wait for us to finish the song before he had blown them out…several times.

I accidentally ordered a GIANT dump truck for Ammon. I considered sending it back, but when Abe saw it he got so excited there was no chance of that. 🙂 We thought that Ammon would certainly show some enthusiasm for his presents, but he was so focused on his pancakes that he really didn’t care that much about opening his truck. He did like it once he saw it, though.

After breakfast we all got ready for church. I had to teach a lesson and so was focused on that for the rest of the morning while Ammon and the girls played with his truck.

When we got home, we ate and took turns napping before I made Ammon’s birthday dinner. After dinner, we sang again and gave Ammon his cake. He accidentally burned himself on his candle, and the picture shows the sad event.

Although Ammon was a little sad on his birthday, it was still a good day. Mostly we are just thrilled with the little person Ammon is. He brings us so much joy every day and never, ever fails to make us all smile with his good soul. He is such a sweet, sensitive, outgoing, happy boy. He says “hi” to literally every person that meets, and he loves people. He is curious, active and very, very energetic. We love him so much and are so thrilled he’s two!!

Happy birthday, Ammon!!

 

 

On Saturday we went to the Provo Farmer’s Market in the early afternoon. The girls brought their purses and Lydia bought everyone honey sticks. The vendor thought that was so sweet and gave her extra because of that.

After the market, we stopped by to return Jessi’s blessing dress and visit with the Vandagriffs. We had a fun time talking with them.

After that visit, I dropped Abe off for a haircut while I took the kids grocery shopping and through a car wash. Abe’s barber butchered his hair. He was used to more ethnic hair types and said he had never seen anyone who did his hair the way Abe does. (Abe combs his hair forward. I think that’s pretty common, but what do I know about men’s hair.) Anyway, the barber kept asking Abe where Abe wanted him to snip, and Abe found that amusing because isn’t the barber supposed to know where to snip? The long and short (ha!) of it was that Abe came out strangely shorn, but he found the barber very endearing.

That evening after the kids were down I helped Abe edit a work project until 11pm, and then he stayed up even later re-editing the edits.

On Thursday after school I took the kids to Bridal Veil Falls for a long walk. Lydia complained the whole time while Mary spent the walk dancing and singing, “Glory, glory, allelujah, He reigns!”. She loves that song and sang it at the top of her voice for all to hear. It was a gorgeous, gorgeous day and the colors were spectacular. I feel so lucky to live by such beauty.

I was so busy today that I did not have time to give into much anxiety. Yay!

Sadly, I was busy cleaning poop, vomit (poor Ammon puked), poop, and more poop. I also vacuumed.

We also had Nick over for dinner, and that was so fun. See the impromptu rap he came up with below:

On Tuesday Lydia had climbing camp. I was crazy and thought that I could bring in Ammon and Mary and let them climb at the same time that she climbs. They were free, so I gave it a shot.

HA! Ammon was completely crazy and almost got killed running under all of the climbers, and Mary climbed the kiddie wall a bunch of times and was done.

I hightailed it outta there and headed next door to Brasas where Abe was holding his Elder’s Quorum Presidency meeting. We tried not to interrupt, but it was such solace just to see Abe in the room while we ate their two-for-one tacos.

Afterward I took the three kids (Lydia was still at camp) to the park. Abe and Lydia met up with us there after a little while.

It was a good day. Honestly, my anxiety has been off the charts for several days, but the day did feel very peaceful and happy otherwise (aside from when Ammon was trying to kill himself at The Quarry).

Sunday was Clarissa’s blessing day. Abe gave her a beautiful blessing assuring her that she would feel an abundance of love from God and her family throughout her life and that her awareness of this love would protect her from contention and jealousy throughout her life. Normally baby blessings contain assurances that the baby will grow up to marry in the temple, so I thought this blessing was unique and very beautiful.

Tom and Suzanne came down for the day and helped make the day feel special. We took a lot of pictures afterward. We misplaced the blessing dress Mary and Lydia wore, and so we borrowed one from Jessi. Jessi was blessed in her dress, as was her daughter, Victoria.

After the blessing we all went home and had grain bowls for dinner. I love them and think we should eat them every day.

Then we had FHE. Abe taught a great lesson on the atonement and had the kids do a cute craft framing their own pictures of Jesus with colored paper afterward.

In the morning we powered through the girls’ practice before Abe took Lydia to BYU for a tour of its harp library. Sadly, there was some sort of parade going on that blocked the entrance to where he needed to go, so after driving around for half an hour, he gave up and brought her home.

We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon cleaning. Clarissa hung out on the bed while we (mostly Abe) folded piles of laundry.

At 3pm we decided to take the kids up to Squaw Peak for a leaf hunt hike. We hustled to finish our chores and were on our way an hour and a half later.

We had the most wonderful hike! We had more daylight and gorgeous weather, so we walked a lot more than we did yesterday. The kids were so, so happy. Ammon, who usually cries at even imaginary boo-boos, fell a lot because he was walking so fast, and he only cried once the entire hike. He was in his element. I spent most of the hike near him while the girls hurried ahead and Abe and Clarissa brought up the rear.

On Friday I got Mary’s piano practice done in time for us all to take a field trip to Thanksgiving Point’s Farm Country. I was a little worried about how Ammon would do on the pony ride and on the wagon, but he was perfect. I held him on the pony with Clarissa strapped on to my front, and that worked out great. Then for the rest of the entire visit that energetic little boy held my hand and walked by my side while we visited all of the different animals. He is so sweet.

Before Abe came home, I finished up Lydia’s harp practice after school and then made caramel apples with the kids and Eli. We also made pizza dough and pizza margherita and pizza with beets, ricotta and pineapple. Sophie, the babysitter, was dubious about that one, but we liked it!

In the evening, Abe took Clarissa and me on a date to see the colors from Squaw Peak. Yesterday Abe had his team activity on the mountain and he was dying to show us what he saw.

We have lived here for years and until yesterday I did not know we were fifteen minutes away from spectacular, mountain scenery! When we were on the trail, we felt like we were the only people on the mountain. It was breathtaking. The many pictures don’t even begin to do the colors justice. By the time we started taking pictures, the sun was already starting to set and the brilliance of the sun on the leaves had started to fade.

But this is what we got.

 

Today Abe had a team activity in the mountains after work. Since I knew he wasn’t coming home for dinner, I scheduled a lot of stuff in the afternoon so that the time would fly. It really did!

We met up with Eli at the library and he and the girls did the Jr. Library program. Emily and I visited by the preschool-play area downstairs.

After the library, we headed home to eat dinner. I put Ammon down early for his nap today, and I did not give him any snacks after. Therefore, the last time he had eaten before our 5:30pm dinner was 10:30am. He was hungry. And he ate a lot.

After dinner, we all took a walk to see the skeletons down the street. It’s October, so they have new scenarios every day! Lydia, Mary, and Ammon held hands the entire time except for the very last five minutes of our walk. I think they all enjoyed each other.

Then I incentivized each child separately to get to bed as fast as possible. Even though we got back from the walk after 7pm, the kids were all in bed by 7:40pm. That was good news because I had a ton of back-blogging to do.

On Wednesday I was too tired to do Lydia’s harp in the morning, so we spent an hour and a half after school tackling that. I felt really patient though! I think that Mammoth Hot Springs hike was very instructive. I have a reference point for My Best Self, and it helps to be able to access that when Lydia is throwing tantrums at the harp.

After her tantrum, I needed to get away though. So while Lydia did homework, I took the other kids to the store for stuff to complement the soup I made for dinner. I didn’t really need to get other stuff, but I really did need to get away. Abe met me at the store and watched the kids in the car while I went inside and bought who-even-knows what. After that time in the store, it was way past dinner time, but I was feeling happy again.

Sadly, I totally forgot that on Wednesdays my mom has an eating deadline because she goes to Institute. By the time dinner was ready, she had to leave. But the rest of us ate a TON of food because we were starved, and after that we hustled the kids to bed. I went to bed early while Abe stayed up and worked into the wee hours to catch up after our trip.