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.
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.
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.”
I just love my little guy so much.
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!
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.
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!
Today Abe and I both got up at 5:15 am to work out. I drove to Lehi for yoga and Abe played basketball with his work friends.
Then in the morning I played a lot with the kids and got pictures of them being cute. I put Clarissa on the rocking lion for the first time and she LOVED it.
These pictures of Clarissa with a book are deceptive. She has no patience for books. She usually doesn’t last even a page long, although today for the first time we made it through The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I read as fast as I could and kept her hand busy in the food hole punches.
On Wednesday I practiced the piano a lot. It feels so nice to play again that I skipped nagging the kids to practice their instruments and instead just played mine. I kind of wish I could do that every day. Of course, no one except me practiced anything.
But Lydia has been very stressed out lately, and so I figured one day off would probably help more than hurt.
While the girls were at dance, I took Clarissa and Ammon to Qualtrics to play.
Abe had to park himself on the slide because of course Clarissa’s favorite thing to do is climb the slide. The last time we were there I was looking in my purse for my keys and the next thing I knew Clarissa was giggling because she had crawled almost to the top!!! I ran as fast as I could and grabbed her before she could fall onto the cement below. It was terrifying.
On Tuesday evening we picked up Abe early from work and drove to Temple Square for a tour of the mission. We got to see old friends and explore the mission. Everything was pretty much the same except the missionaries are waaaaay more technologically advanced (no more pagers…sniff!) and there is a giant new tech room in the North Visitor’s Center.
Here I am with Lindsay Carlson Evans being wowed by the new room:
I actually had a lot of fun reconnecting with Lindsay. We ended up visiting with her and her family a LOT because she had a boy Ammon’s age, although not quite as crazy as Ammon. At one point one of Lindsay’s sons came up to Abe and said, “Excuse me, sir, is that your son? [pointing to Ammon] He keeps chasing me and I don’t want him to.”
At that point, Abe firmly sat Ammon down on a chair, at which point Ammon started howling. Abe took him out of the mission theater and onto the square, where two lovely sister missionaries calmed him down. The one from Nigeria said Ammon reminded her of her little brother who she helped raise and who she missed a lot. As they amused Ammon, Ammon looked up at them and said, “Are you a pwincess?” They laughed and said no. At the end when they said goodbye, Ammon called after them, “I KNOW you a pwincess!!!”
Then we visited with Lindsay’s family by the shell fountains. They took pictures of us and we took pictures of them.
Then I returned some stuff in City Creek and took all of the girls while Abe waited with Ammon. Somehow Ammon still managed to fall into the fountain (the one that is choreographed to music and has fire shooting out of the middle).
After that excitement, we drove through Crown Burger and headed home.